One thing everyone can agree on, however, is that bicycling and walking projects are broadly eligible for the majority of federal funding programs in the new federal transportation law, MAP-21. These large and often flexible programs represent a huge opportunity for bike/ped projects to compete with others for a larger share of transportation funding.

Advocates in Delaware and Washington State, for example, have already had great success tapping into some of these larger funding programs for their states’ bicycling investments. They have done this by understanding two things:

1. How the programs work, and
2. The political dynamics. Through the Advocacy Advance Program, a partnership between the League and the Alliance for Biking & Walking, we urge advocates to learn the Who, What, Where, When, and How of the funding process and political landscape.

To demystify a fairly complex process, we’ve created a series of flow charts to illustrate the technical process from planning to construction — and the advocacy steps advocates can take to influence the process. Click on the links below to learn about the program, and check the back for more detailed recommendations.

• The Surface Transportation Program (STP)
•  The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ)
• The Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP)
• The Transportation Improvement Program (TA or TAP)

Please contact me if you have any questions at darren@bikeleague.org.

Darren Flusche
League Policy Director

Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.

When your community draws 100 people to a community bike forum (pictured below) to listen to presentations about transportation policy – on a Saturday night – you have some real bike culture developing.

When the staff and board of your city’s bicycling advocacy organization lock themselves in a room for two days to develop an ambition campaign to access public funding for bicycling investment, you have savvy grassroots leadership.

When your city’s assistant director for transportation planning announces a goal of becoming a top ten bicycle commuter city in the next few years – and hopes to skip Bronze and go right to Silver Bicycle Friendly Community status – you have political buy-in. And it doesn’t hurt when Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is giving your mayor a shout out for improving urban livability.

When your city council is about to vote on allocating $2.5 million from a bond to fund 15 miles of bike facilities and Complete Streets, your community may be about to put its money where its mouth is.

All of these things are true of Atlanta, Ga., where the Advocacy Advance team supported a customized Winning Campaigns Training, based on the Alliance for Biking and Walking’s signature training, and the afore-mentioned community forum.

“Last year marked a turning point for bike advocacy in Atlanta,” said Rebecca Serna, Executive Director of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition. “Our mayor hopped on a bike and said he wanted Atlanta to be a beacon of bike-friendliness, not for the Southeast, not for the South, but for the nation. That’s a lofty goal but he’s done nothing but meet goals in his first term, so we anticipate great things to come in our city.”

The Winning Campaign Training brought together a large portion of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition’s board and the staff to walk step by step through a campaign to respond to a recent unsuccessful transportation sales tax measure, T-SPLOST. ”The Winning Campaigns Training really helped our leadership team focus, providing the structure we needed to accelerate group genius,” ABC Board Member Jenn Graham said.

Advocacy Advance has given the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition a Model Grant to ensure that the city increases its investment in bicycling and walking infrastructure and it is paying off. Over the past several years, the city’s leaders have started to recognize the need to make Atlanta a biking- and walking-friendly community. We’ll keep you posted on their progress.

“Georgia Bikes is thrilled with the leadership and commitment to better bicycling on display in Atlanta,” said Brent Bruice, executive director of Georgia’s statewide advocacy organization. “Our state capital is leading by example and showing the way to being bike friendly for cities throughout Georgia.”

And if you are ever bicycling in Atlanta, you can use this app to track your route and send data directly to the city’s transportation planners.

Darren Flusche
League Policy Director

Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.

These common questions can be difficult to answer.

Data on federal funding is vital to understanding the range of programs that fund bicycle projects — and let you know if your state is effectively tapping into federal dollars to make biking better in your community.

To help you navigate this complex landscape and find information for your area, Advocacy Advance has created a helpful new report — “Key Data Sources: Federal Investments in Bicycling and Walking in Your Community” — that provides a list, summary and links to 11 sources of funding data.

