Counties focus on biking, walking with eyes set on  next transportation bill

By Charles Taylor
Senior Staff Writer

The next federal transportation bill is two years away, but two counties are already laying the groundwork for inclusion of more money for bicycling, trails and walking.

Marin County, Calif. and Sheboygan County, Wis. — along with the cities of Columbia, Mo. and Minneapolis — are part of a $100-million federal Non-motorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP), created by the 2005 federal transportation bill.

Photo courtesy of Marin County, Calif. Pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists share the road in downtown  San Anselmo, Calif.in MarinCounty.

“It serves as an incredibly valuable jump-start for our $200-million vision of bicycle and pedestrian mobility in the county,” said Charles McGlashan, vice president of Marin’s Board of Supervisors.

Each community was awarded up to $25 million to spend over four years to determine how walking and biking can meet more of their areas’ transportation needs and “represent a major portion of the transportation solution, within selected communities,” as the legislation states.

The two counties are serving as laboratories for how investing in walking and biking can help address everything from traffic congestion and obesity to global climate change and energy usage. The money is being used to build and evaluate non-motorized transportation projects — such as walking trails, bike lanes and sidewalks — that connect “directly with transit stations, schools, residences, businesses, recreation areas and other community activity centers,” according to the legislation.

“We are absolutely convinced that in communities all over America, like the four that were selected to prove the case to Congress, we could actually contribute a major reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and improve the quality of our lives at the same time,” McGlashan said. “And that’s a very important message for Congress to hear right now.”

The program was championed by Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “These four communities have an exciting opportunity before them to show that safe and convenient bicycle and pedestrian facilities can lure people out of cars,” Oberstar said in a 2006 speech at the University of Minnesota.

Under the federal pilot, the communities must make an interim report to Congress this September and a final report in 2010.

In Marin County, the cash infusion is helping county supervisors, planners and the public to prioritize transportation improvements. The Board of Supervisors this spring approved plans to spend the county’s allocation, which, after withholdings for federal obligations and other required expenses, will amount to about $20 million.

   Sheboygan County is using some of its grant money to install bike racks on transit buses, and to update and expand its bike facilities plan, said Mary Ebeling, the county’s NTPP program manager. The county recently concluded a series of public meetings to gather citizen input on its long-range Pedestrian and Bicycle Comprehensive Plan.

“What we’re hoping is that the plan will build on the momentum that we have now and the policy shifts that we’re trying to create as part of the non-motorized grant,” Ebeling said — “to continue folding bicycle and pedestrian planning into everyday transportation planning activities.”

Most U.S. biking for recreation

Bicycling in the United States is primarily a recreational activity. According to a 2002 survey by Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 14.3 percent of adults rode a bicycle in the previous month. Of those, about 54 percent rode for recreation and 31 percent for exercise. Only 4.9 percent bicycled to work or school.

Despite the low numbers nationally, communities that have invested in biking and walking have achieved positive results, said Kevin Mills, vice president of policy for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, which has a contract with the pilot counties and cities to help evaluate their programs.

“We know from the baseline studies that were done for these pilots that walking and biking already take on a significant share of trips taken,” Mills said. In Minneapolis, for example, a survey conducted last November showed that 20 percent of trips were taken by biking and walking, he said. Nearly 10 percent of trips were taken by transit, with 88 percent of those getting to transit by biking and walking. It’s clear “from the benchmarking that where you do make investments, they make a difference.”

Rails-to-Trails also played a leading role in getting the pilots funded in the 2005 SAFETEA-LU transportation reauthorization, Mills said.

The pilot localities’ findings will be used to make a case for increased federal investment in walking and biking when the transportation bill comes up for reauthorization in 2009, according to Rails-to-Trails.

While the pilot funds are fully committed, other communities are eligible for money for biking/walking through a variety of federal programs. However, eligibility is no guarantee of funding. The $286.5-billion transportation bill, passed by Congress in 2005, included more than $3 billion for bicycling over the following six years, including $612 million for a National Safe Routes to School Program. Among other programs are the Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Program, the Surface Transportation Program, the National Highway System and the Recreational Trails Program.

Countdown to 2009 reauthorization

Building on the pilots’ momentum, this summer Rails-to-Trails will launch the 2010 Campaign for Active Transportation at its biennial conference, TrailLink 2007, in Portland, Ore. Aug. 8 – 10. Since the next conference won’t be until 2009, when Congress will have already begun considering the next transportation bill, advocates are gearing up now. “We spent 10 years lobbying for this effort,” McGlashan said of the pilot program in Marin.

Added his colleague, Steve Kinsey, board president, “I think that the intention of that conference is to really develop strong consensus on what the shape of the program ought to be that we would be asking for.”

TrailLink is also designed to be a training ground to help communities pursue increased federal support for biking and walking, Mills said. “We’re bringing together people from communities from around the country who are interested in this approach and who want to learn about active transportation.”

Leaders of the projects in Marin and Sheboygan counties, and the pilot cities, will be on hand to present their findings thus far and share lessons-learned with other communities. “We’re going to meet with our counterparts in Portland, to learn what they’ve done and how they’ve accomplished things — kind of a peer-exchange of ideas,” said Craig Tackabery, Marin’s assistant director of public works.

Rails-to-Trails’ Mills said his organization will play an “aggregating role” in pulling those ideas together into a national story “about how big this opportunity is and how common it is that communities see real things they can do that will make a real difference.”

Learn more about Marin and Sheboygan counties’ pilot programs at www.walkbikemarin.org and www.co.sheboygan.wi.us/html/d_planning_nonmotorized_project.htm.

For information about Rails-to-Trails, visit www.railstrails.org.