FHWA Guts Research Funding, Oregon Steps Forward
Posted by: EvanJan 11 2007, 1:53 pm
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently announced that it's awarding less than one percent of its research funds to bike research, and even less than that for safety.
From Centerlines, a publication of the National Center for Biking and Walking:
FHWA recently announced priorities and projects for the Surface Transportation Environment and Planning Cooperative Research Program (STEP), which FHWA notes "will also be the sole source of SAFETEA-LU funds available to conduct all FHWA research on planning and environmental issues."
Of the $11.9 million for FY07, the total allocated for bicycle/pedestrian issues is $70,000 (0.6%), and for safety is $80,000 (0.7%). But you'll find it easy to learn all about this and more at the STEP and HEP web sites, and that there will be prudent fiscal management of this $11.9 million research program, because FHWA has allocated $1 million (8.4%) of the research budget for "program management."
The League of American Bicyclists' Andy Clarke had this to say:
"Recognizing that there have to be winners and losers in any process like this, and that not all of one's wishes can be met, I have to say I am hugely disappointed by the outcome of this process. I also understand that there's less overall research funding available for 2006 and 2007 and that competition is fierce for these funds. However, even between the two years of 2006 and 2007 there's a drop of $225,000 for FHWA research into nonmotorized transportation and the $178,000 for the Transportation Enhancements clearinghouse is gone altogether in 2007. That's a more than $400,000 cut in funding.
"The remaining $70,000 for 2007 doesn't even begin to be sufficient — even building on prior years work — to address the yawning gap in available data on nonmotorized travel that has existed for decades. "Perhaps you are going to tell me that a noticeable percentage of the climate change funding will address these needs — oh, wait. That budget is cut almost in half!
"Sorry to be facetious, but it's hard to resist the temptation. Global climate change is finally making it onto the national agenda; public health remains a massive unresolved issue, and FHWA is slashing the research budgets addressing these two issues? Can FHWA's entire research budget on health-related issues really be $70,000 on collecting more evidence that we don't collect adequate data on bicycle and pedestrian travel?"
In better news, the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium (say that five times fast) is up and running, and has received several proposals for funding, including a bicycle and pedestrian institute that is one of the BTA's top 40 projects in our Blueprint.
The Consortium — a partnership of Oregon's leading universities — has roughly $1.5 to award this academic year, and future years will be around $3.4 million, according to my rough notes from a presentation of Chris Monsere.
We're hopeful that Oregon's plethora of transportation experts will have the resources to share their expertise, as well as do research into biking and walking issues.