Adding to the report, Advocacy Advance is also hosting a webinar next week on “Tracking Data on Bicycling and Walking Investments.” Join us on Tuesday, January 29th, at 2 p.m. Eastern as we explore sources of funding outside of new Transportation Alternatives programs and explain what’s being done to track bicycle funding. Panelists will include:

• Ken McLeod, Legal Specialist, Advocacy Advance
• Andrea Milne, Benchmarking Project Manager, Alliance for Biking & Walking
• Renata Silberblatt, staff analyst, Tri-State Transportation Campaign

Click here to register for the webinar.

Carolyn Szczepanski
Communications Director

Carolyn joined the League in March 2012, after two years at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. In addition to managing the League's blog, magazine and other communications, Carolyn organized the first National Women's Bicycling Summit and launched the League's newest program: Women Bike. Before she crossed over to advocacy, she was a professional journalist for nearly 10 years.

Under normal circumstances, a 66.53% to 33.47% vote would have been a decisive victory for the measure and we would not be reporting the vote to the second decimal place. However, in California, when the funds from a local sales tax measure are dedicated for a specific purpose, a two-thirds “supermajority” of 66.67% is required. The vote is so close that election officials are still counting absentee and other ballots. They are not expected to have a final tally until Wednesday, November 21. The best current guess is that the measure will fall short by fewer than 700 votes. A recount is possible.

The fact that at least 66% of the voters opted to voluntarily tax themselves for better transportation infrastructure, including bicycling facilities, signals the direction many communities are headed in an era of uncertain federal funding.

“Whatever the final outcome of Measure B1 here in Alameda County, it’s clear that most residents not only want more transit options, a great network of bicycle lane and trails, pedestrian safety improvements, but they are willing to pay for them by increasing our local sales tax,” says Renee Rivera, Executive Director of East Bay Bicycle Coalition. “That is a huge testament to the appetite for active transportation here in the East Bay. If we don’t gain the couple thousand votes needed to put B1 over the top in the coming days, it will be coming back to the ballot very soon, with the same or stronger investment in bike/ped improvements.” Looking forward, the East Bay Bicycle Coalition and other transportation advocates are going to work on strengthening their campaign efforts in the less dense suburban parts of the county, Rivera says.

According to Rivera, the new revenue would be divided up in approximately the following way.

• 48% public and specialized transit
• 27% local streets and roads improvements
• 11% bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure
• 9% highway efficiency and freight development
• 5% sustainable land use and transportation projects

Anything jump out at you? The share for bicycling and walking is right there next to highways! One of the things that is so exciting about this measure, Rivera points out, is that it does not add any highway capacity.  The Alameda County Transportation Commission recognizes that the freeway network in Alameda County is fully built.  It can be improved but the County will not invest beyond making the existing system work better with HOV conversions and interchange improvements.  The investments need to be made in transit, maintenance and active transport improvements.

The League, with our partners the Alliance for Biking & Walking, is supporting campaigns like the East Bay Bicycle Coalition’s to pass Measure B1. In April, we gave the bicycle coalition a Rapid Response grant through the Advocacy Advance program to fight for the measure’s passage. We hope that when the votes are all counted the measure will be successful. One eighth of a percent is excruciatingly close.

The tight vote on measure B1 comes at a time when many transportation initiatives are being passed across the country. On November 6, two thirds of the proposed ballot measures that supported transit projects passed. Campaigns like this are great candidates for Rapid Response Grants.

Darren Flusche
League Policy Director

Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.

As you may have read in our Election Guide released last month, Bike Delaware conducted a survey of state legislative candidates in 2010 that launched its successful Walkable, Bikeable Delaware campaign. With election day less than a month away, advocates want to ensure that voters know where candidates stand on continuing that model progress when they go to the polls.

According to the Advocacy Advance blog:

Delaware is known for its bike-friendly governor, Jack Markell, and we’ve shared their success story of winning unprecedented state dollars for bike/ped. However, one big win is not enough. Because of the turnover in the Delaware legislature, it is critical to identify and elect champions that will maintain previous – and unprecedented – funding levels for bicycle and pedestrian programs and projects.

