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
Was Ridesharing Ignored in the Senate Transportation Bill?
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Last week, the Ridesharing Institute sent out its first press release. Based in New Zealand (at least, that’s where the Executive Director is, though the group did recently incorporate in Delaware), the organization doesn’t yet have a website, though it does have a Facebook page and a wiki. As its first foray into U.S. politics, […]
LaHood Defends High-Speed Rail Program At House Hearing
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It’s Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s birthday, and he’s spending it testifying before the House Transportation Committee. The hearing is on “Mistakes & Lessons Learned” from the high-speed rail program, but — no surprise here — LaHood and House Republicans have differing ideas about what “mistakes” have been made. Here are some highlights. Chair John Mica […]
Another Delay: Will There Ever Be a New Reauthorization?
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SAFETEA-LU has been extended eight times over more than two years. Legislators on both sides are tired of delays and see the need for a new reauthorization bill that sets new policy and does something about the Highway Trust Fund before it runs clean out of cash. But House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica said […]
Is Transpo Funding Fundamentally a PR Problem? Five Ex-DOT Chiefs Discuss
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How can you convince Americans that transportation is important enough to invest in? That’s the question that brought together five former U.S. Transportation Secretaries this week at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. James Burnley was deputy secretary and then secretary under President Reagan. He took the position that “75 percent” of the public “gives […]
House GOP Slows Down Its Rush to Introduce Oil-and-Infrastructure Bill
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Just this morning, Politico was reporting that the House would introduce the legislative text of its transportation proposal on Monday, but just a few short hours ago, House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica gave a speech at the University of Virginia in which he said there would be no movement on the bill until next […]
Mapped: How Federal Funding Fails to Match Demand for Transit in the U.S.
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UPDATE: Corrects the post to say that the map reflects all ongoing projects, not just those in the final engineering and construction stages. How much is New York’s Second Avenue Subway estimated to cost? What transit lines really make up LA’s ambitious 30/10 initiative? Besides the silver line to Dulles Airport, which may or may […]
Is Congress Trying to Put the Kibosh on TIGER Funding For Bike/Ped?
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Did TIGER spend too much money on bicycle and pedestrian programs? That’s the question Larry Ehl at Transportation Issues Daily is asking. After all, Congress appears to be encouraging USDOT to spend TIGER grant money on something — anything — other than bike/ped. It’s right there in the 2012 transportation appropriation bill, which President Obama signed […]
This Thanksgiving, Take Your Cue From These Turkeys
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Before we take off for the Thanksgiving weekend, we wanted to leave you with this priceless moment in which wild turkeys stage a critical mass and block traffic in Staten Island. Who knew turkeys had such strong feelings about equal treatment for nonmotorized transportation? Note: Streetsblog does not condone the videographer’s pro-hunting zeal, nor do […]
HUD Awards Bring “Bittersweet” End to Sustainability Program
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Just days after the interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities was issued a death blow by having its funding axed in the FY2012 transportation budget, which President Obama signed into law Friday, HUD issued a reminder of just how sad that loss is: The agency released its list of 2011 award grantees — communities embarking on […]
Mapping the Consequences of Our Automobile Addiction
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Leave it to the Brits to create an incredible tool for examining America’s own crisis of traffic fatalities. Behold this somber map, made by ITO World, a UK-based transportation information firm. Each dot on the map is a traffic-related death. The entire eastern United States is blanketed with them. The purple dots represent vehicle occupants […]
Supercommittee Goes Bust, Lone Prospect of Gas Tax Hike Dissolves
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The 12 members of the Congressional supercommittee are still huddling, but the writing is on the wall: They’re likely to announce failure by the end of the day. Senators Harry Reid and John Kerry have told reporters there’s “a little bit” of hope for a solution, but many have already written the supercommittee’s death certificate. […]
No Details Yet on House Transportation and Oil Drilling Bill
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House leaders did not unveil a bill at their press conference this morning. House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica said the bill, when it is released, will: consolidate duplicative parts of the federal transportation system shift responsibility to states and local governments to move transportation projects forward increase the ability to leverage financial resources significantly […]