Better reporting from MDOT??
[B' Spokes: I'm not sure what year this is from or for but it came up in my news reader and is in a different format then what I am used to, so I am assuming it's new. Keep in mind essentially only transportation enhancements can be spent locally (with a very high local match and what's shown is the total project cost so only 40-50% of that is federal money) so we have 82% of bike/ped funding spent on state roads (9% of the roads in Maryland) while bike/ped crashes happen on roughly 50% local roads and 50% on state roads.
To simplify this issue, lets say when the state gave Baltimore funds for Phase 1 of our bike master plan that money could only be spent on state roads. Since there is no room for a bike lane on Falls Rd (a state road) the state said we could not have a bike lane here. But what Baltimore did was just move it over to the parallel road Rolland Ave. This is the concept I would like to see implemented in Maryland, if there is no easy way to accommodate cyclists on a state road, get money to the localities to accommodate them on a parallel route.
Please note the big fat ZERO in the retrofit bicycle program for projects. Supposedly they have been doing stuff with this money but I have yet to see a single project from this fund.
Note this is the first time I am seeing detail for recreational trails program (in the following link) This is not at all what I expected and I would be interested in your comments. Keep in mind other states are building trails with this fund and it only requires a 20% local match (See Were I question just how many trails a year do we want from this program and is the $30K cap imposed by MDOT)
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The Maryland Department of Transportation has various funding programs for bicycles and pedestrian programs. Two new funding programs for bicycle projects are being developed this year. The Maryland Bikeshare
Program is funded at $2 million, and the Maryland Bikeways Program is funded at $10 million.
| Projects listed to be advertised for construction (as of 11/11) | Ongoing Grant Awards and Earmarks | FY12-17 Funding Levels | |
|---|---|---|---|
| retrofit sidewalk program | 470,000 | 11,100,000 | |
| retrofit bicycle program | 0 | 6,300,000 | |
| community enhancement and safety | 380,244 | 6,722,000* | |
| streetscapes and minor reconstruction | 486,000 | 276,000* | |
| ADA program | 24,021,000 | 61,000,000 | |
| Pedestrian Access to Transit | 7,800,000 | 10,400,000 | |
| primary/secondary program | 3,573,000 | 3,573,000** | |
| Bikeways Program | 1,000,000 | 9,000,000 | |
| Bikeshare Program | 2,000,000 | ||
| transportation enhancements program | 27,725,000 | 25,600,000*** | |
| recreational trails program | 3,405,000 | 4,620,000*** | |
| earmark projects | 16,215,000 | 0**** | |
| Total | 36,730,244 | 48,345,000 | 140,590,712 |
**Additional funding is expected as primary/secondary projects move into construction and bicycle and pedestrian costs are itemized
***Funding levels estimated based on projected federal appropriations and historic spending levels on bicycle and pedestrian projects
****No additional earmark projects are expected at this time
http://www.mdot.maryland.gov/Planning/CTP/CTP_Documents/Final_CTP/4_Bicycle_and_Pedestrian.pdf