New ODOT resource demystifies funding for biking and walking projects
Posted by Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) on July 8th, 2015 at 1:10 pm
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Finding money to pay for bike and walk-centric projects in Oregon is no easy task. The big pots of money are all but reserved for traditional highway projects like freeway widening and bridge repair (like the gas tax, for instance, which is constitutionally limited to such projects). What’s left is a myriad of smaller sources — some of them in separate pots and others so deeply rooted in policy language only experts know how to pry it out.
Now a new webpage (and PDF document) published by the Oregon Department of Transportation aims to demystify this process. Think of it as a treasure map that leads to more biking and walking projects.
Titled Funding Walking and Biking Improvements, this exhaustive new resource lists 38 different sources of cash to help make your active transportation project dreams come true.
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From unexpected local sources to major federal grant programs, the page offers a short summary of each funding pot and links to the primary source for more information.
The page is the work of ODOT’s Transportation and Growth Management Program, a joint venture between ODOT and the Department of Land Conservation and Development. Evan Manvel, a transportation and planning manager with the DLCD (and formerly the executive director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance), helped put it together. He says it’s an ongoing project and “a living document” that they plan to update as new funding sources emerge and existing programs change.
Hopefully someday active transportation projects will be treated with the same funding respect as freeway and bridge projects in Oregon. Until then, this invaluable resource should be bookmarked by every city and county staffer, advocate and activist in the state.
Happy hunting!
That’s a super-nice resource. Thanks for digging this up. Also- wow is that a lot of different pots of money
RecommendedIf we could convince the Democrats in the Legislature to grow a backbone and pass SJR 16 in the short session next year, we could possibly have access to the big gas tax revenue pot.
RecommendedThanks for this,
I do have to ask how one article gets 35 posts of debate over a sponsored post (yeah I’m guilty too) the rest of those posts comprised of more complaining of bicycle facilities around the development -which isn’t really relevant to the story since the story isn’t even finished yet. Yet this much more helpful tool/guide hardly even gets a thank you after nearly 4 hours.
RecommendedCool. I’ll tell folks at the next neighborhood association about this as well. Thanks Evan Manvel for putting this resource together.
Recommended…neighborhood association MEETING…
RecommendedYou’re welcome! Let us know if there are ways to make it more useful. evan.manvel [at] state.or.us
RecommendedInteresting info, and I’m glad ODOT has finally made it easier to figure out where the money comes from to do the projects that are needed. Maybe now we can shut down the argument that “you bikers don’t pay for the roads”.
Recommended