Active Transportation

I love hearing from our Safe Routes to School and active transportation community with questions about what’s happening on Capitol Hill and with federal policy. Here are some of the questions I got this month while Congress was on recess – and answers to those questions.

What federal funding programs are open that I can apply for to improve walking and bicycling?

At the close of the third quarter of 2023, a few things stand out when we review the quarterly State of the States spreadsheet tracking states’ implementation of the Transportation Alternatives Program. For starters, states are doing a great job obligating funds. In quarter 3, which ended on June 30, 2023, states obligated over $255 million in projects that support walking, bicycling, and Safe Routes to School.

Safe Routes Partnership releases our Making Strides state report cards every two years, providing an at-a-glance snapshot of how states are doing in their support of walking, rolling, and active kids and communities. Following the release of the latest report cards in June 2022, we received numerous great questions from state agency representatives, walking and rolling advocates, and community health champions. We’ve collected a few of the most commonly asked questions here.

After a federal policy blog hiatus due to parental leave, we’re back with a roundup of what’s been happening and what to watch for on federal policy related to Safe Routes to School, walking, and bicycling.

Transportation Alternatives Program Implementation

While we await the President’s budget and meet with members of Congress on our appropriations requests, it is a nice time of year to check-in on how states are doing implementing the Transportation Alternatives Program.

This guest blog post is written by Noah Lenstra, Associate Professor of Library and Information Science at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (njlenstr@uncg.edu