DOT FASTLANE Grants for Freight & Related Projects: If Interested, Act Fast!

On November 3, 2016, the US DOT invited applications for its second round of “FASTLANE” grants. It’s an interesting, if challenging, opportunity for certain kinds of transportation projects. Below are some programmatic details; see if you can identify some potential opportunities. If so, though, you need to move quickly, as applications are due December 15, 2016.

For general information, visit the DOT’s FASTLANE page at https://www.transportation.gov/buildamerica/FASTLANEgrants. To read the specific FY 2017 Notice of Funding Opportunity, go to https://www.transportation.gov/build-america/fastlane/fastlane-ii-notice-funding-opportunity, or read the November 3, 2016, Federal Register at page 76688 (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/11/03/2016-26496/notice-of-funding-opportunity-for-the-department-of-transportations-nationally-significant-freight)

·      Total funding estimated to be available: $787 million

·      Who can apply: states, metropolitan planning organizations, local governments and subdivisions of state or local government, special purpose transportation districts (including port authorities), federal land management agencies, tribal governments

·      Types of eligible projects: improvements to the National Highway Freight Network; improvements to the National Highway System, including mobility improvements (among the selection criteria for grants are factors such as community engagement, connectivity to health care, jobs, etc., improved accessibility and enhanced personal mobility), rail/highway grade crossing improvements, and other freight-related transportation projects

·      Matching fund requirements: FASTLANE grants can cover up to 60 percent of an approved project’s costs, other federal funds can be used to bring the federal share up to 80 percent, and non-federal funds must be used for at least 20 percent of the project’s costs

·      Other considerations:

o   90 percent of FASTLANE grants are for “large” projects of at least $25 million, and 10 percent of grants are for small projects of between $5 and $25 million

o   There’s a flexible small community set-aside, meaning that 25 percent of grants are to be spent on projects in rural and small-urbanized areas with populations less than 200,000, but if there’s an insufficient number of approved applications, that 25 percent threshold can be lowered

o   There’s a FAST Act lifetime ceiling on the amount of FASTLANE grant funding that can be awarded to non-highway projects

This is the second year of FASTLANE funding. A list of the projects funded in FY 2016 is on the DOT’s website at https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/FASTLANE%20Project%20Awards_9_16.pdf. Last year, DOT received 212 applications, and funded 19 projects; they expect many of the qualifying applications that weren’t funded last year will be resubmitted for this new round of awards, but are inviting new applications, as well.

A bit more on that "MPO Coordination" proposed rule

On one hand, you can see why FHWA and FTA proposed a rule on realigning and coordinating metropolitan planning organizations. For instance, if you take a look at FHWA's "HEPGIS" map that overlays MPO boundaries with Census-defined urbanized areas (this map is at http://hepgis.fhwa.dot.gov/fhwagis/ViewMap.aspx?map=MPO+Boundaries|MPO+Boundary), you can see how a mapmaker would want to tidy things up a lot.

But as far as I know, nothing changed in either MAP-21 or the FAST Act that required FHWA to take a fresh look at MPOs' boundaries or planning areas, so what was the motivation?

One analysis of this was put forth by Alex Bond of the Eno Center for Transportation, in an article he wrote in the Eno Transportation Weekly. From what Alex writes, it sounds like DOT Secretary Foxx found it frustrating to work with multiple MPOs during his tenure as mayor of Charlotte.

Think you might be part of an alternative fuel corridor? FHWA seeks nominations

Per Section 1413 of the FAST Act, and as part of the federal government's campaign to promote increased use of electric vehicles and other alternatively fueled vehicles, the Federal Highway Administration has just announced that it's seeking nominations from states and local officials for designations of "alternative fuel corridors."

This notice was published on July 22; nominations are due August 22. Nope, there's no extra money in this for states or localities on the corridors that are designated, but there is the satisfaction of being part of a federal effort that promotes energy independence and greenhouse gas reduction. Oh, and FHWA will give attention and signage to the corridors it designates.