Bike Delaware will use the $3,000 Rapid Response Grant to conduct a survey of every candidate running for general assembly and governor and get as may state legislators as possible on record on the specific issue of authorized state capital funding for bike/ped for FY2014.

Click here to read the full story.

Carolyn Szczepanski
Communications Director

Carolyn joined the League in March 2012, after two years at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. In addition to managing the League's blog, magazine and other communications, Carolyn organized the first National Women's Bicycling Summit and launched the League's newest program: Women Bike. Before she crossed over to advocacy, she was a professional journalist for nearly 10 years.

In many communities, funding choices are made without public input or scrutiny; streets are repaved without a thought of adding bicycle lanes; and school properties are purchased miles and miles away from the neighborhood children they serve.

What can we do to make cyclists and pedestrians an integral, normal part of the transportation conversation? A new report from Advocacy Advance — a partnership of the League and Alliance for Biking & Walking — highlights the benefits of establishing a Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) to make sure active transportation has a dedicated seat at the decision-making table.

Click here to download Making Bicycling and Walking a Norm in Transportation Agencies: Best Practices in Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committees.

Written by Matt Wempe, the League’s State and Local Advocacy Coordinator, the report includes:

• The definition and structure of a BPAC
• Benefits and challenges of a BPAC
• Making the case for a BPAC
• Establishing a BPAC
• Recommendations for an effective BPAC
• And more…

Just one example showcased in the report comes from Nashville, Tenn. In 2008, the city invited 23 individuals — including bike/ped advocates, public works staff, police, and private citizens — to assist the Metropolitan Planning Organization with a regional bike/ped study. That “working group” quickly evolved into a strong, standing BPAC and has gone on to boost bicycling across the region.

For instance, the BPAC helped develop scoring criteria that boosted the number of funded road projects that include bicycle and pedestrian elements by an impressive 70 percent. The BPAC also advocated for policies to establish a 15 percent set aside for bicycle and pedestrian projects in the MPO’s transportation improvement program. Talk about changing the conversation!

Learn more about establishing and improving your local BPAC; read the entire report at www.advocacyadvance.org/resources.

Carolyn Szczepanski
Communications Director

Carolyn joined the League in March 2012, after two years at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. In addition to managing the League's blog, magazine and other communications, Carolyn organized the first National Women's Bicycling Summit and launched the League's newest program: Women Bike. Before she crossed over to advocacy, she was a professional journalist for nearly 10 years.

The program is used to address a wide variety of safety concerns, like seat belt use, drunk driving, and high-collision locations (often fixing bad roadway design). Safety was such a central theme in the federal transportation debate that Congress allocated $2.4 billion annually to HSIP — an increase from $1 billion under the previous law. And that’s not all: There will be improvements in data collection and cost-effectiveness analysis of safety projects that will benefit bicycles, too.

We’ve already blogged and written reports about the importance of including bicycle safety in the state Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). Based on the 2012 Bicycle Friendly States survey, 29 states currently include bicycle safety in their SHSP. Now that’s more important than ever, what can advocates do if your state isn’t on this list?

Under MAP-21 states have to consult with a “non-motorized” representative when writing the SHSP. The language isn’t clear whether this means a state employee (bicycle and pedestrian coordinators would be a good fit) or an advocate. Senator Udall from New Mexico, who offered the amendment, intends for the representative to be an advocate. The MAP-21 guidance from the U.S. Department of Transportation is expected to provide an answer.

