The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), over the next few weeks, will be sending over $87,000 to local communities for supplies like bike locks, helmets, and transit passes.
The new Innovative Mobility Program (IMP) offers micro-grants of $5,000 to nonprofits, transit districts, tribes, and businesses providing community service.
The IMP will award large competitive grants on an annual and ongoing basis, and judge them on how well they meet the needs of historically excluded groups.
ODOT completed its first round of community engagement for the IMP in the summer of 2022, which included community-based organizations, government agencies, and transportation providers.
The IMP aims to improve access to public transportation, reduce the number of trips Oregonians make by car, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a special focus on equity and helping historically excluded groups to get to where they need to go more quickly, cheaply and safely.
The IMP is funded by the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), as well as money from the state of Oregon. The program has a total of $20 million for grants and contracts from 2022-25.
Shelley Snow, communications coordinator at ODOT, said it's for communities that have been historically excluded.
“We’re really focused on helping people that have traditionally not been served well by the transportation system,” she said.
ODOT also hopes that the IMP will help reduce transportation sector greenhouse gasses.
The program can fund many transportation related activities including:
- Pedal and Electric bike lending libraries and bike shares
- Electric scooter shares and lending libraries
- Transportation wallets
- Subsidized fares
- Carpools and Vanpools
- Equipment (e.g. bike locks and helmets)
- Infrastructure (e.g. bike racks, safety signage, more accessible transit stops)
- Training and information (e.g. bike and scooter training, safety training, navigation training)
The micro-grants are just the first stage in a much larger program that will continue to be developed by ODOT this year.
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Source: ODOT
