Registration Eligibility
Yes
Start Date
04/16/2025
End Date
04/16/2025
Description
For years, the Circuit Trails Coalition pushed for significant funding for trail design, construction, and related costs to be included on the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), the MPO for Greater Philadelphia. The coalition recently succeeded, when DVRPC allocated $120 Million of Carbon Reduction Program funds from the Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Bill for trail corridors in Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties. When combined with a Circuit Trails CMAQ-funded line item and other projects, the region’s TIP includes more than $250 Million for trail development – landmark funding for the Greater Philadelphia region. The presentation will share the story of the sustained advocacy effort, which included educating elected officials, cultivating and coordinating leaders’ support of trails, and activating a constituency, all of which resulted in the largest share of federal Carbon funds dedicated to trail development in the nation. Speakers will share perspectives from within DVRPC, elected office, and the advocacy sphere, leaving participants with keys to securing this kind of victory in their own regions.
Location
Madison, WI
Distance Learning
No
Course Equivalency
Yes
Subjects
Parks & Recreation
Health, Safety and Welfare
Yes
Hours
1.0
Learning Outcomes
LO #1: MPOs and DOTs across the nation have received Carbon Reduction Program funds intended to reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector. Trails are specifically mentioned as eligible. With the right tactics, other trail groups and trail projects could befunded this way.LO #2: Corridor identification on the MPO TIP is more flexible and predictable than grant specific funding pots such as TA and CMAQ. The impact is to "level the playing field"between road projects and trail projects. Once TIP funds are identified, defined corridors are NOT subject to the delays and uncertainty inherent in the competitive grant program paradigm that trail planners are used to and stifled by.LO #3: Building the political consensus within an MPO is a challenge that requires an effective cultivation strategy that may last years and builds on the needs of elected officials to be seen as bringing to their constituents desirable results and celebrating and crediting elected officials for trail successes.
Instructors
Patrick Starr
Course Codes
Provider
American Trails