Funding Opportunities for Count Programs
Explore grants and funding opportunities to help start or expand your count program.
Why is it important to fund count programs?
Count programs are a key part of active transportation policy and natural areas management.
In cities, count programs help justify and direct investments in bike plans, pedestrian infrastructure, and other active transportation facilities. In doing so, they improve public health, fight climate change, and create safer cities. Even more, they support managers of urban parks and botanical gardens to help these key installations thrive.
In natural areas, count programs are essential for understanding where to allocate resources, justifying the need for funding, and communicating visitation data with the public. These programs ultimately benefit public health, fight climate change, and improve park management.
A positive feedback loop
The great thing about count programs is that, once they're funded, they can also lead to more funding.
Using counters, you can show that your bike plan is yielding increased bicycle volumes or that your trail is becoming more popular after certain improvements. From there, count data justifies the need for more funding for maintenance and expansion in the future. This funding can be used to cover more of your network with counters, and the cycle continues.
What kind of funding exists for active transportation and trail count programs?
Active transportation and trail count grants exists in many forms.
For active transportation, one major source of funding is the federal, state, and local government. Most notably, the U.S Department of Transportation, which provides many infrastructure grant programs. Beyond this, non-profit organizations and private foundations are another great option. Finally, there are also academic funding opportunities such as research grants from various schools that support count programs and data collection.
For trail counts, a good place to start is also government funding. Pay attention to grants or subsidies whose objective is to help climate change, develop recreation, or improve public health. Additionally, non-profits such as Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and American Trails also offer funding opportunities.
United States
- Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program (ATIIP)
- Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP)
- Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Grant Program
- Surface Transportation Block Grant Program (STBG)
- Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP)
- INFRA Grant Program
- Carbon Reduction Program (CRP)
For more, go to the "counting equipment" row of USDOT Pedestrian and Bicycle Funding Opportunities.
Canada
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