Tanya Snyder
Tanya became Streetsblog's Capitol Hill editor in September 2010 after covering Congress for Pacifica Radios Washington bureau and for public radio stations around the country. She lives car-free in a transit-oriented and bike-friendly neighborhood of Washington, DC.
Recent Posts
Study: People in Low-Income Areas More Likely to Be Killed While Walking
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Who is most at risk of being hit by a car? People on foot make up a growing proportion of people killed in traffic — 15 percent in 2012, up from 11 percent in 2007. Children, seniors, and people of color account for a disproportionate share of the victims. So do people living in low-income areas, according […]
Atlanta’s Parking Problem Isn’t a Lack of Spaces
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A group of Atlanta business leaders recently commissioned a report examining the parking situation in the city’s downtown [PDF]. Aimed at “facilitating future growth in a sustainable manner,” the report found that there are 93,000 parking spaces in Atlanta’s central business district. Darin at ATL Urbanist says the document has some good ideas — most notably the […]
Talking Headways Podcast: Poor Door Von Spreckelsen
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In this week’s podcast, Jeff and I take on the infamous New York City “poor door,” designed to keep tenants of affordable units segregated from the wealthy residents that occupy the rest of the high-rise at 40 Riverside. In the process, we take on the assumptions and methods that cities use to provide housing, and […]
Congress Hits the Snooze Button on Transpo Funding Until May
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Someone had to cave and last night, it was the Senate. The upper chamber had fought as long as it could to adjust the House transportation bill so it wouldn’t expire when the GOP controls both chambers of Congress. But senators were never willing to actually let the Highway Trust Fund go broke. U.S. DOT would […]
Time’s Up: 6 Things to Know About Today’s Transpo Showdown (UPDATED)
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UPDATE 2:40 p.m.: The House has rejected the Senate amendment, as expected. Today is the House of Representatives’ last day in session before departing for an August recess full of photo ops and electioneering in their districts. The Senate will stick around DC for one more day before going home. Before that happens, the two […]
“Safe Routes” Goes Global With the Model School Zone Project
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This post is part of a series featuring stories and research that will be presented at the Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike/Pro-Place conference September 8-11 in Pittsburgh. To get to Seoul Gumsan Elementary School in South Korea, students have to cross a heavily trafficked road with a blind curve. Between 2009 and 2010, 89 children were injured and one killed in 86 traffic […]
How One-Day Plazas and Bike Lanes Can Change a City Forever
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This post is part of a series featuring stories and research that will be presented at the Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike/Pro-Place conference September 8-11 in Pittsburgh. Sam Rockwell rides his bike every day from his home in Minneapolis to his office at BlueCross BlueShield of Minnesota in Eagan, 12 miles away, where he spends his days plotting ways to get other people […]
FHWA to Engineers: Go Ahead and Use City-Friendly Street Designs
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The heavyweights of American transportation engineering continue to warm up to design guides that prioritize walking, biking, and transit on city streets. On Friday, the Federal Highway Administration made clear that it endorses the National Association of City Transportation Officials’ Urban Street Design Guide, which features street treatments like protected bike lanes that you won’t find in […]
A New Take on Hitch-Hiking Brings Real Ride-Sharing to Small Town USA
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Amid the buzz about the “sharing economy,” you’d be forgiven for missing one key element: Most “ride-sharing” is really just a slicker, app-based version of the old-fashioned taxi cab. Ride-sharing at its best takes cars off the road by connecting people who need to make similar trips (rather than dispatching drivers to pick them up). […]
Getting Rural Kids Walking and Biking: A Case Study From Northeast Iowa
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This post is part of a series featuring stories and research that will be presented at the Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike/Pro-Place conference September 8-11 in Pittsburgh. Nationally, more than 14,000 schools have taken part in Safe Routes to School programs. Though dedicated federal funding was stripped out in the current transportation law, SRTS funds have helped improve sidewalks, crosswalks, bike […]
Answers to Your Top 6 Questions About Obama’s New Infrastructure Initiative
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Last week, President Obama announced that amid Congressional dysfunction around transportation funding, he was taking action to foster infrastructure investment and economic growth. The Build America Investment Initiative will provide technical assistance to communities looking for guidance on how to leverage private dollars to build public works. But the initiative doesn’t actually provide any dollars itself. Here’s the […]
Republican Senators Threaten to Slow Extension With Backward Amendments
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Just as it seemed like a transportation extension was on the fast track to passage, a Tea Party senator from Utah is gumming up the works — and the top Republican on the EPW Committee might have a plan to help him. CQ Roll Call reports that Sen. Mike Lee is threatening to block progress […]