This article from NPR provides a good view into how transportation funding works. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law contains $1.2 trillion in funding. That sounds like a lot but once it’s spread across the nation’s infrastructure, it amounts to more of a good start than a long term plan for funding. It is even less of a strategy.
$1.2 trillion is the same as $1002 billion. In the BIL, there is a $5B carve out over five years for Safe Streets 4 All (SS4A) bike, ped, and multi-modal funding. That equals a little more than 4/10 of one percent of the bill. Those funds are distributed on an application basis across over 30,000 municipalities and, importantly for C4C, over 3000 counties.
C4C’s focus is on rural, unincorporated Boulder County where, in about 2020, there was a $500M shortfall to fund the completion of Boulder County’s Transportation Master Plan. If rail is included, it was closer to $2.2B. Take C4C’s main infrastructure project, the North Foothills Bikeway and at $95M, it’s another example of the gap between funding and execution.
C4C is in full agreement with Secretary Buttigieg quoted in the NPR piece, “The most important thing is that the projects actually get done,…From the point of view of the country, it is more important that they get done than it is who gets the credit.”
Who gets political credit adds more complications to infrastructure which is already complicated due to the combined nature of construction and governance. A salient example is the Fourmile Creek underpass which is near completion right now connecting the Fourmile Path and the Cottonwood Trail under the BNSF rail line. It’s maybe fifty feet of linear distance and took 18 years to build.
From a bicycling advocacy or multi-modal point of view, one can read this article in Colorado Politics and see that $7.2B is a lot of funding but there’s not a single mention of a multi-modal project except for the following.
The League of American Bicyclists pointed out in an analysis this week that funding for “bicycling, walking and transit projects are not in the federal interest” from the Trump administration. That includes eliminating “Vision Zero,” which the city and county of Denver has launched to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries. Eliminating Vision Zero was a stated objective of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
What is C4C doing about all of this? C4C has one 3/4 time staff person and a volunteer board. It is a product of the Boulder cycling community and at the risk of sentimentality, that community should be proud of itself. Whatever its faults, the cycling community in Boulder County has made it someone’s job to advocate for them. And that same community supports a board to govern and guide that person based on principles like safety and the opportunity of cycling.
That’s nice but what is C4C really doing? In infrastructure, C4C spent five years getting the North Foothills Bikeway to where it is today. Its $95M price tag is intended to be a challenge to funders and force them to reconsider their criteria away from roadway projects and towards multi-modal ones.
That’s a start. Below is a link to the most recent update. It will be updated again in December or January. Thanks for supporting C4C.