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We knew in August that federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects was in jeopardy.

Now, the results of the latest round of rescissions are in — and programs that benefit biking and walking were, in fact, first on the chopping block in many states.

This summer, Congress passed a jobs bill that contained a $2.2 billion rescission of transportation funds from state Departments of Transportation. Just-released data from the Federal Highway Administration shows that many states cut disproportionately from programs that fund biking and walking when they determined what funds to send back to Washington. (For data on each state from the FHWA, click here.)

The Transportation Enhancements program, for instance, was heavily tapped. According to the National Transportation Enhancements Clearinghouse (NTEC): “In most states, TE is between 2 percent and 3 percent of all federal aid for highways. However, in this most recent rescission, funds from TE funding codes composed 26 percent of the total rescinded funds nationally.” Thirty-three states returned a disproportionately large amount of funds from TE and four states (Arkansas, Nevada, Nebraska, and Texas) used TE funds to make up more than half of the total rescission. In total, $580 million came from TE - more than from any other single program. There was some good news, though: The District of Columbia and nine other states didn’t send back any money from TE. (Read the full brief from the NTEC here.)

But, as Darren Flusche, policy analyst for the League of American Bicyclists points out, TE wasn’t the only program affected. “CMAQ [Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality improvement program], an important source of bicycle and pedestrian funding, was hit hard,” Flusche writes on the League’s blog. “States rescinded $388 million from CMAQ. In addition, $116 million is now gone from statewide planning and research.”

So what now?

“The only way to avoid these losses in the future is to make our voices heard and urge the DOTs to spend money on biking and walking as aggressively as they spend on highways,” Flusche suggests. “See our reports on rescissions, CMAQ and HSIP for advice on how to do that.”

On Tuesday November 17th, the City of San Jose adopted its first comprehensive bike plan with the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) playing a strong role in its release.

SVBC, the Department of Transportation, various community organizations, and the general public have long been anticipating the plan which includes a Cal Train bike share program, a cycle track, a doubling of existing bike lanes, new safety signals, bike lockers, and an overall increase in bicycle ridership and safety. The City ultimately hopes to achieve a five percent increase in cycling and a Gold-level Bicycle Friendly ranking from the League of American Bicyclists by 2020.

Corinne Winter, executive director of SVBC said, “We need to ensure that hard commitments and funding streams follow. To turn this plan into a reality, the City will have to put dollars behind developing these bike facilities.” 

SVBC has been an active voice in the planning process and continues to strongly support the plan. They will continue to be persistent in urging financing as well as the implementation of any experimental suggestions in order to expedite the plan in an efficient manner.  To find out more about SVBC’s involvement and track the plan’s progress, visit bikesiliconvalley.org and/or sanjoseca.gov