Supporting Cities' Funding Applications
As part of our work to get better biking infrastructure across our two counties, we offer our support to local jurisdictions as they apply for various funding pots. Whether it’s the statewide Active Transportation Program (ATP), nationwide grants, or local level funds, we reach out to cities and the counties to offer our review and support of their grant applications for better bike infrastructure and programs. Because these funding programs for bicycle and pedestrian improvements are always oversubscribed and there are a lot of good projects, support letters from relevant organizations make applications more competitive, can be worth several points in the ranking process, and can be the difference between being awarded a grant or not.However, we don’t blindly support every application that comes across our desk. We take the time to carefully review the project and supporting maps and diagrams and talk with the staff in charge so that we really understand the benefits of the potential project. In addition, we typically run the support letter requests by the relevant SVBC Local Team.In San Mateo County, there are two county-level funding sources for bicycle and pedestrian improvements: Transportation Development Act- Article 3 (TDA-3) administered by the City and County Association of Governments (CCAG) and Measure A, a local sales tax measure for transportation, administered by the San Mateo County Transportation Authority (TA). The latter is the most recent funding cycle that we were asked to provide support letters for.During this cycle, we received ten requests and wrote support letters for nine of those, after evaluating the projects and speaking with the relevant staff as well as the San Mateo County Local Team. These were:1. City of San Carlos Holly/101 bike/ped overcrossing.2. City of San Mateo Hillsdale/101 bike/ped overcrossing.3. Town of Woodside buffered bike lane added to Alameda de las Pulgas from Fernside to Woodside Road.4. City of Redwood City Kennedy Safe Routes to School improvements.
5. City of South San Francisco Sunshine Gardens Safe Routes to School improvements.6. City of South San Francisco Junipero Serra Blvd./Hickey Boulevard. intersection improvements.7. City of Burlingame California Drive bike facility improvement project.8. City of Redwood City 101 14' wide bike/ped undercrossing between Main and Bair Island Road.9. City of Menlo Park Middle Avenue bike/ped undercrossing.If you are interested in more details about any of these projects, let us know in the contact form below, or consider joining the email group for the San Mateo County Local Team.Evaluation of these projects by the TA's review committee will take place in January 2016 and recommendations will go to the TA Board for approval in February-March 2016.