One interesting thing about this call for nominations is that the successful nominations must "involve a range of stakeholders," and must describe - among other things - the "benefits to disadvantaged groups and/or communities, which may include low-income groups, persons with visible or hidden disabilities, elderly individuals, and minority persons and populations" that will arise from receiving designation as an alternative fuel corridor.

Coming Soon: FTA's Transit Asset Management Rules

Although not yet printed in the Federal Register (and thus not yet really official), the Federal Transit Administration has posted its new final rule on transit asset management to its website. I've got a fairly full analysis posted here, at http://planningletter.blogspot.com/p/fta-poised-to-issue-transit-asset.html.

One important feature of this rule is that any entity that distributes FTA funds to subrecipients will be required to sponsor a group asset management plan for its subrecipients. These mandatory sponsors will include state DOTs that administer Section 5311 rural transit grants (as well as Section 5307 grants to some smaller urbanized areas), but also will include MPOs or transit agencies that distribute or suballocate Section 5310 or 5307 funds to subrecipients in urbanized areas.

The FHWA/FTA MPO Coordination NPRM - update & correction

Here are a couple more items related to the recently published proposed rule on "MPO Coordination" that FHWA and FTA published a few weeks ago. Several readers saw that I'd mistyped the date by which comments on this NRPM must be submitted. I've corrected that date, which - as you've said - is August 26, 2016. Take a fresh look at my analysis, and share any other corrections or reactions you may have! My analysis is not the only thing on this NPRM. Last week, AMPO hosted an FHWA webinar reviewing this NPRM, which did a great job at presenting the concepts and thinking behind the FHWA/FTA proposal. You can view the slides from that webinar at AMPO's website: http://www.ampo.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/MPOCoordinatonNPRM_7_15_16.pdf More recently, the National Association of Regional Councils developed a detailed analysis of the NPRM and the issues it may present to NARC's members, which you can view at http://narc.org/wp-content/uploads/NARC-MPO-Coordination-NPRM-Analysis-2016-07-19-FINAL.pdf. Finally, a couple of readers were glad that I pointed out how this proposed rule isn't just a thing for large metro areas with multiple MPOs, but proposes some changes that would affect every single MPO in the country to some degree. So, review the rule, figure out what matters most to you, and get your comments submitted by August 26!

More Far-Reaching Than It May Seem: FHWA/FTA Proposed Rule on MPO Coordination & Planning Areas

Just a month after issuing their long-awaited final rules on transportation planning, the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration have proposed rule changes on how metropolitan planning organizations would define their planning areas, and how they would coordinate their planning activities in places where there are more than one MPO for given planning area. For a closer look at this proposal, check out the summary posted on this site, at http://planningletter.blogspot.com/p/fhwa-fta-propose-more-changes-to.html. Note the July 15 webinar, that may be good viewing for those with a stake in this issue. Especially important is to consider the opportunity to comment on this proposed regulation before August 26, 2016.

Federal Funding for Job-Creating Partnerships

It may seem tangential, but it's not. Recently, the US Dept of Labor (DOL) announced a funding opportunity under the America's Promise initiative for competitive grants to organizations that create or expand regional partnerships between employers, economic development interests, workforce development programs, educational institutions, et al., to foster the creation of effective job creation "pipelines" in their region.

A total of $100 million is available. DOL anticipates awarding grants of between $1 million and $6 million. For more information, visit the Employment and Training Administration website, or go to www.grants.gov to make your application. The deadline for applications is August 26, 2016.

A first look at the DOT's Final Rule on Transportation Planning

Last month, the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration jointly issued a new set of rules on statewide and metropolitan transportation planning. To adapt Vice President Biden's phrase, these rules strike me as a "big freakin' deal."

I looked at the regulations through the lens of what interests and concerns me, and wrote this stuff up as a document you'll find on this site at http://web1.ctaa.org/webmodules/webarticles/articlefiles/CTAA_DOT_Planning_Rule_Analysis.pdf.

