September 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 25

ADVOCACY
By Dave Tyahla

MAP-21 and Parks and
Recreation
Recent surface transportation legislation has
major implications for walking and bicycling.

T

HERE'S A NEW, TWO-YEAR FEDERAL SURFACE TRANSPORTATION
LAW in town (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century-

DREAMSTIME

MAP-21), and, as expected, major policy changes with regard to
funding for walking and bicycling are coming down the pike, so to speak.

We'd be dishonest if we didn't share our genuine
surprise that the U.S. Congress, in an increasingly
rare showing of cooperation and sheer legislative
will, was able to successfully pass a new two-year
Surface Transportation Act (MAP-21) in late June.
We also would be remiss if we didn't express our
strong disappointment in the way the late-hour,
backroom negotiations with the House mangled
what was a carefully crafted, overwhelmingly bipartisan Senate approved bill. However, at the
end of the day, MAP-21 was signed into law by the
President in early July and is the federal transportation program we must live with for the next two
years.
MAP-21 contains 600-plus pages, but for our
purposes, there are some key things to know. Specifically, how does MAP-21 impact existing federal
support for walking and bicycling? The two biggest changes are:
■ Combining/Streamlining of Existing Programs; and,
■ Less Funding and More Competition.
Under the previous law, popular programs
such as Transportation Enhancements (TE), Safe
Routes to Schools, and the Recreational Trails
Program (RTP) were funded as stand-alone programs, which mean they each received dedicated
annual funding. MAP-21 eliminates these standalone programs and creates a new funding category called Transportation A lternatives (TA).
TE, Safe Routes to Schools, and RTP projects are
now rolled into the TA category within MAP-21.
However, many other projects, including expansive environmental mitigation and limited road

construction projects, are also included under
TA and will now compete for these same funds.
The problem is that funding for TE, Safe Routes to
School, and RTP has historically totaled approximately $1.2 billion per year. MAP-21 cuts overall
funding for the consolidated Transportation Alternatives category by a third, so that only approximately $800 million will be annually available.
While programs such as TE and Safe Routes to
School remain eligible for funding, they must now
compete against each other as well
as a multitude of other programs for
Funding
much less money.
Transportation Alternatives funds for walking
will be distributed to the states where
and biking is
the state departments of transportation (DOT) will sub-allocate 50 per- no longer
cent directly to larger metropolitan guaranteed.
planning organizations (MPOs, pop.
200,000-plus) to distribute them locally via a competitive grant process. MPOs of
less than 200,000 people compete for the rest of
these TA funds through a state-managed competitive grant process.
The state retains discretion over the types of
projects it will fund with the remaining TA funds.
A major concern is that while the state could
choose to allocate some or all of these remaining funds for bike and pedestrian projects, it is
authorized to use the funding for any other transportation purpose-meaning states may " optout " of using 50 percent of their remaining TA
funding for projects such as trails and bike paths
W W W . N R P A . O R G    S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 2    Parks

& Recreation

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September 2012 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2012 - Parks & Recreation

September 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 1
September 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 2
September 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 3
September 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 4
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