Last weekend at the New Jersey Bike and Walk Summit, NJ DOT Local Aid and Economic Development Director Mike Russo and Safe Routes to School to Coordinator Elise Bremer-Nei gave a very informative presentation on the Bicycle and Pedestrian funding opportunities available for Local Public Agencies (LPA's). LPA's include Counties, Municipalities, Bridge/Transit Authorities as well as School Districts.
This presentation is very timely as NJ DOT and DVRPC are about to announce new funding rounds for 1) Transportation Alternatives/Transportation Enhancements (TAP/TE) and 2) Safe Routes To School (SRTS).
In the past TE and SRTS competitive funding rounds have been extremely popular and over subscribed. For the last round in 2012 NJDOT received TE 149 applications that requested a total of $78M. Of that $10M was awarded to 29 of those projects. This 2014 soliciatation will be $15.5M for TAP/TE and $5.6M for Safe Routes to Schools statewide.
NJDOT is working on a strategy to ensure that project sponsors get the information they need to develop good project applications and complete projects successfully. Follow this blog for announcements of upcoming training opportunities and seminars.