Blog

Congress Rejects Big Budget Cuts

Six months into fiscal year 2018, Congress has finally set spending levels for federal agencies and programs.  The $1.3 trillion omnibus appropriations bill includes great news for many programs for which the Trump administration proposed elimination or significant cuts.

Columbus, Ohio Safe Routes to School Partners with Community Initiative

Safe Routes to School in Columbus, Ohio started in the mid-2000s as a cooperative effort that spoke to public health, the Department of Public Services, and the Safe Walks program, involving Safe Routes to School travel plans for a school or a group of a few schools. These efforts brought about mobility studies for a few different neighborhoods. The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) funded SRTS projects at individual schools, but they were also receiving a lot of applications for larger school districts.

Newton, MA Advocates for High Schools and SRTS in School Design

Newton, MA's Safe Routes to School program has made many gains since they started roughly ten years ago. Examples are across the board! Not only have they identified more local champions who work with individual schools, but they are also poised to announce a new working school transportation policy developed by an after school committee. The current policy has more of a focus on who qualifies for the bus, and they’ve been asked to develop a policy that promotes walking, biking and taking the bus.

White House Releases Backwards Infrastructure Package and Spending Priorities

A week ago, Congress reached agreement on overall spending caps, which would allow for significant increases in defense and domestic spending in FY2018 and FY2019.  Their agreement includes an additional $10 billion per year for two years to put towards different kinds of infrastructure investments (broader than just transportation).  Congress now has about six weeks to divide those overall increases into the funding allocations for federal programs and agencies.

What We Value for Any Infrastructure Package

On January 30, President Trump delivered his state of the union. A few sentences in his speech referenced the long-delayed infrastructure package, as he called on Congress to pass a bill that would pair any Federal dollars with state, local, and private investments to “build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways.”

Safe Routes to School Full Steam Ahead in the Southwest

Safe Routes to School has grown leaps and bounds in the Phoenix area since the inception of the program. When MAP21 came along, Arizona DOT subcontracted the Safe Routes to School and Transportation Alternatives programs to MPOs and Councils of governments, which kept the ball rolling in the right direction. Phoenix has steamrolled ahead with a dedicated employee who works with 75 schools every year in the spring and fall with various pedestrian and biking events, including some law enforcement education. This work reaches tens of thousands of students each year.