We, the Steering Committee members of OAK listed below, write to collectively share a proposal for the Transportation Reauthorization Act to protect and enhance investment in transportation infrastructure through the following programs.
- Include the Transit to Trails Act in the bill. Legislation introduced in the 118th Congress would have created a program that would support more public transit options to national and state parks. Our public park systems are a national jewel and provide communities with centers of economic activity, physical activity, and natural beauty. There are a wide variety of benefits that those gateway communities can experience when every American has the opportunity to enjoy these natural areas. Most public transit systems don’t easily reach these locations, making it difficult for those without personal vehicles to access them. Not only would this policy ensure more people can access national and state parks, it would also expand the economic base of the surrounding gateway communities.
- Prioritize Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP). The Transportation Alternatives Program must be a priority in the next reauthorization bill. TAP is the largest source of federal funding for walking, biking, and rolling – otherwise known as active transportation. These funds enable states and communities to access federal resources for safer, more accessible, and economically vibrant streets.
- Extend the Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant program. This program was included in the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act and has helped communities implement locally driven initiatives and projects that help make their streets and roads safe for all users. The kinds of safety interventions this program supports is critical to developing the kind of family-oriented infrastructure that attracts parents and young families to a community. The program also supports an infrastructure network that helps promote the creation of more civic infrastructure where residents of a community can gather and engage with each other. A downtown hub that is safe for young children and older adults is an area that is likely safe for everyone and draws all kinds of people to it for shopping, recreation, and entertainment. Those kinds of activities, with a multi-generational audience, are the key to revitalizing communities and sustaining existing commercial corridors. And because the safety interventions communities choose to deploy are based on local expertise, there can be a high degree of confidence that those interventions will not degrade traveling efficiency.
- Safe Routes to School Full-Time Coordinators in All 50 States. Safe Routes to School (SRTS) has been rigorously evaluated to reduce roadway injuries and fatalities and be cost-effective within two years. SRTS has also been shown to increase physical activity for school-aged youth. States that retained state-level SRTS Coordinators have more robust programs across a variety of indicators. From 2005-2012 all states had SRTS coordinators. As of 2024, however, only 26 states have a full-time employee as the dedicated SRTS coordinator and seven additional states have an employee who is tasked with SRTS as part of their job along with other priorities.
- Extend the Complete Streets Program. Streets, especially those located in more densely populated areas, need to serve a variety of mobility options for all road users. When cities embrace a complete streets approach they are ensuring that drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, and scooters are able to easily and safely navigate to their destinations. These strategies also promote small business growth and greater civic engagement because complete streets increase the amount of foot traffic in commercial corridors and centers of neighborhood activity like parks, libraries, churches, and community centers. Complete streets strategies also promote greater public safety which in turn lowers insurance rates for drivers and medical costs for families and communities.
- Continue the Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program (ATIIP). ATIIP is the only program dedicated to investing at sufficient scale in projects that connect active transportation networks and spines by filling in multiple infrastructure gaps within and between communities, and across states and regions. This approach accelerates implementation of state, regional and local plans to create safe and convenient walking and biking routes to everyday destinations, which are being pursued in communities of every size and type in all 50 states.
- Retain the Reconnecting Communities program. This program can play a critical role in expanding affordable housing options in neighborhoods across this country. Highways that cut through predominantly Black and low-income neighborhoods during the last century have left a legacy of negative consequences on community health, housing, and access to greenspaces. The Reconnecting Communities program sought to address those impacts by providing cities with the ability to redesign that infrastructure so as to foster stronger neighborhoods and redevelop land that was previously used only for transportation purposes. This program was ideal because it maintained the transportation infrastructure while finding ways to expand the surface area it once cut through.
- Continue the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) and Congestion Relief Programs. Traffic congestion has a profound negative impact on our communities, drivers, and other people who share the road. Not only does it contribute to higher levels of stress—which brings on its own set of other health related issues—but it degrades the air quality in the surrounding area. Neighborhoods that experience higher rates of congestion have also exhibited higher rates of asthma amongst the children living there as well as other respiratory related illnesses in adults. These factors have other downstream social impacts, like discouraging housing development, investment in outdoor civic infrastructure (like parks, playgrounds, and walking or biking trails), and disinvestment from the community amenities that are already present. Those economic forces then create their own ripple effects in the health, safety, and prosperity of the people living in those impacted neighborhoods. Continuing these programs provide local transportation planners and health officials critical tools and resources they need to reduce congestion and promote greater traffic and mobility efficiency. They also ensure that air quality monitoring is accurate enough to determine the areas that need interventions the most, thereby ensuring the mitigation strategies are tailored to the challenges that need to be addressed and therefore limit any unintended consequences.
- The Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) should be retained and localities provided with an incentive to implement enhanced road safety measures. Traffic safety remains a concern for people, especially when they are around civic infrastructure sites like parks, playgrounds, main street business corridors, and community centers which attract both high volumes of vehicular and foot traffic. That mixing of pedestrian and motorized modes of transportation can be unnerving to parents with small children and older adults who need assistive devices. Traffic calming infrastructure, like protected walkways, speed humps, improved signage, and a restricted number of car lanes in these areas not only improves safety outcomes but also contributes to greater use and higher foot traffic in these areas. Those increases in people using and around our civic infrastructure improves economic activity levels, feelings of public safety, and encourages future development. Improving safety also has other long-term economic benefits, including reduced health care costs for families and communities, overall lower repair and maintenance costs for the infrastructure, and lower insurance rates for drivers in communities that employ widespread highway safety measures. Because this program requires a data-driven approach to safety we know that the interventions a community chooses to employ are only going to those roadways and areas where they are needed most and will be calibrated to improve safety without infringing on drivers’ travel time or efficiency.
Thank you for considering the Outdoors Alliance for Kid’s recommendations for policies to be included in the Surface Transportation Reauthorization bill.
Sincerely,
American Heart Association
Children & Nature Network
Justice Outside
KABOOM!
Latino Outdoors
National Recreation and Parks Association
REI
Sierra Club
The Wilderness Society
Trust for Public Land
Background
The Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK) is a leading national alliance of more than 100 businesses and non-profit organizations representing more than 60 million individuals across the U.S., with a common interest in connecting children, youth and families with the outdoors. One-hundred million people in the U.S. – including 28 million children – do not live within walking, biking, or rolling distance of a safe park or green space. Our members and supporters believe that the need for opportunities to learn, recreate, and work in the outdoors has never been more apparent. Providing these opportunities will promote health and wellness, ensure the safety of our children, and drive a sustainable outdoor recreation economy.
