SAN FRANCISCO—On Thursday, June 11, San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) announced that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) gave them a $2 million grant via Twitter. The funding is a part of FTA’s nationwide Pilot Program for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Planning grant.
FTA is an agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation. It is led by an administrator appointed by the president of the United States. FTA provides not only financial support, but technical assistance to local public transit systems including subways, buses, trolleys, and light rails, etc.
FTA’s TOD Pilot Program was founded under the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act in 2012. In 2015, it was amended by the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act which provides long-term funding for surface transportation. TOD Pilot program has been authorized through the fiscal year 2020.
According to FTA, they awarded a total of $22.97 million to 23 program-selected organizations across the country, including San Francisco BART. The funding is to support comprehensive planning projects that improve the local public transportation.
“Comprehensive planning funded through the program must examine ways to improve economic development and ridership, foster multimodal connectivity and accessibility, improve transit access for pedestrian and bicycle traffic, engage the private sector, identify infrastructure needs, and enable mixed-use development near transit stations,” reads a statement from the FTA website.
BART indicated that they and partner cities will better plan for TOD at Richmond, El Cerrito Plaza, North Berkeley and Ashby stations.
For more details on the TOD Polit Program, visit the Federal Transit Administration website.
