DOI: https://doi.org/10.15368/theses.2014.175
Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1324
Date of Award
12-2014
Degree Name
Master of City and Regional Planning/MS in Engineering (Transportation Planning Specialization)
Department/Program
City and Regional Planning
Advisor
William W. Riggs
Abstract
Communities across the United States, of all sizes, have accepted that maintaining the automobile-centric design of their cities is not a sustainable way to plan for the future growth, public health or safety of their cities or citizens. As a result, communities have begun to embrace a shift in their design and engineering standards to allow for pedestrian and bicycle friendly facilities that safely accommodate and encourage mode choice. Through the collective will of the public and city leadership, communities are rapidly moving toward implementing plans and design standards that re-establish the public right of way as safe and accessible for pedestrians and bicyclists, as well as automobiles.
However, in the face of increasingly diminished federal and state transportation funding, cities are looking toward creative local funding mechanisms to pay for their bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. To understand the types of local funding being used, this thesis analyzes eleven different sized case study cities across the U.S. that are leaders in planning for, and implementing, multimodal capital projects and programs.
These national leaders most widely used the county sales tax measure as a funding mechanism. Additional popular approaches were general fund allocations, transportation impact fees and bond issues. The case study analysis also revealed that cities often looked to more than one local funding source to fund their bicycle and pedestrian capital projects.