Active Transportation Program.

Existing law establishes various transportation programs and associated funds and accounts, including the Bicycle Transportation Account, the Bikeway Account, and the Safe Routes to School Program. Existing federal law, pursuant to the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, reconstitutes various federal transportation funding programs, including the former Transportation Enhancements Program, and creates the new federal Transportation Alternatives Program comprised of various former separate programs. This bill would create the Active Transportation Program in the Department of Transportation, to be funded in the annual Budget Act from specified federal and state transportation funds, including 100% of the available federal Transportation Alternatives Program funds and federal Recreational Trails Program funds, except as specified, $21,000,000 of federal Highway Safety Improvement Program funds or other federal funds, a specified amount of fuel tax revenues from the Highway Users Tax Account and the State Highway Account, and from other available funds. The bill would provide for funds to be allocated to eligible projects by the California Transportation Commission, with 40% of available funds to be made available for programming by metropolitan planning organizations in urbanized areas with a population greater than 200,000, 10% for small urban and rural regions, and 50% on a statewide basis, with all awards to be made competitively, as specified. The bill would include among the authorized activities for the Active Transportation Program certain existing activities of the above-referenced programs and accounts. The bill would also add new authorized activities, as specified. The bill would require the commission to develop guidelines and procedures, including project selection criteria, for the program in consultation with various agencies and interested parties. The bill would require the commission to initially adopt a 2-year program of projects for the program, with subsequent 4-year programs thereafter. The bill would correspondingly eliminate the Bicycle Transportation Account, the Bikeway Account, and the Safe Routes to School Program as separate programs. The bill would require the Commission, no later then 45 days prior to adopting the initial set of final guidelines for the Active Transportation Program, to submit the draft guidelines to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. This bill would provide that no additional funds shall be transferred to the Bicycle Transportation Account. The bill would transfer the remaining assets and liabilities of the Bicycle Transportation Account and the Bikeway Account to the State Highway Account on July 1, 2014, and would provide that various provisions governing these programs become inoperative on July 1, 2014, and would be repealed on January 1, 2015. Existing law creates the Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation Program Fund, and states the intent of the Legislature to allocate $10,000,000 annually to the fund, for expenditure on grants to specified agencies and nonprofit entities for various types of projects that are directly or indirectly related to the environmental impact of transportation facilities, including, among other things, highway landscaping and roadside recreational opportunities. This bill would instead state the intent of the Legislature to allocate $7,000,000 annually to the fund, and would delete the reference to projects for highway landscaping and roadside recreational opportunities. The bill would appropriate $10,000,000 from the Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation Program Fund to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency for grants awarded by the secretary to support local environmental enhancement and mitigation programs. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.