State DOT’s accumulate a transportation funds recission of 2.5 Billion: Much of which was bike and pedestrian funding sent back to the Federal Government

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The Federal Highway Administration recently announced its implementation of 2.5 billion dollar recission of transportation funds from states. The federal government, through a series of recissions, recoups money from states for unspent transportation money not yet spent. Each state is notified of its required contribution towards a recission, and then have flexibility on how they will appropriate the funds back to the federal government. For a brief description of recissions, click here.

America Bikes Coalition recently reviewed the 2.5 billion dollar recissions absorbed by the federal government, and found some alarming numbers for bike and pedestrian related funding. The coalition looked at three major contributors to bike and pedestrian funding in the current transportation bill structure:

  • Transportation Enhancements
  • Recreational Trails Program
  • Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Control Program
In reviewing the recissions, they found that “transportation Enhancements funds account for a less than 3% of total 2011 apportionments in every state. However they account for 11% of these rescissions, overall, and in 9 states (plus the District of Columbia) they account for more than 25% of the rescissions.  Several other states left funds in these three programs untouched, finding all the required rescissions from other programs.”
In an alarming discovery, as transportation enhancements account for only 3 percent of the total transportation funding, it accounted for 11 percent of overall recissions by states. In other words, as transportation funding commands such little funding to begin with it, it is also the first money to be sent back as unspent by states. The United States needs to rethink the way it funds its transportation program, both federally and on a state by state basis to better incorporate bike and pedestrian as major modes of transportation. Currently, bike and pedestrian transportation and planning command very little investment by both the federal government and by states; a reality that must be improved.
 

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