Last week, the US Department of Transportation announced the winners of the competitive Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants.
We were crossing our fingers for Metro’s innovative package of four non-motorized transportation projects totaling $98 million. Metro’s forward-thinking proposal included building a complete bike network in North/Northeast Portland; linking bicycling and transit in Hillsboro; integrating bicycle, pedestrian and transit facilities in Milwaukie/Clackamas County; and connecting urban residents to natural areas with bike/ped trails from Boring to Estacada.
The BTA is disappointed that none of these projects were approved, but we applaud Metro and its partners for putting together an innovative project package that would leverage federal stimulus funds to balance current and future transportation needs and improve the health and wellness of our region. Metro has already begun looking to other sources of funding for these projects. The TIGER grant process also highlighted the importance of getting innovative bike/ped projects ready in order to be prepared when future funding opportunities become available.
Out of twenty one projects submitted from Oregon, the only one to receive TIGER funding was the City of Portland’s application for reconstruction of SW Moody in the SW Waterfront area. The BTA is happy to see federal dollars coming to the region and to see the city highlight some innovative bike/ped facilities, including a two-way cycletrack, in the design. We encourage the City of Portland to focus on bicycle safety near tracks in their streetcar designs for all new streetcar projects.
From a national perspective, the TIGER funding process indicates that bike/ped projects are gaining ground with the federal goverment. Twenty four of the fifty-one funded projects integrated bicycle and pedestrian elements, and two were full bicycle and pedestrian networks (in Philadelphia and Indianapolis). The volume of active transportation projects that were submitted for the TIGER funds demonstrates the need for federal funding for projects beyond road resurfacing and highway expansion, which are currently the dominant outlets for federal transportation dollars.
Here’s a breakdown from America Bikes of bike/ped-related TIGER funding. Download the full list of projects with bike/ped integration here.
* DOT received roughly 1400 applications of which 3% or 51 were funded.
* 24 of the 51 TIGER projects include some bike ped (see attached chart for descriptions)
* 26 (or 1.8% of applicants) were pure bike ped projects
* 2 bike ped networks were funded (~3% of all TIGER funding)- Philadelphia and Indianapolis
* Dubuque, IA was funded for a Complete Streets project
* Burlington VT waterfront was funded for a project that included a bike/ped trail
* Several of the road -bridge projects include bike/ped access
See the US-DOT’s full list for information on all 51 projects.
More on the TIGER grants from US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood’s official blog, the Fast Lane.
