Metro’s Regional Travel Options program announces second round of grant awards

The Regional Travel Options (RTO) program is excited to announce the second round of awards for its 2023-26 grant cycle that funds projects and programs to educate, encourage and reduce barriers to increase the use of travel options. These efforts reach people in their communities, schools, universities, and workplaces and promote any mode of transportation besides driving alone – carpooling, vanpooling, riding transit, bicycling, walking, rolling, shared mobility, and telecommuting.

RTO General Grants track

The General Grants track is intended to fund a variety of travel options initiatives and projects, including funding for organizations that do not necessarily have a transportation focus. The three categories within this track include:

• Travel Options Community Services: Intended specifically to fund organizations that don’t necessarily focus on travel options as an organizational mission but are seeking to support travel options on behalf of the communities they serve.
• Innovation: Designed to encourage new tactics, and approaches and reach new audiences with travel options programming.
• Infrastructure: This supports wayfinding, end-of-trip facilities, and other light infrastructure that makes using travel options safer and more enjoyable.

These grants support projects that will occur between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2026. Approximately $500,000 was awarded for this round of applications with an additional $500,000 available for the final year of this grant cycle, which will open in January 2025.

Second round awards

• City of Gresham received a $70,612 Infrastructure grant to install wayfinding signs and pavement markings on two Gresham greenways.
• City of Portland Bureau of Transportation received a $50,000 Infrastructure grant to develop and install semi-permanent wayfinding signage for walking and biking school buses in Portland.
• Community Cycling Center received a $134,963 Innovation grant to hire a bilingual Safe Routes to School coordinator to support schools in the Cully neighborhood.
• Lloyd EcoDistrict received a $72,566 Innovation grant to develop the plan for a resilience and mobility hub at Holladay Park in Portland’s Lloyd District.
• Portland Indigenous Marketplace received a $53,600 Travel Options Community Services grant to support an ‘Indigenous Safe Ways’ program to support improved transportation for vendors and community to their markets held across the region.
• Trash for Peace received a $42,174 Infrastructure grant to install bike parking at The Ellington, a multi-family affordable housing location in Northeast Portland.
• Tualatin Hills Parks & Recreation received a $56,446 Infrastructure grant to install and/or improve trail wayfinding signage at over 100 locations.

Read about the grantees from the first round of 2023-26 RTO General Grants