What happens in DC when US Congress goes on vacation?
While Congress is out of town for the August recess—Avego’s Washington, DC office has been busy reviewing the recently passed surface transportation legislation to identify new funding opportunities for real-time ridesharing and vanpooling projects. On July 6, President Obama signed into law a multi-year surface transportation bill, known as MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century), which authorizes policy and funding levels for U.S. highway, transit and safety programs. The legislation, which authorizes $105 billion in funding over 27 months, takes effect October 1, 2012.
Here are a few highlights:
- Real-time ridesharing projects, just like traditional carpool projects, are now an explicitly eligible use of most Federal-aide highway and transit formula programs, such as CMAQ and STP.
- Public sector agencies that contract for vanpool service will now be able use passenger revenue as local match for certain vanpool programs. This means agencies will not have to come up with the match from local funds. (Experts believe this single provision could lead to the doubling of vanpooling in the U.S. over the next 5 years).
- “Real-time transportation” projects, such as real-time ridesharing, are now an eligible use of federal transportation research dollars.
If you are interested in learning more about how you or your agency can fund your next real-time ridesharing or vanpooling project, please contact Jason Conley, Avego’s Director of Government Relations, at 202-318-0108 or by e-mail at jason.conley@avego.com.