Last year $2.9 billion was spent on transportation projects. How much of that was spent on bicycle and pedestrian facilities?
Not much! Alabama ranks 46th out of 50 states on percentage of transportation money spent on bike/ped infrastructure.
- 0% of those funds were used on bike-only projects
- 1.2% was used on pedestrian only facilities
- 0.7% was used on shared (bicycle and pedestrian projects)
- 6.1% of spending on transportation projects had bicycle and pedestrian facilities (including road projects)
- 93.9% of spending on transportation projects had no bicycle or pedestrian components.
Read more from Alliance for Biking & Walking:
The new Advocacy Advance report, Lifting the Veil on Bicycle and Pedestrian Spending, takes a look at a complex federal process – the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). STIPs, at their most basic, are budget documents that express how states plan to spend federal transportation funds for the next four years.
They examined these documents in every state to determine the types of facilities that are planned for people who walk and bike. We asked if planned projects will serve bicyclists-only, pedestrians-only, or both through a shared facility and whether they will occur as part of other roadwork or as standalone projects. We found that:
- Bicycling and walking investments are difficult to determine and appear to be small.
- Bicycling and walking facilities are more numerous than cost percentage estimates alone might suggest.
- Complete Streets policies are often correlated with more projects including bicycling and walking facilities, but having good data better explains states’ performance.
- No strong trend emerged in how states allocated spending among biking, walking, and shared-use facilities.
States are required to make information accessible means and involve the public. By rating each state based upon how their DOT presents federally required planning information, we hope to encourage best practices that improve transparency and lead to better civic engagement.