If you see errors or omissions, or if there are things you'd like to share or see explained, drop me a note, anytime, at chris.zeilinger@gmail.com.

There's Money in this Sandbox

Do you have a public transit agency in your area that wants to work with its partners to try out some new technology?

The Federal Transit Administration is inviting transit agencies and their partners to apply for innovation grants in its new Mobility On Demand (MOD) “Sandbox.” There’s a total of $8 million available in these grants. Applications are due July 5, 2016. All projects under this initiative require a 20 percent non-federal match. In addition to grant awards, FTA may also recognize some non-funded applicants with “participation agreements” in the Sandbox program. There are no stated minimum or maximum amounts applicants may request, but all grants will be subject to the availability of FTA’s funds for this initiative.

An interesting feature of this initiative is that applicants may seek waivers from FTA regulatory requirements that are seen to stand in the way of successful project implementation.

Eligible applicants must be current operators of public transit (or, according to conversations with FTA staff, the state or local agencies that manage FTA grants; basically, it seems FTA wants to be sure the Sandbox grant funds are being managed by an entity experienced in doing business with FTA). To be selected, Sandbox projects must reflect partnerships that include some strategic alliance of private for-profit or non-profit organizations (including shared-use mobility providers and/or technology suppliers), public and/or private operators of transportation services, state or local government entities, and/or other partners such as consultants, research consortia or institutions of higher education. Projects must be able to begin to be implemented within 12 months of award, and must be able to be operational within 12 months after implementation has begun.

As FTA states in its Noticeof Funding Opportunity, the primary objectives of the Mobility On Demand (MOD) Sandbox are to:

• Enhance transit industry preparedness for MOD;
• Assist the transit industry to develop the ability to integrate MOD practices with existing transit service;
• Validate the technical and institutional feasibility of innovative MOD business models and document MOD best practices that may emerge from these demonstrations;
• Measure the impacts of MOD on travelers and transportation systems; and
• Examine relevant public sector and federal requirements, regulations and policies that may support or impede transit sector adoption of MOD.

In defining Mobility On Demand, FTA says:

“MOD envisions a multimodal, integrated, automated, accessible, and connected transportation system in which personalized mobility is a key objective. MOD enables the use of on-demand information, real-time data, and predictive analysis to provide individual travelers with transportation choices that best serve their specific needs and circumstances. MOD leverages technologies that allow for a traveler-centric approach by providing improved mobility options for all.”

If this initiative is of interest to you, read the Federal Register Notice at https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/05/03/2016-10320/public-transportation-innovation-funding-opportunity-mobility-on-demand-mod-sandbox-demonstration#h-11, or via www.fta.dot.gov. For more information, contact FTA’s Christina Gikakis by phone at (202) 366-2637, or by email at MODsandbox@dot.gov.

Transportation vs The Texas Chain Saw Massacre?

Not everyone listens to radio, but I do. The other evening, a broadcast of "Freakonomics Radio" held my rapt attention. I'd encourage you to turn on your computer or player's speakers, and follow this link to an entertaining, and interesting, half-hour of radio conversation: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/where-have-all-the-hitchhikers-gone-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

You may find some interesting take-aways that inform your own work. For instance.....

The fear of strangers, which seems to be hard-wired in human nature, is a fear that seems to be far out of scale with statistical likelihood. That fear factor reminds us of a tangential transportation conundrum: the outsized fear that many parents, community members, or even school officials (such as this news piece from a school on the outskirts of Houston: http://www.fox26houston.com/news/117783912-story) have of letting children walk to school. The folks at the National Center for Safe Routes to School not long ago reported that only 13 percent of school-age children walked or biked to school in 2009, down from 48 percent of school kids in 1969. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention see a correlation between the lack of walking and biking and ever-higher rates of childhood obesity, and local officials everywhere struggle with the challenge of managing the traffic at schools, where long lines of parents' cars queue up every morning and afternoon as part of the modern-day school attendance ritual.

