Round up of San Mateo County Bike Project Funding

Image: Distribution of the 17 project proposals for bike/ped funding from SMCTA's Measure A call for projects, 10 projects were awarded funding last week, Source: SMCTAThere are numerous pots of money for bike projects from the national, state, regional, and local level, which we often discuss on our blog. SVBC frequently writes support letters for jurisdictions applying for funding for high quality bike infrastructure projects and bike plans. However, every single funding pot for bike projects is oversubscribed, demonstrating the demand for additional funding. That is why SVBC works to ensure that any funding measure includes robust allocations for bike projects, which often have a higher bang for your buck than traditional roadway projects. Right now we are focused on this for the potential San Mateo County transportation sales tax.Following is a round up of recent grant-funded projects in San Mateo County. Note that TDA-3 funds were also allocated in the fall of 2017. An asterisk denotes projects that we wrote support letters for or that we’ve supported in other funding calls. Note that not every jurisdiction requests support letters for every project.SMCTA Measure AOn March 1, 2018 the San Mateo County Transportation Authority (SMCTA), which administers the county’s current transportation sales tax, approved funding for 10 projects totaling $5.7 million. This active transportation pot of funding was oversubscribed; SMCTA received 17 applications totaling $8.8 million in requests. For a full list and description of applications, see the SMCTA agenda, page 22. The projects funded include:

1. Daly City, Mission Street Streetscape Project
2. Redwood City, Jefferson/Cleveland Safe Routes to School & Peninsula Bikeway Project
3. San Carlos, Pedestrian Safety Improvement Plan for San Carlos Ave.
4. Atherton, Middlefield Road Class II Bike Lanes*
5. San Mateo County, Complete the Gap Trail*
6. East Palo Alto, Bike Transportation Plan Implementation Class II & III Bike Facilities
7. San Mateo, 28^th Bike Boulevard Implementation
8. Menlo Park, Bike/Ped Enhancement Project
9. Millbrae, Magnolia Ave. and Richmond Dr. Bike/Ped Improvement Project
10. Half Moon Bay, Pacific Coast Bikeway Connectivity Project: North

MTC OBAG 2In December 2017, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), which covers the 9-county Bay Area, approved funding through the One Bay Area Grant Program – Cycle 2 (OBAG 2) for FY2017-18 through FY2021-22. This program includes funding for five categories: Bike/ped, Safe Routes to School, Transportation for Livable Communities, Congestion Management Agency (CMA) planning, and local streets and roads. The source of these funds are two federal programs of the Federal Highway Administration: The Surface Transportation Block Grant Program (STP) and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ). You can find more information on this program and all the projects funded throughout the 9-county Bay Area in the meeting minutes for the December 20, 2017 MTC meeting (Commission Agenda Item 8b).San Mateo County received a total of $33 million from OBAG 2, including $7.6 million for 12 bike/ped projects, $3.9 million for 4 projects in the Transportation for Livable Communities category, and $2.6 million for the county’s Safe Routes to School program. The bike projects funded include:

1. Atherton, Middlefield Rd. Class II Bike Lanes*
2. Belmont, Ralston Ave. Corridor Bike/Ped improvements*
3. Brisbane, Crocker Trail Community Connectivity Upgrades
4. Colma, Mission Rd. Bike/Ped improvements
5. Redwood City, US 101/Woodside Rd. Class I Bikeway*
6. San Bruno, Huntington Transit Corridor Bike/Ped*
7. San Carlos, US 101/Holly bike/ped overcrossing*
8. Woodside, Woodside Rd. Pathway
9. Half Moon Bay, Poplar St. Complete Streets
10. San Mateo, Laurie Meadows ped/bike safety improvements
11. South San Francisco: Grand Boulevard Initiative Complete Streets improvements

California Active Transportation Program (ATP)Also in 2017, the statewide and regional ATP program released additional funds to augment the ATP Cycle 3 program, which is for projects FY2017-18 through FY2020-21. Two San Mateo County projects benefited from that process:

1. City of San Carlos received $4.2 million for the US 101/Holly bike/ped overcrossing (also funded by OBAG 2 and previous rounds of Measure A and TDA-3). The project is now fully funded.*
2. Woodside’s Woodside Road pathway (also funded by OBAG2) was bumped up in timing.

If you would like to get more involved with SVBC’s work on these projects or funding in San Mateo County, join our SMC Committee email list or the next meeting or contact Emma Shlaes at emma@bikesiliconvalley.org.