The Active Transportation Program is an important source of funding for developing and constructing bicycling and walking projects and programs in California.  The Program consolidates several sources of state and federal funding including the Transportation Alternatives Program, Bicycle Transportation Account and state Safe Routes to School Program. SB 1 requires $100 Million from the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account be available to the program annually.

Program funding is divided into three pots of funding:  50% to a statewide competitive share, 40% to Metropolitan Planning Organizations in urban areas with populations larger than 200,000, and 10% to small urban and rural regions with urban populations less than 200,000 (including the Monterey County region). Twenty-five percent of the overall funding must serve "disadvantaged communities", defined based on a variety of low income measurements or the Cal-EnviroScreen tool.

Eligible projects include small, medium and large infrastructure (or infrastructure including non-infrastructure programming), non-infrastructure programs and plans.  Local, regional and state public agencies are eligible to apply to the Program, as are public schools, non-profits and transit agencies.

Since the start of the Active Transportation Program, Monterey County has fared well in the competitive portions of the grant, with at least one project funded each of the 4 grant cycles.  In the last grant cycle, two of the seven applications submitted were awarded.  Statewide, most applications that were funded in the past two program cycles were medium-sized Safe Routes to School infrastructure projects in disadvantaged communities.  

Scoring will be based on project need, safety, disadvantaged community status, and the "transformative" nature of the project.  There is no required local funding match for the program; however, additional points will be awarded if a match is provided.

As with Cycle 4, there will be 5 different application types in Cycle 5:

• Infrastructure Large (>$7M)
• Infrastructure Medium ($2M - $7M)
• Infrastructure Small (<$2M)
• Non-Infrastructure
• Plans

Cycle 5 Schedule

• January 6, 2020 - Guidelines workshop at Watsonville Civic Center (12:30 pm - 3:30 pm)
• March 25, 2020 - California Transportation Commission Call for Projects
• June 15, 2020 - Project applications due (postmarked)
• October 2020 - California Transportation Commission staff recommendations for Statewide & Small Urban/Rural Communities
• December 2020 - California Transportation Commission adopts statewide and small urban/rural components 

TAMC staff is available to review and provide feedback on member agency applications to assist in developing the strongest Active Transportation Program Cycle 5 proposals as possible. To facilitate this review, staff has established a schedule of opportunities for agencies to seek assistance from TAMC staff at any or all of these steps:

• January, 2020 - Submit project outline for review
• Feb 5 - Feb 14 - Hold strategy meetings
• Feb 26 - Submit draft background data for review
• April 15 - Submit draft narrative, budget and schedule for review
• May 22 - Submit final draft application for review

This schedule is designed to allow sufficient time for collaboration and review, with a goal of maximizing the Active Transportation Funding that will accrue to the Monterey County region.