Posted September 26, 2023 in Weblog

The Intersections Initiative turns one this month! One yr in the past, In September 2022, America Walks teamed up with the Protected Routes Partnership and League of American Bicyclists to create the Intersections Initiative. The objective: make federal packages for strolling and biking infrastructure within the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation extra approachable for group leaders and native governments. What has occurred in that first yr?

Collect the info, get the phrase out

The Intersections Initiative was born of the concept the historic stage of funding contained within the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation must be linked with the outsized demand for strolling and biking infrastructure throughout the nation.  Because of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation, Transportation Alternate options Program funding is at an all-time excessive, beginning with $1.3 billion in 2021. New packages like Reconnecting Communities and Protected Streets and Roads for All additionally fund strolling and biking infrastructure. However not each group that desires sidewalks, bike lanes, and lively transportation infrastructure is aware of the ins and outs of those packages in the event that they’re even acquainted with them in any respect. 

So our first objective was to assemble the info and get the phrase out. The Protected Routes Partnership and the Bike League developed Transportation Alternate options Funding truth sheets for all 50 states that we might then share with native governments and group champions to assist them higher perceive and leverage the chance for elevated funding.

We then labored to disseminate broadly the details about packages like Transportation Alternate options and Protected Streets and Roads for All. Webinars for nationwide audiences and small, extra focused ones on the state stage present introductory data and assist get the phrase out to native authorities officers and group champions seeking to study extra.

Working with group champions and native authorities

For that kind of official or group champion, there’s the Intersections Initiative web site, a portal to achieve out, speak via a venture they’re engaged on, and decide what kinds of federal funding can be most approachable for it. We fielded over 60 requests for extra data and talked to all kinds of communities all in favour of constructing strolling and biking infrastructure. This ranged from a community of librarians in Iowa who wished to make their establishments hubs for lively transportation, to a planning division in a small city in North Carolina that knew it wanted to make its streets safer however didn’t know the place to begin, to a bunch of advocates in Maine working with their metropolis to find out whether or not they had the required Security Motion Plan to use for Protected Streets and Roads for All implementation funding. 

The Initiative additionally labored extra carefully with a handful of communities. In Arizona, the Initiative companions strengthened Pinnacle Well being, a state-wide public well being group, in its work with the Arizona Division of Transportation. With this help, ADOT held its first-ever competitors to award $27m of Transportation Alternate options funding, $16m of which goes to small, rural, and tribal areas which are usually handed over in relation to funding.

What’s in retailer for subsequent yr?

The Intersections Initiative remains to be lively, so in the event you’d wish to share extra in regards to the infrastructure venture you’re engaged on and study extra in regards to the attainable federal funding alternatives that might transfer it nearer to implementation, then attain out!

Need to study extra in regards to the work of the Intersections Initiative during the last yr? Try the presentation we gave to the Bodily Exercise Coverage Analysis and Analysis Community.