CTC Approves Regional Active Transportation Projects

Yesterday the California Transportation Commission approved 62 projects submitted for funding from the Active Transportation Program (ATP) by the state's regions. This group constitutes about forty percent of the total funding for the 2016-17 round.

Projects that competed under the Statewide and Small Urban and Rural components of the program were selected in December 2016. Funding for all the projects chosen in this round will be available beginning in 2019.

The projects approved yesterday were submitted by the San Francisco Bay Area, Fresno, Sacramento, San Diego, Southern California, Stanislaus, Tulare, and Kern regional governments. They were awarded a total of $103.3 million for 62 projects, almost all of which have some benefit to disadvantaged communities as determined by the ATP guidelines. The San Joaquin Council of Governments plans to submit its requests to the commission in May.

Among the approved projects are:

• Pedestrian signals and countdown heads along Fresno's Bus Rapid Transit corridor
• Almost twenty miles of bicycle lanes and routes in downtown Bakersfield, along with bike parking and a bike-share program
• Crosswalks, sidewalks, curb ramps, bike lanes, and more near the high school in the city of Arvin
• Enforcement to slow traffic in Oakland
• Wider sidewalks with landscaping connecting Marin's Canal district to the new Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) station in San Rafael
• Bike lanes and better sidewalks connecting schools in Citrus Heights, as well as school programs that educate about and encourage biking and walking
• Sharrows, signage, crosswalks, and pedestrian signals along the Chula Vista Bikeway in National City
• A pedestrian pathway and bike lanes connecting schools in Escondido
• Curbs, ramps, and sidewalks around schools in Turlock
• A two-way bike and pedestrian path connecting schools in Tulare
• Development of a plan for the San Gabriel Valley Regional Greenway Network

A complete list of the projects is available here [PDF].

At yesterday's meeting, the commission also allocated funds to another group of ATP projects that had previously been approved, so that they can begin construction. A list of those projects is available here.

A sampling of those ready-to-proceed projects includes:

• Extending the Tahoe bike network and adding complete streets elements to the highway through town
• Extension of protected bike lanes and addition of bus boarding islands along Telegraph Avenue in Oakland
• Numerous pedestrian improvements like sidewalks, curb ramps, and crossings in cities throughout the state
• Improving bicycle access to the Florence Station on L.A. Metro's Blue Line
• Bikeways along Metro's Gold Line