Bicycle Infrastructure

State DOTs Make Deeper Bike-Ped Budget Cuts Than Expected

We reported recently that the federal government was demanding $2.2 billion back from state DOTs in rescissions -- money that was already allocated to states that they were then asked to give back. Bike and pedestrian advocates were worried that states would disproportionately target active transportation projects for cuts, instead of carving into car-centric programs. They were right.

By Tanya Snyder

1:59 PM EDT on October 1, 2010

We reported recently that the federal government was demanding $2.2 billion back from state DOTs in rescissions — money that was already allocated to states that they were then asked to give back. Bike and pedestrian advocates were worried that states would disproportionately target active transportation projects for cuts, instead of carving into car-centric programs. They were right.

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy analyzed the rescissions that were made and discovered that more than 25 percent of the cuts came from Transportation Enhancements, the nation’s largest source of funding for walking and bicycling projects. That’s almost $580 million – about eight months’ worth of TE funding.

Nebraska led the pack, taking 100 percent of its cuts from the state’s TE budget. Texas took 79 percent, Nevada 62 percent. Not all states cut bike and ped projects disproportionately. Nine states and the District of Columbia didn’t cut anything at all from their TE budgets.

Check out RTC’s state-by-state analysis to see how your state did [PDF].

Tanya Snyder

Tanya became Streetsblog's Capitol Hill editor in September 2010 after covering Congress for Pacifica Radios Washington bureau and for public radio stations around the country. She lives car-free in a transit-oriented and bike-friendly neighborhood of Washington, DC.