Pinellas County Transportation Alternatives Plan
Transportation Alternatives (TA) Program
The TA Program provides funding for programs and projects defined as transportation alternatives and includes construction of pedestrian and bicycle facilities and infrastructure projects for improving non-driver access to public transportation and enhanced mobility. State and federal guidance provide details about the TA Program. While the official TA appliation is available now, the MPO is not scheduled to consider authorizing the acceptance of new applications until September 2015.
TA Program Project Identification
In order to identify candidate projects for inclusion in the Transportation Improvement Program, TA Project Application forms are distributed to implementing jurisdictions. A table with the current TA Program timeline is available at the bottom of this webpage. Jurisdictions sponsoring the projects submit completed applications to the MPO and FDOT for review. Sponsoring jurisdictions must provide complete TA Program applications and assume responsibility for maintaining projects after implementation. Although the cost of projects on the current TA Program priority list far exceed the amount of available TA funding, it is expected that the MPO will decide in September 2015 to accept new TA applications. Sponsoring jurisdictions, however, may begin the process of planning and developing TA projects and applications many months before new TA applications are officially solicited by the MPO. After jurisdictions sponsoring new projects submit completed applications to the MPO and FDOT for review, MPO advisory committees will score and rank the new applications, and the MPO will finalize a new priority list no later than September 2016.
Regional TA Program Priority List
In accordance with FDOT guidance and the MAP-21 Act, Transportation Management Areas (TMA) with multiple MPOs must coordinate and agree upon a single TA Program project priority list for the TMA (TMA-TA priority list). The Tampa Bay TMA includes portions of Hillsborough and Pasco counties and all of Pinellas County. The local Pinellas County TA Program priority list is used in the development of the TMA-TA priority list and is included in Section 2 of the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) . The MPO staff from Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties coordinated to developed a single TMA-TA priority list for the Tampa Bay TMA. The MPO approved the final TMA-TA priority list in September 2014 and the Tampa Bay TMA Leadership Group approved it in November 2014. Below is a listing of Transportation Alternatives Program documents.
Safe Routes to School
The SRTS Program helps communities address school transportation needs while encouraging more students to walk or bicycle to school. The SRTS Program provides
funding for projects such as sidewalks, shared-use paths, flashing beacons and median refuge islands. SRTS guidelines require that proposed projects meet an identified need that is preventing children from walking or biking safely to and from school. The SRTS Program became part of the Transportation Alternatives (TA) Program under MAP-21 in October 2012. As such, SRTS projects must be prioritized and funded through the same process used for enhancement projects under the TA Program.
SRTS projects are eligible for funding under the TA Program regardless of their proximity to schools or ability to serve school populations. Additional information on the SRTS program can be found on the National Center for Safe Routes to School's website at http://www.saferoutesinfo.org/. Both infrastructure and non-infrastructure type projects are eligible for funding. While the official SRTS appliations are available now, the MPO is not scheduled to consider authorizing the acceptance of new applications until September 2015.
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