TIGER

Earlier this week we ran a story about why local livable streets advocates with the New Haven Urban Design League are disappointed with the city's decision to replace a section of grade-separated highway with a plan that remains, on balance, car-centric.

The "most defacing scar from the 1960's Urban Renewal era" -- that's how local advocates describe the Route 34 Expressway through downtown New Haven. Just about a year and a half ago, this small New England city won a TIGER grant to heal that scar. But another disfiguration may be growing in its place.

Transportation leaders, take your best shot. Applications are being accepted for $500 million in federal funding through the fourth round of U.S. DOT's TIGER grants.

Of the 46 recently-announced TIGER grant recipients, 18 projects had at least a "substantial freight component," according to the Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors. Over $232 million -- 45 percent -- of this latest round of the popular transportation funding program will go to freight projects. That's a very impressive share, considering that traditional federal funding mechanisms tend to neglect freight.

In the third round of TIGER funding, the Obama administration has continued to demonstrate a strong commitment to bike and pedestrian projects.

If you live in Stamford, Connecticut and your walk to the train station gets safer next year, you can thank USDOT’s TIGER grant program. Or when your hometown of American Falls, Idaho suddenly gets complete streets downtown, accommodating people on foot, on bikes, on buses, in cars, and in wheelchairs, encouraging local shopping. Or when you realize that traffic congestion between Olympia and Tacoma, Washington has eased, not by adding lanes but by installing intelligent technology to manage traffic and encourage ridesharing.

U.S. DOT is officially announcing the winners of the third round of TIGER grants tomorrow, but they give the news to members of Congress first so those members can brag about all the bacon they bring home. See below for a list of the grants we know about so far.

Did TIGER spend too much money on bicycle and pedestrian programs? That's the question Larry Ehl at Transportation Issues Daily is asking. After all, Congress appears to be encouraging USDOT to spend TIGER grant money on something -- anything -- other than bike/ped.

In its third incarnation, USDOT's TIGER program continues to be overwhelmingly popular.