Fortunately, there is plenty of precedent for bicycle advocates helping to craft the state SHSP and increase HSIP bike safety spending. These examples are especially important if your state Department of Transportation is hesitant or resistant to adding a bicycle safety advocate. The League reviewed the 29 SHSPs that currently include bicycle safety as an emphasis area. The majority consult with state and local advocates. Several states to highlight include:

Click here for the full listing of bicycle safety stakeholders in SHSPs

Having advocates actively involved in the program will help improve the abysmal track record of HSIP spending on bicycle safety. In California, bicycle advocates made sure to have representatives on each of the topic area committees drafting the state SHSP. This directly resulted in the state beginning to prioritize and spend HSIP funds on bicycle safety.

Check out the Advocacy Advance Highway Safety Improvement Program report to learn how to get involved and create safer streets for bicycles.

Matt Wempe
League State and Local Advocacy Coordinator

Mr. Wempe joined the League in September 2011. For the three years prior, he worked as a transportation planner and Safe Routes to School Coordinator in Fort Collins, Colo. He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The Advocacy Advance team with officials from Warsaw, MO (Photo by Brent Hugh)

Last week, we held the first of the MAP-21 Action 2020 workshops in Concordia and Jefferson City, Missouri. More than 100 advocates, agency staff, and elected officials met to learn more about the opportunities and challenges of MAP-21, funding sources and best practices, how to make bicycles and pedestrians a priority, and network with other professionals. The workshops were hosted by the Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation and the Missouri Association of Councils of Government (MACOG). Here are some highlights from the week:

• First MAP-21 Action 2020 workshops: The new information about MAP-21 stirred some excellent discussions at both workshops. Advocates spoke highly of the progress the Missouri Department of Transportation has made towards accommodating bicycles and pedestrians. Luckily, Missouri is already a model for sub-allocating its STP and CMAQ funds — which will make it easier to direct dollars to bicycling and walking projects through the new Transportation Alternatives state grant process. We look forward to great things coming out of MAP-21 in Missouri.

• Rural communities walk and bike, too: The workshops were also unique because the Advocacy Advance team spent a week in the state. This allowed us the time to host two workshops, as well as visit some of the smaller rural communities in central Missouri. We visited Warsaw (population 2,100) to ride the mountain, road and water trails. Mac Vorce and Randy Pogue, both with the city of Warsaw, were gracious hosts and very proud of their community’s efforts to increase walking and bicycling. Check out the Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation blog for a picture tour of the day. The League is looking forward to a Bicycle Friendly Community application any day now!

Riding in Warsaw (Photo by Brent Hugh)

• Train the trainers: We also used the extra time to “train the trainers” during the workshops. Approximately half of Missouri’s population lives outside the major cities (Kansas City and St. Louis, both bronze-level BFCs) in small communities and rural areas. It’s often challenging for these communities to apply for federal funds, due to a lack of resources or knowledge about the opportunities. Our host organizations had the great idea to train agency staff and advocates on the MAP-21 Action 2020 curriculum so they can share it with rural and small communities. Regional planning commission staff and advocates learned how to run a successful workshop and had time to practice speaking about funding in front of the group. If you’re interested in a future workshop in Missouri, contact Brent Hugh with the Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation.

The Advocacy Advance team was really impressed with the progress Missouri is making already. After a whirlwind week of traveling throughout the state, we left energized and positive that we’ll be shortly sharing best practices from Missouri.

MAP-21 Action 2020 Workshops are part of the Advocacy Advance program – a partnership of the League of American Bicyclists and Alliance for Biking and Walking. The workshops are designed to ensure advocates, agency staff, and elected officials have the knowledge, skills, and resources to maximize the new Transportation Alternatives program and access untapped and under-utilized federal funding sources for bicycles and pedestrians. To learn more, visit www.advocacyadvance.org.

Matt Wempe
League State and Local Advocacy Coordinator

Mr. Wempe joined the League in September 2011. For the three years prior, he worked as a transportation planner and Safe Routes to School Coordinator in Fort Collins, Colo. He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced the FY2012 grant recipients for their Bus Livability grant program. Highlighting the importance of connecting bicycles and transit, many of the approved projects include a bicycle component. Some key examples include:

• Witchita, KS received $1 million for the Douglas Avenue Transit Oriented Development Corridor, including bicycle parking throughout the corridor.
• Durham, NH received $94,500 for bus pullouts and connecting a bicycle lane with a recreation path to facilitate better access to the public transit system.
• San Bernardino, CA received $5.3 million for a new transit center, including a bicycle station with secure parking and short-term rental and repair services.

