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posted by Brent Hugh at 1/20/2009 02:35:00 PM
 With a very large economic stimulus package under discussion in Congress, congressional leaders promising a large portion of that to go towards transportation, and President Obama promising a new direction in his administration to tackles problems of global warming and dependence on foreign sources of fuel, here is our question:Do any of the stimulus proposals include anything that might change the game for bicycling and walking in the U.S.? Why? We know that bicycling and walking make up less than 5% of trips in Missouri, 10% of trips in the U.S. and up to 20-30% of trips in industrialized countries where a real effort has been made to make bicycling and walking safe, easy, and convenient. In short, bicycling and walking could be a much larger portion of the transportation picture in the United States. If it were, we would have lower emissions, lower pollution, lower congestion, lower reliance on foreign sources of energy, and better health. Our goal in Missouri is to double the amount of bicycling and walking, bringing us up to the national average. The Federal Highway Administration has a goal to reach 15% of trips by bicycling and walking in the U.S. We also know that building bicycling and walking facilities is one of the most cost-effective ways of tackling the transportation problem. For instance, Portland has spent about 1.5% of its budget on bicycling since 1990, and now has over 6% of trips by bicycling. This is a typical result when municipalities, metro areas, cities, and even countries decide to put more emphasis on bicycling and walking. What's in the proposed stimulus bills? According to a report by the Legislative Services Group's Transportation Weekly, about 4.5% of the amount set aside for transportation in both drafts of the legislation released from house committees so far, will be distributed as transportation enhancements (TE) grants. That comes out to about $1.3 billion nationwide and about $30 million for Missouri. In round numbers, that's about equal to getting two extra years of TE funding for Missouri all at once. In most states, most of the transportation enhancements money is used for bicycle and pedestrian projects--in Missouri, about 2/3 of Enhancements funding is used for bicycle or pedestrian related projects. What's next? Assuming the transportation and Enhancements funding goes through Congress as is, the next issue will be, how will the Missouri portion of the Transportation Enhancements funding be spent? The good news is that there are already Transportation Enhancements committees in MoDOT Districts and metropolitan areas across Missouri. These committees have experience and expertise in awarding Transportation Enhancements grants in their parts of the state. They have good connections with cities and agencies who may be interested in building these projects and they also typically have a backlog of projects from previous rounds of funding that are good projects but were simply below the cutoff line of available funds in previous funding rounds. If MoDOT uses this existing structure of Enhancements committees around the state to distribute the funds, then it is likely the funds will be spend reasonably well in Missouri. (One of MoBikeFed's goals is to gradually work for better, more efficient, effective, and strategic spending of Transportation Enhancement and other similar funds. Nevertheless there is no question that working to gradually improve the existing system, rather than discarding it and going with a new ad-hoc system, is by far the better strategy.) What do you think about including funding for bicycling, walking, and other transportation alternatives in the economic stimulus bill? Is it a good idea or a bad one? Is the amount they are proposing to spend too high or too low? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below . . . Recent Posts in Missouri Bicycle News
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Personally I hope the stimulus package is 0 dollars.
Professionally, I hope that if it passes it does not allow for an increased automobile capacity when the state DOT's cannot maintain what they have now and automobile travel has been declining.
If President Obama was serious about his promise to change the way we think about transportation and to eliminate oil imports from the middle east and Venezuela in ten years than he should spend a considerable amount on intercity rail and non motorized transportation.
I took a look at MODOT's stimulus list and came to the conclusion that .8% of their list goes towards non-motorized transportation.
It would take REAL COURAGE to be POTUS and tell the country that you are going to spend this money making our cities more bikeable and walkable even if you believed that it was the right thing to do. Take Columbia for example, we are 3.5-4 years into the GAC project and every single public comment in the newspaper is wishing we would spend the grant to fix potholes or build some more car parking.
MODOT submitted over 500 million dollars worth of projects. Imagine what kind of mode share change KC and STL could have in 7 years if 250 went to KC and 250 went to STL. Now THAT would be an investment in our environment, energy and national security.
Turning more main streets into freeways is just going to tighten the noose.
Web link: http://www.bicyclecoalition.org
The State of Missouri and some of the metropolitan areas are already on board with recieving federal money, but because of all the sprawl I would like to see the state work with counties to get some trail networks established so people in suburban areas can access the urban trails for commuting,rec,etc. They should also set up a statewied county inmate work release program to be more efficient.I also hope that all of the states committees come together and get the most for our dollars!