Caltrans released their staff recommendations for the Statewide and Small Urban & Rural Components of the 2015 Active Transportation Program (ATP). ATP staff selected four Santa Cruz County projects among the 27 projects recommended for Small Urban & Rural funding statewide. The ATP commission must still approve the projects.
On September 26, 2013, Governor Brown signed legislation creating the Active Transportation Program in the California Department of Transportation. The ATP consolidates existing federal and state transportation programs, including the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP), Bicycle Transportation Account (BTA), and State Safe Routes to School (SR2S), into a single program with a focus to make California a national leader in active transportation.
The ATP consists of three components; the statewide component (50% of the funds), the small urban & rural component (10% of the funds), and the large Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) component (40% of the funds). For the 2015 ATP Cycle, 617 applications were submitted, requesting over $1 billion in funds.
For the statewide component, ATP staff recommend funding for 86 projects totaling $179.7 million. Another $35.5 million in funding for 27 projects in the small urban & rural component were recommended.
The four projects selected from Santa Cruz County are:
- Rail Trail from Watsonville Slough Trailhead to Walker street in Watsonville. ($690K)
- Citywide Safe Routes to School Crossing Improvement Program in the city of Santa Cruz. ($1.4M)
- Countywide Bicycle Route Signage Project. ($320K)
- Branciforte Creek Bicycle/Pedestrian Bridge. ($1.8M)
Elsewhere along the Central Coast, projects were given the thumbs up in Seaside ($3.7M for West Broadway Urban Village Infrastructure Improvements); Salinas ($7.4M for various Safe Routes improvements); $4.4M for an “Active Transportation/Demand Management Program” for the city of Monterey; two projects in San Luis Obisbo ($3.2M for Railroad Safety Trail-Taft to Pepper Segment, $300K for SLO Regional Rideshare SRTS Learn-by-Doing Active Transportation Program). In Santa Barbara County, ATP staff recommends funding for sidewalks in Goleta ($2.2M); a multiuse trail for UCSB ($2.4M); and Carpinteria at Voluntario pedestrian improvements in the city of Santa Barbara.
In the Bay Area, projects were given the green light in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, Bay Point, South San Francisco, Daly City, and San Mateo County. San Francisco, Santa Clara, Marin, Sonoma and Napa Counties get zippo in this round of funding.
Wow, did the selection panel consist primarily of people from Santa Cruz and Monterey and other Central Coast Counties?
Kinda makes you wonder, right? 😉
I have to say I am glad. For as many cyclists as there are in Santa Cruz, you’d expect it to be a bike friendly city, but actually the infrastructure is pretty awful (Soquel/Water merge, to name one example). With the high concentration of tourists and idiot students it could use a lot more sharrows and some green lanes.