New ODOT resource demystifies funding for biking and walking projects

Detail of Funding Walking and Biking Improvements.
–PDF–

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.

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!

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