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
Barbara Boxer’s Transportation Bill: Same As It Ever Was
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The future of national transportation policy is pretty much like the present of national transportation policy, if the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has its way: underfunded and highway-centric. The bill released by Senator Barbara Boxer’s EPW Committee yesterday [PDF] rejects pretty much everything the Obama administration put forth in its bill, including permanent […]
Deadline Extended! Vote for the Best Rainy/Snowy Picture
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UPDATE: Well, this is embarrassing and a little maddening. We have been hacked through our hack-proof captcha coding. So, we’re shutting this sucker down and calling the winners based on voting as of May 10, when the hacking started. We will steer clear of Google polls in the future, and we sincerely apologize to everyone […]
Donate Today to Support Streetsblog and Win Bike Gear
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You all make my day. Listen to what people are saying as they donate to Streetsblog’s spring pledge drive event: “You are helping build a healthier USA.” “Nobody else provides the sort of comprehensive coverage of these issues as you do.” “Streets are not just for cars, and needn’t be so ugly. Yours is a […]
Talking Headways Podcast: A Deep Dive Into Biking and Walking Census Data
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We were so excited about the first-ever Census report exclusively on biking and walking that we devoted this entire episode of the Talking Headways podcast to an interview with its author, Brian McKenzie. Bike commuting is up 60 percent since 2000, the Census shows, and people with low incomes are by far the biggest proportion […]
Low-Income Americans Walk and Bike to Work the Most
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The U.S. Census Bureau just released its first-ever report exclusively on walking and biking [PDF]. Using data from the American Community Survey, the report shows how rates of active transportation vary by age, income, education, race, and the availability of a vehicle. It’s a lot more detail than the usual Census data release on how people get […]
Cast Your Vote for the Best Photo of All-Weather Biking and Walking
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UPDATE 5/13: Hey folks, we got hacked. Deadline extended, vote in our new-and-improved, more secure poll by 11:59 p.m. May 14! It’s May, but we’re still getting doused with April showers. And it wasn’t that long ago that we were still getting hit with snowstorms too. And you know what? The bikers kept biking and […]
GOP Appropriations Bill Would Turn TIGER Into a Roads Program
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As the president’s transportation proposal fades from the news cycle and we eagerly await the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s six-year reauthorization bill, here comes the House Republicans’ proposed budget for transportation and housing for next year. Note: What the House GOP released yesterday wasn’t an authorization bill but an appropriations bill for 2015. […]
Uh-Oh: Senate Finance Committee Draws a Blank on Transpo Funding
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The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is on the verge of releasing its proposal to reauthorize the federal transportation program until 2021. But it’s counting on the Senate Finance Committee to figure out how to pay for it. And that committee seems disturbingly far from an answer. The Highway Trust Fund (yes, that’s still […]
Remembering Jim Oberstar, Architect of Federal Bike Funding Programs
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Rep. Jim Oberstar died peacefully in his sleep early Saturday morning at the age of 79. He represented Minnesota’s 8th Congressional district for 18 terms, from 1975 to 2011. Oberstar served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee the entire time, and as its chair for the last four years. He was known for his passion for […]
Could the Strava App Provide the Biking and Walking Data Cities Crave?
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Strava may be making the leap from feel-good gadget for hard core exercise buffs to serious planning tool for cities looking to improve active transportation. Strava is a mobile app that runners and cyclists use to record their activities, track their progress, and see their stats and personal records. Its website shows a bunch of young, […]
Talking Headways Podcast: California Über Alles
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Welcome to our all-California, all-the-time episode of the Talking Headways podcast. We start with a statewide debate over whether $60,000+ Teslas should qualify for tax breaks — or whether any electric vehicles should get tax breaks. Then on to the conversation about how California’s cap-and-trade dollars should be spent. One proposal, from the State Senate leader, […]
Donate Today and Win Some Bike-Centric Summer Reading!
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Usually when nonprofits start a fundraising campaign, they set a goal for how much money they want to bring in. But we’re doing it a little differently this time. We set a goal for how many people we wanted to connect with during this pledge drive. Our goal this time is for 400 people to donate […]