Here you’ll find information on technical assistance and funding programs as well as DVRPC, county, and municipal programs relating to pedestrian infrastructure planning, design, and construction.
Technical Assistance & Funding Programs
DVRPC and our federal, state, and local partners offer a variety of resources that relate to sidewalk planning and development, as well as funding for sidewalk design and construction. This section highlights some of these resources.
Visit DVRPC’s Municipal Funding Guide for a searchable database of different state and county funding programs that may support building pedestrian infrastructure.
DVRPC’s TCDI program is a competitive grant program that supports the implementation of the region’s long-range plan. TCDI focuses on linking land use and transportation planning.
The popular Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program is now a part of the larger TA Set-Aside Program in Pennsylvania and remains a standalone grant program in New Jersey. For both states, the program objectives remain the same: to enable and encourage children in kindergarten to eighth grade to walk and bicycle to school by creating programs or planning, developing, and implementing projects that improve safety around schools for those outside of cars.
Learn more about New Jersey’s program and Pennsylvania’s program.
The Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside (TA Set-Aside) program is a competitive program that uses funds “set-aside” from the core Federal-aid Highway Program. These programs, administered by each state Department of Transportation, provides federal funds for community-based “nontraditional” surface transportation projects, such as design and construction of bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and streetscaping and corridor landscaping, among other types of projects.
Learn more about New Jersey’s program and the 2020 round by visiting the NJDOT Local Aid Resource Center.
Learn more about Pennsylvania’s program and its most recent funding round in 2018 on DVRPC’s webpage.
The Multimodal Transportation Fund that PennDOT administers provides funding through a competitive grant process. One of the four categories that are eligible for funds is projects related to streetscapes, lighting, sidewalk enhancements, and pedestrian safety. Learn more about that program and access resources for applicants on the PennDOT website.
The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) administers a Multimodal Transportation Fund for the development, rehabilitation and enhancement of transportation assets in existing communities, such as streetscape, lighting, sidewalk enhancements, pedestrian safety, connectivity of transportation assets and transit-oriented development. More information can be found on the DCED website.
The goal of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program is to improve communities and the lives of residents, especially those with low and moderate incomes. States, counties, and municipalities can use CDBG funding to construct sidewalks.
DVRPC’s Regional Trails Program provides planning assistance and financial support to trail developers, counties, municipalities and nonprofit organizations to complete the Circuit, Greater Philadelphia’s 800-plus-mile network of multiuse trails, which can serve as pedestrian facilities that fill in sidewalk gaps. With financial support from the William Penn Foundation, the Regional Trails Program has provided $25 million in funding to over 150 trail planning, design, and construction projects to date.
DVRPC Programs
DVRPC is investing in pedestrian planning and infrastructure! Learn about our efforts to collect data, complete plans and studies, create tools, and fund other planning projects through the nine-county region.
A common transportation planning adage is that every trip is a pedestrian trip, including trips by car, which begin and end on foot. As a result, pedestrian planning and the consideration of pedestrian needs are integral elements of nearly all of DVRPC’s planning. Learn more on our site.
DVRPC counts bicyclists and pedestrians because count data helps us understand and plan for the role bicyclists and pedestrians play in our transportation network. Our counting program consists of four types of counts: Project Counts, Cyclical Counts, Screenline Counts and Permanent Counts. Learn more on our site.
County & Municipal Programs
The DVRPC region is made up of nine counties and over 350 municipalities. Several counties have programs that encourage people to walk and help municipalities plan for and build more pedestrian facilities. In 2020, DVRPC mapped known municipal and county pedestrian or sidewalk plans; contact these municipalities to learn more about their facility plans.
