Local Success Stories

In the NRC Technical Assistance News
State coordinating council profiles
Mobility management grants
Livability briefs
Online dialogue about senior transportation
I&R training
FTA procurement facts

[Details high up inside Chicago's Union Station.]

Planning Assistance

National Association of Regional Councils
NARC's newsletter welcomes communities to apply for the American Planning Association's Community Planning Assistance Team (CPAT) program. Communities facing a range of challenges including, but not limited to, social equity and affordability, economic development, sustainability, consensus building, and urban design are well-suited for assistance through the program. Demonstrated need for assistance is an important qualification. The deadline for applications is Dec. 13, 2011.

Transit Partnerships

American Bus Association
The ABA celebrates the new bus deck at Union Station in Washington, D.C., making the station truly multi-modal, with intercity bus and train services as well as local transit and bikeshare. The Union Station parking garage now accommodates Megabus, Bolt Bus, Washington Deluxe, DC2NY and tour bus parking.

[Chicago Transit Authority bus outside Union Station.]

American Public Transportation Association
APTA awards six Local Transit Coalition Grants, which "support grassroots coalitions and their advocacy efforts to achieve public transportation goals on the state and local levels." These include education and advocacy campaigns. The current winners are:
* Arizona Transit Association (AzTA), Gilbert, AZ, which will use the grant award to support a first-ever statewide poll of voter preferences for public transit in Arizona.
* Community Transportation Association of Idaho (CTAI), Boise, ID, which is working with Idaho Smart Growth and community leaders to place the question of local option tax authority on the November 2012 ballot.
* Friends of Transit for Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo, MI, which will support grassroots advocacy efforts to secure local funding for public transportation services in Kalamazoo County and to increase public transportation funding in the state and federal budgets.
* Transit Alliance, Denver, CO, which will continue its educational efforts on the benefits of public transit in the Denver metropolitan region. The group is working with other regional stakeholders to identify ways to solidify long-term leadership and advocacy for the region’s livability.
* Transit Now Nashville (TNN), Madison, TN, which is partnering with the Metro Nashville Public Health Department to develop a pilot educational program focused on incorporating public transportation as a component of a healthy lifestyle.
* Washtenaw Partners for Transit (P4T), Ypsilanti, MI, which advocates for reliable funding to implement the 30-year Ann Arbor Transportation Authority Transit Master Plan.

Smart Growth Achievement Awards

Environmental Protection Agency
Last week at EPA, the agency celebrated this year's Smart Growth Achievement Awards. Terms like mixed-use, transit-oriented and walkable figured prominently. While none of the projects was a transit project, some provided access to transit and sought to engineer transit-oriented living. Two stand out from a transit perspective.
* LEED-platinum residential project in downtown Albuquerque, N.M., which is affordable and placed near transit, intercity transportation, restaurants and shopping. The site was previously a bus holding facility.
* Plan El Paso that envisions three mixed-use, transit-oriented neighborhoods that will make possible responsible environmental stewardship and reduced car usage. Bus rapid transit service has already started.

[View of California coast.]

Big Partnerships in a Big State

From the newsletter of the National Complete Streets Coalition:

Though most everything else is bigger in Texas, AARP Texas isn't convinced mobility options for the state's aging population are the right size. Volunteers have begun conducting pedestrian safety audits across the state, including in El Paso, Dallas, Houston, Beaumont, Sherman, San Angelo, Austin, San Antonio, and McAllen. This information will be used to make the case for more Complete Streets solutions, including a renewed push for a state law when the legislature meets again in 2013. A bi-partisan group of legislators put forward a Complete Streets bill this year, but it failed to reach the floor in either chamber.

Events, Proposals Sought: Transit, Aging & Sustainability

Environmental Protection Agency
Webinar - Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities - Nov. 9. The webinar will describe the Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program and how it can help communities achieve the kind of development they are seeking. Discussed will be EPA’s direct technical assistance and each of the four grantee’s programs to provide free technical assistance. The webinar will also cover important deadlines and the application process.

National Center on Senior Transportation
Webinar - Successful Collaboration Between Aging and Transit: The Experience of Kent County, Michigan - Nov. 15, 2011. Sponsored by the Administration on Aging and NCST, the webinar will cover a successful collaboration between aging and transit that uses person-centered mobility management as a tool to assist older adults in identifying the right mobility option to meet their needs. Featured will be the experience of Ridelink, a transportation system for seniors in Kent County, Michigan.

NCST is a technical assistance center administered by Easter Seals Inc., in partnership with the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging.

[Fort Collins - First Colorado snow of the 2011-2012 season.]

National Transit Institute
Webinar - Public Transportation Systems as the Foundation for Economic Growth - Jan. 12, 2012. The International Transit Studies Program (ITSP) of the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) conducted a study mission of four cities where large investments in public transit are being made. The webinar will focus on how public transit investments drive economic growth in Istanbul, Cairo, Johannesburg, and Cape Town, and will discuss how population growth, congestion, urban sprawl, and inequalities in society are leading to unique patterns of transit expansion. Transit professionals who were members of the study team will present their observations and analysis.

Seeking Proposals (Non-matrimonial)

National Council on Independent Living
NCIL is requesting proposals for its 2012 conference, which will take place in Washington, DC on June 11-14, 2012. NCIL seeks workshops about transportation, social media, best practices, and the work of centers for independent living in hard times, among others. The deadline for submitting proposals is Dec. 2, 2011.

More Funding Details - TIGER II and Climate Showcase Communities

I am not about the money, but funding is necessary to help communities expand and improve upon transportation, transit and mobility options.

This morning the Federal Register published the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Challenge Planning Grants and the Department of Transportation’s TIGER II Planning Grants. Details were posted in yesterday's entry Funding Update and Webinars. The nitty-gritty necessary details are included in the NOFA.

"HUD will publish a separate NOFA for the Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program."

Local and Tribal Government Climate Showcase Communities

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is giving away $10 million in grant money, in increments of approximately $100,000 to $500,000, in its Climate Showcase Communities program for communities to "create replicable models of sustainable community action, generate cost-effective and persistent greenhouse gas reductions, and improve the environmental, economic, public health, or social conditions in a community." Sounds like transit and alternative transportation to me. A few of the grants last year included transportation projects.

Except for tribal entities and consortia, the federal match is 50 percent. Local governments and entities as well as regional organizations are encouraged to apply.

The deadline is July 26, 2010.