Naked City

Many cyclists about town were distressed last week at news that $1.9 million in annual federal funds used for local bike-and-pedestrian projects could instead be redirected to car-centric improvements to roads and streets. News had trickled out that the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board, made up of local officials, was to consider at its June 9 meeting a CAMPO staff recommendation to redirect 15% of the metro area's "STP 4C" funds for air-quality and congestion-management projects -- such as new right-turn lanes, signal synchronization, and other traffic-mitigation efforts. But CAMPO Executive Director Michael Aulick says that plan has been postponed until fall, when the board will assess the whole CAMPO bicycle program to assess its successes and shortcomings.

"We take the credit or the blame" for the funding recommendation and the resulting outcry, Aulick says. But air quality is a critical issue, he adds. If the Austin metro area doesn't reduce air pollution enough to avoid nonattainment of federal air-quality standards, CAMPO -- which has to approve the allocation of federal transportation funds -- could lose access to all federal highway dollars.

Even if the CAMPO board sympathizes with cyclists and votes to keep the funding system intact, says city bicycle/pedestrian program coordinator Linda DuPriest, the fact that staff recommended opening up bike/ped funds to road projects is "really, really demoralizing. [CAMPO] is supposed to be multimodal." Although Austin voters approved bonds in 1998 and 2000 to set aside local money for bike/ped projects, the city wouldn't be able to leverage those bonds with federal funds if the STP 4C money is diverted to intersections and traffic lights.

In the last decade, CAMPO has allocated $18.6 million to bike/ped programs and projects -- almost $11 million to the city of Austin alone. Local projects that have benefited from the STP 4C funds include the Pfluger Bridge, bicycle lanes on Pleasant Valley and Oltorf, and sidewalk projects in East Austin. If the board does vote to open the funding to auto-oriented improvements, Aulick says, their decision won't affect any projects or programs until fiscal 2005.