The notion of how we look at transportation system capacity. As the show's hosts point out, if we gauged personal vehicle utilization with the same lenses through which many critics like to view public transportation, we'd be outraged at the fact that 80 percent of the seating capacity of personal vehicles typically goes unused, even when the vehicles are in operation, never mind that most of these vehicles sit idle for the vast majority of the hours in every day. The implication is that if buses were operating at no more than 20 percent of capacity in peak hours, and weren't being used at all in off-peak hours, we would wonder why we're even bothering to invest in the system.

A third take-away from this radio piece was the fascination that people everywhere have with the spontaneous ride-sharing, or "slugging," that exists in the DC metro area and a handful of other cities. This is how we manage to have the transportation guru Alan Pisarski and the horror movie franchise of "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" mentioned together in the span of a few minutes. To hear how this plays out, you've just got to listen to the Freakonomics piece....

Let's talk about data & transportation planning!

In partnership with RideAmigos, I'm the guest at their next "Coffee Talk." It's on April 14 at 2:00 ET, if you want to join in real life. It will be recorded and posted on the RideAmigos site at some later date if you can't be there then. But I'd really like you to dial in and join us, so that you can be part of the conversation.

Here's how RideAmigos is describing and offering this talk:

RideAmigos Coffee Talk VIII – The Use of Trip-Planning and Travel Inquiry Data in Transportation Planning and Service Design

Host: Chris Zeilinger, Assistant Director | Community Transportation Association of America

Effective transportation planning is informed by good data. With transportation system users turning to dynamic platforms – such as the RideAmigos platform – for making inquiries and arranging trips, planners and managers have a new wealth of data that can help inform their planning and decision making. Chris Zeilinger, of the Community Transportation Association of America, will talk with us about the many ways – both established and new – that we can harness these data for achieving transportation system success.
Sign up here for the web-link to view the presentation and the dial-in number:
http://help.rideamigos.com/coffee-talks/

FTA Has Money for Buses, Facilities

Thanks to the FAST Act, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is inviting states and urban transit agencies to apply for bus and bus facility funding under its new Section 5339(b) competitive grant program. FTA also invites these entities to apply for low- or no-emission buses and related facility grants under its new Low- or No-Emission (“Low-No”) Bus Program. The application deadline for both programs is May 13, 2016. Details are found in the Federal Register of March 29, 2016, as well as at the FTA website. 

There’s a total of $211 million available for bus and bus facility grants, and a total of $55 million available for Low-No grants.

It’s been a few years since FTA has been able to make discretionary grants for buses and bus facilities. Under MAP-21, all these funds were allocated to urbanized areas strictly by formula, with a small allocation also made to each state. That Section 5339(a) formula-based program remains in place under the FAST Act, but is supplemented by this new set of funds for competitive grants. Previously, FTA was making Low-No grants only to applicants in Clean Air Act non-attainment areas, but now these grants may be awarded anywhere, regardless of an applicant area’s non-attainment status.

Here are just a few of the key details from this solicitation: 

• The only eligible applicants are (1) current direct recipients of Section 5307 funds, (2) states, and (3) Indian tribes. However, proposals may include projects that will be implemented by subrecipients, whether urban, rural or tribal.
• Section 5339(b) grants generally pay for 80 percent of project costs, with the possibility of 85 or 90 percent share for projects satisfying certain Clean Air Act or ADA criteria. The non-federal share can be provided through the same array of available options as for Section 5307 urban transit grants or Section 5311 rural or tribal grants, depending on the proposed project.
• Low-No grants pay for 85 percent of project costs. As with Section 5339(b), the non-federal share can be provided through the same array of available options as for Section 5307 urban transit grants or Section 5311 rural or tribal grants, depending on the proposed project.
• As has long been the case for Section 5339 bus and bus facility grants (and its predecessor Section 5309 bus and bus facility grants), Section 5339(b) and Low-No funds may be used for a number of eligible capital projects, but may not be used for mobility management.
•  In accordance with statute, FTA must award at least 10 percent of Section 5339(b) funds for bus and bus facility projects in rural areas.
• While the solicitation does not include any scoring criteria, weights, factors or other metrics, FTA provides detailed verbiage to explain how it will evaluate the applications that are submitted for Section 5339(b) and Low-No funding. Successful applicants will be those whose proposal narratives speak well to these selection criteria. It’s interesting, and possibly helpful, to note that FTA wants to see how proposed projects can be scaled down, in case FTA chooses to award grants for amounts less than are requested.
• In this and other recent solicitations, FTA has begun asking for more substantive documentation in various issues. For Section 5339(b) grants, for example, it appears that FTA has increased the amount of documentation needed to assure that MPOs or state DOTs will amend the relevant TIP or STIP if an applicant’s project is selected. It also appears that FTA is seeking more substantiation of the ability to commit the stated non-federal share of project costs than used to be the case.

