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
Will DOT’s New Freight Council Focus on More Than Trucks?
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On Thursday, DOT Secretary Ray LaHood announced the creation of a new Freight Policy Council, which is charged with coming up with a freight strategic plan. This is a first step toward a sorely lacking national plan around freight. The movement of goods accounts for about a quarter of all transportation-related emissions. Every American is […]
Stroller-Share: Can I Get an Amen?
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Childless urbanites love to hate the stroller. New Yorker Laura Miller started a blog, “Too Big For Stroller,” dedicated to mocking older children who get around the easy way. Commenters on a Greater Greater Washington story about strollers on buses last year showcased surprising vitriol, saying, “Carry your child, like an able-bodied adult should” and […]
September 1: Deadline for States to Opt Out of Recreational Trails Funding
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The MAP-21 transportation bill in many ways made it tougher for cities and towns to provide safer streets for walking and biking. Projects to build bike lanes and sidewalks now have to compete harder for the tiny bit of funding they’re eligible for. And right now, states are deciding whether or not to “opt out” of the […]
Romney Energy Plan: More Drilling, More Oil Dependence
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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney unveiled his energy plan today [PDF]. The idea is to break our addiction to foreign oil — by increasing our addiction to domestic oil. If by “domestic” we mean Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. Essentially, the plan is to go bananas on oil drilling. States would have the right to […]
Finally, the Presidential Race Turns to Transportation
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The Obama campaign has fired the opening salvo in a new presidential campaign front: transportation. The campaign released seven radio ads in key swing states, each playing to major concerns of voters in those states. The ad now on the airwaves in Virginia focuses on the differences between the two tickets on infrastructure spending. Here’s […]
Everything You Wanted to Know About Transit Funds (But Were Afraid to Ask)
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Transit agencies can have a hard time finding the money to expand rail lines and busways. While federal grants for road projects require a 20 percent local match, transit projects need to get 50 percent or more from local funding sources. The byzantine federal funding bureaucracy creates high hurdles, especially for smaller agencies without on-staff expertise in […]
Rep. Steve LaTourette Leaving Congress, Cites Disgust Over Transpo Bill
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We mentioned last week that transit advocates were losing one supporter in Congress: Russ Carnahan of Missouri. They’ll be suffering another grave loss come January: Ohio Republican Steve LaTourette. It was clear that the romance was over last year when he called his own party’s freshmen members “knuckledraggers.” He announced two weeks ago that he had […]
There’s a Lot Riding on U.S. DOT’s Definition of “Congestion”
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Congress has done its job, such as it is, and passed a transportation bill. Now it’s handed off the policymaking to U.S. DOT, which must issue a raft of rules, definitions, and guidance to accompany the new law, known as MAP-21. According to sources with intimate knowledge of this process, much depends on how DOT […]
International Funders Shift Investments Toward Sustainable Transportation
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If you think the United States is doing a bad job shifting toward sustainable transportation, take a look at the developing world. The places with the most to lose from auto-oriented development are doubling down on it — to the enormous detriment of their citizens, especially the poorest. The number of cars in the world […]
The Strain of Job Sprawl on Two-Income Households
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When Mark Lampert was a kid, his mom stayed home with him and his brothers. His dad was out the door by 4:30 every morning, driving to the commuter lot in their distant Houston suburb to take the bus in to the city for work. He had friends whose parents both worked, and when those […]
Rep. Russ Carnahan, Transit Champion, Becomes 9th T&I Member to Depart
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Shifting demographics have countless repercussions. Today, one of those is the loss of a pro-transit voice in Congress. As the Midwest and Northeast lose population, redistricting is claiming some of their members of Congress, with the South and West picking up those seats. Last night, Rep. Russ Carnahan became a casualty of Missouri’s population loss […]
In New NHTSA Report, Scarce Information on Causes of Pedestrian Deaths
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported last December that while overall traffic fatalities in the United States dropped in 2010, pedestrian deaths rose higher – up four percent in 2010 over 2009. Yesterday, the agency released some more detailed statistics about those crashes [PDF], but the report includes scarcely any data or analysis about the underlying […]