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A portion of the region’s four-year $8.1 billion dollar transportation budget may see a reduction in funding for bike, transit, and other pedestrian-oriented projects if the Transportation Policy Council votes in favor of the proposal. That means a number of these so-called “alternative mode” projects could be delayed by one or more years.
Alan Clark is the director of transportation and planning at the Houston-Galveston Area Council. He says if the proposal is approved, up to $13 million dollars that would have been spent on “alternative mode” projects could go to road and freight rail projects instead.
“The funds that those projects would have used would be made available for mobility projects like intersection improvements, additional improvements to ramping or interchanges, the widening of an existing road, construction of one that’s in poor condition, that sort of thing.”
But Clark says none of the scheduled “alternative mode” projects are at risk of losing their funding, it just means the money for some of them might come later. Clark says there will still be money available for bike paths, sidewalk improvements, and other bike/transit/pedestrian projects.
Fifty-four percent of the total budget is going to transit, while just under two percent is going to bicycle and pedestrian-oriented initiatives. BikeHouston board member Aaron Chang thinks that last number should be much higher.
“Pedestrian, bicycle, and livable centers have been severely underfunded. And we can’t keep looking toward old solutions to tackle new problems that we’re trying to solve right now.”
Wang says he and other BikeHouston members are going to Friday’s meeting at H-GAC’s headquarters in the Greenway area to make their case against the proposal.
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