Potential applicants and other interested parties should read the solicitation notice closely. For more information on Section 5339(b), contact FTA’s Sam Snead by email at Samuel.snead@dot.gov or by phone at 202-366-1089. For more information on the Low-No program, contact FTA’s Tara Clark at tara.clark@dot.gov or 202-366-2623.

As a late-hour reminder, buses, bus facilities, and many other types of transportation projects are eligible for funding under the DOT’s “TIGER” program. The latest round of TIGER grants are currently being solicited, with TIGER applications due April 29, 2016. For information on TIGER and the 2016 TIGER solicitation, visit the DOT’s TIGER website, https://www.transportation.gov/tiger.

Ready to deploy some advanced transportation technology? Check out this FHWA notice!

As a result of the FAST Act, US DOT has launched an Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment (ATCMTD) initiative. It’s funded at about $60 million a year for the life of the FAST Act. This week, FHWA issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) inviting eligible entities to submit applications for its first round of model technology deployment sites.

Planning agencies, local governments, and others are encouraged to apply, and will see that many of the ideas in this NOFO may reflect things you have in the works, or deployments you’ve been wishing to explore.

The full NOFO can be found at https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/03/29/2016-07051/notice-of-funding-opportunity-for-the-advanced-transportation-and-congestion-management-technologies#h-12.

Here are a few key facts:

•       This year's applications are due June 3, 2016.

•       Grants are up to $12 million, and require a 50 percent non-federal share.

•       Eligible applicants are states, local governments, transit agencies, MPOs, multi-agency consortia, and consortia of research/academic institutions. 

•       The purpose of these grants is "to develop model deployment sites for large scale installation and operation of advanced transportation technologies to improve safety, efficiency, system performance, and infrastructure return on investment."

•       There's an illustrative list of things for which these grants could be used: 

o   Advanced traveler information systems;

o   Advanced transportation management technologies;

o   Infrastructure maintenance, monitoring, and condition assessment;

o   Advanced public transportation systems;

o   Transportation system performance data collection, analysis, and dissemination systems;

o   Advanced safety systems, including vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, technologies associated with autonomous vehicles, and other collision avoidance technologies, including systems using cellular technology;

o   Integration of intelligent transportation systems with the Smart Grid and other energy distribution and charging systems;

o   Electronic pricing and payment systems; or

o   Advanced mobility and access technologies, such as dynamic ridesharing and information systems to support human services for elderly and disabled individuals.

Interested in these possibilities? Read the notice. If you have questions about the solicitation, contact Robert Arnold of FHWA’ Office of Transportation Management (Robert.arnold@dot.gov; 202-366-1285) or Egan Smith of the DOT ITS Joint Program Office (egan.smith@dot.gov; 202-366-9224).

The Community Transportation Association is not an official partner in this initiative, but we have some experience in some of these topics. You’re welcome to reach out to me to brainstorm and refine possible ideas or strategies. I’m at Zeilinger@ctaa.org (or chris.zeilinger@gmail.com, if the CTAA address rejects you), or 202-250-4108.