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
UPDATED: Last Night’s Quiet Transit Victories
| | 5 Comments
Yesterday was a relatively quiet election day for transportation-related ballot measures, but of the six transit initiatives that came before voters yesterday, five six passed, with a sixth seventh too close to call. That’s in line with last year’s 79 percent success rate — 71 percent since 2000. When asked, voters overwhelmingly choose to raise […]
Streetsblog’s Brand-New Podcast: Episode 1
| | 14 Comments
Behold, Streetsblog’s brand-new podcast! In what we aim to turn into a recurring feature, Reconnecting America’s Jeff Wood and I recently chatted about the week’s news in livable streets, urbanism, and sustainable transportation. The topics are drawn from Jeff’s excellent daily compendium of transportation and planning links, The Direct Transfer, and from stories we’re tracking […]
With Senate on Fire, Can Cory Booker Save Its Transportation Committees?
| | 2 Comments
Outside of New Jersey, Cory Booker is probably best known for running into a burning building to save a woman’s life. Inside New Jersey, he’s better known for trying — with mixed results — to turn around the state’s biggest and perhaps most troubled city, Newark. Nowhere has he made a particular name for himself […]
Trick-or-Treat: Is Your Neighborhood Walkable Enough for Halloween?
| | 7 Comments
There’s nothing worse than buying bags and bags of Halloween candy and then no one comes trick-or-treating at your door. (Hmm, scratch that — there are definitely worse things.) But anyway. You know your neighborhood leaves something to be desired if you don’t have little ghosts and princesses banging on your door tonight. What makes […]
State DOTs Brazenly Request a Blank Check to Build More Highways
| | 38 Comments
“This is a money and power grab.” “It’s very disappointing and very AASHTO.” That’s how some transportation reformers are describing the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ new recommendations for the next surface transportation bill. The current bill, MAP-21, expires in less than a year. AASHTO’s proposal is “so mired in protective technical-speak that […]
Georgia Removes Tolls, Invites 11,000 More Drivers to Clog GA 400 Each Day
| | 44 Comments
Why raise desperately needed transportation funds for a broke region when you could let people drive for free? In Georgia, the state has made up its mind: The DOT will pay $4.5 million to tear down tolls on GA 400 — and forfeit the $21 million a year the tolls brought in. It costs just […]
Do Immigrant Neighborhoods Hold the Secret to Ride-Sharing?
| | No Comments
When researchers look at the reasons behind the downward trend in driving rates in the U.S., they look at several demographics: young people who prefer urban living and are getting into biking, or baby boomers who have picked a more vibrant place to spend their retirement. Immigrants form another cohort that trends away from single-occupancy […]
Will a New Government Campaign for Safer Teen Driving Backfire?
| | 11 Comments
U.S. DOT’s new campaign urging parents to set five safety rules before giving their kids the car keys is this close to being a really good idea. As DOT notes, motor vehicle crashes are the number one killer of 14 to 18-year-olds. In 2011, more than 2,300 people were killed in crashes involving a teen […]
Supreme Court to Consider Fate of Rail-Trails
| | 7 Comments
For the second time in history, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a case about rail-trails. At stake is the public ownership claim of hundreds of thousands of miles of right-of-way around railroads, some of which has been converted into multi-use trails. The Supreme Court will hear the complaint of Wyoming property owner […]
Was TIGER Eliminated in the Shutdown Deal?
| | 6 Comments
Soon after the government shutdown ended, we heard murmurs that the TIGER grant program for innovative transportation projects had been a casualty of the negotiations. Under the rules of the Office of Management and Budget, any program that was de-funded in either chamber’s bill would be de-funded in the continuing resolution (the temporary budget) until […]
TIFIA-Backed, Privately-Operated Texas Toll Road Flirts With Default
| | 8 Comments
It’s been nothing but headaches for Texas State Highway 130. The road — or rather, SH 130 Concession Company LLC, which operates the road — got a credit downgrade to junk bond status in April, and now it’s been deemed even junkier with another downgrade from Moody’s last week. Traffic projections for the road failed […]
The Dangerous Myth That States Give More Than They Get For Transpo
| | 4 Comments
There is a pernicious myth among some states that they give more to Washington in the form of gas taxes than they get back in the form of federal transportation funding. A recent rash of federal bailouts — $35 billion between September 2008 and March 2010 — ensured a windfall for every state in the […]