The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act-Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) was signed into law by President Bush last month, providing $612 million for Safe Routes to School, $370 million for Recreational Trails, and $893 million for Transportation Enhancements, including pedestrian and bicycle lanes and trails. The Surface Transportation program is the single largest piece of the bill with $32.5 billion over 5 years. Roughly $3.2 billion of this is set aside for Transportation Enhancements. According to the League of American Bicyclists analysis of the bill, just over half of this amount is historically used on bicycle, pedestrian and trail projects across the country. This allocates roughly $1.6 billion over five years.
The bill also includes the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program, which gives an estimated $430 million over five years; the Highway Safety Improvement program, which saw a significant increase in funding this year and allots $10 million per year to bicycle and pedestrian safety construction projects; the Scenic Byways project should contribute an additional $1 million to $2 million to other trail projects.
Perhaps the most important part of this bill for the Outdoor industry is the Recreational Trails Program, which was funded at $370 million over the five-year life of the bill, with a minimum of 30% of this amount going to non-motorized trail building.
The newest part of the bill is the Safe Routes to School program, which is designed to create safe walking and bicycle routes around middle and elementary schools in every state in the country. Under the program, each state will receive at least $1 million in funding for SR2S programs per year with a maximum of 30% of the funds used on non-infrastructure programs. Each state must use a portion of the funds to hire a full-time SR2S coordinator.
One final development of note is the Non-motorized Transportation Pilot Program, which is designed to study the impact of “significant investment in non-motorized infrastructure in a community.” The program is giving $25 million each to four different communities across the country Columbia, MO; Marin County, CA; Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN; and Sheboygan County, WI.