FTA has already set up a website for information on MAP-21, so be sure to check if your upcoming project is eligible (or can be improved by including a bicycle element). A map of the awarded grants in the Bus Livability (red pins), State of Good Repair (blue pins), and Transit Asset Management (green pins) programs is below.  Click here for the interactive version.

At the same time, states are recognizing and funding important bicycle programs and projects. Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley recently announced 28 Bikeways Program Grants, part of his Cycle Maryland initiative. The grant winning projects include on and off-road bicycle route connections, bike route signage, bike racks and safety improvements. Salisbury, a recent host of a Bicycle Friendly Communities workshop, received funding to complete their downtown bicycle lanes project (way to go bike-SBY!). Baltimore will be using the grant to install a downtown cycletrack. Click here for a complete list of projects.

As these two programs show, there are funds available for bicycles, but not always in the first place you look. Advocates and agency staff will need to be creative and tenacious in finding sources and getting projects funded. The Advocacy Advance team is always here to answer questions, brainstorm ideas, and help get your projects funded.

Matt Wempe
League State and Local Advocacy Coordinator

Mr. Wempe joined the League in September 2011. For the three years prior, he worked as a transportation planner and Safe Routes to School Coordinator in Fort Collins, Colo. He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Many people are asking “What do we do now?” The answer is in the language of the bill itself and, perhaps, in an advocacy model we’ve been developing over the past several years.

Despite the best efforts of some extreme members of Congress – and thanks to the efforts of our congressional champions – bicycling and walking projects are still eligible for federal transportation funds. This means bicycling and walking projects can be built with some of the largest pots of money, like the Surface Transportation Program (STP) and the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ), as well as the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). This critical point is the key to making the most of the new bill.

But this is not new. Bike/ped projects have been eligible project types in those programs for 20 years. We have long known that creating a transportation network that includes active transportation infrastructure will require more than the 1.5 percent that was set-aside for Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School (now combined into “Transportation Alternatives”). That’s why the League and the Alliance for Biking & Walking, with funding from SRAM, created Advocacy Advance.

The Advocacy Advance program holds Action 2020 workshops for advocates and transportation agency staff to share best practices for maximizing funding under the eligible funding programs. We’ve been to Texas, Connecticut, Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania and we have upcoming workshops in Missouri, Virginia, and New York. Learn more about the workshops and consider applying to bring an Action 2020 workshop to your community.

We’ve already seen the tactic of fighting for eligible funds paying off.

BikeDelaware recently scored a major win and set an excellent example for advocates in other states. They teamed up with Nemours Health and Prevention Services (a health group), several bike-friendly members of the General Assembly, and Delaware’s bike-friendly Governor, Jack Markel, to pass and fund Walkable Bikeable Delaware an initiative to dedicate state funding to vastly expand the state’s trail network. After securing $5 million in the state budget last year, the Assembly recently passed next year’s budget which included a whopping $13.25 million for walking and bicycling.

Advocates from Bike Delaware won an Advocacy Award from the Alliance for Biking & Walking in 2012 for their model, winning campaign

This is in and of itself a major win. But the leadership in Delaware has the vision and ambition to use the state dollars as a match for federal funds. They have already used Walkable Bikeable Delaware funds from last year’s budget to secure the first ever Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds for a bike project in state history. Delaware is pointing the way forward for bicycling both in its state-level commitment to funding infrastructure and in its use of federal funds that have bicycling eligibility, like CMAQ.

See our reports on CMAQ, HSIP and 402 safety grants for more information.

Darren Flusche
League Policy Director

Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.