As an advocate for better bicycling you’ve worked hard to promote healthy, active transportation in your community. Your local government leaders and agency staff have recognized the incredible value that increased biking brings to a community:
- healthier citizens,
- kids who arrive at school ready to concentrate and learn,
- reduced air and water pollution,
- lower costs of street maintenance,
- better odds in the competition to recruit a competitive workforce,
- increased retail sales along streets with bike lanes, and
- higher real estate values for homes closer to trails, among others.
As a result you’ve built some amazing trails, plugged gaps in a bike network, improved access and accommodation for non-drivers from children to our older citizens, and more.
That means you should apply for a Transportation Alternatives Certificate of Excellence for your project! The deadline is June 30.
The Transportation Alternatives Certificate of Excellence (TACE) recognizes successful TA projects that have enhanced the surface transportation system and provided benefits to communities.
The TACE elevates local success stories to the national level, like the Snohomish River Trail featured in 2007; shares best practices; and highlights federal, state, and local partnerships. Excellent TA projects demonstrate some or all of the following elements: use by local residents or visitors; opportunity for previously unavailable activities; transportation benefits; environmental and social benefits; and the fulfillment of a need in the community.
Re-launched in March 2013 to reflect changes made to the program with MAP-21, the TACE is administered by the National Transportation Alternatives Clearinghouse (NTAC). Projects that receive the TACE will be featured on the NTAC website, and may be featured in the forthcoming third edition of Enhancing America’s Communities (PDF), NTAC’s primary publication and guide on Transportation Alternatives.
Eligible nominations can be any completed TA project (of the 10 eligible TA Activities), or a TE project funded prior to MAP-21 that would be eligible as one of the 10 eligible TA Activities (listed below) and relate to surface transportation. The TA categories are:
- Pedestrian and bicycle facilities
- Safe routes for non-drivers
- Rails to trails projects
- Scenic turnouts and overlooks
- Outdoor advertising management
- Historic preservation and rehabilitation of historica transportation faciltiies
- Vegetation management
- Archaeological activities
- Stormwater mitigation
- Wildlife management
There is no age limit on projects, and applications are accepted on a quarterly basis. For more information on the Certificate and how to apply, visit NTAC’s website.
Contact Angie Marable, NTAC Program Assistant, with your comments, questions, or for technical assistance completing your nomination (angie@ta-clearinghouse.info, 202-974-5109).
Send a copy of your project submittal to us. We’d love to feature your project work in a future blog post and on the pages where we link information about just what makes it so great to bike Washington.
Hat tip to the Rails to Trails Conservancy for highlighting this opportunity to recognize excellence.
