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
TTI: Mass Transit Saved Drivers 45.4 Million Hours Last Year
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Last year, the D.C. region ran away with the dubious honor of Most Congested Metro Area. D.C. area drivers wasted 74 hours and 37 gallons of fuel sitting in traffic last year, which would have cost about $100 over the course of the year. But the gasoline cost is just the tip of the iceberg. According […]
Would President Romney Build Roads or Rail?
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All eyes are on Texas Gov. Rick Perry these days, the faraway frontrunner in the Republican race. But as the primary goes on (and on and on) more Republicans might take note of the fact that in a matchup with President Obama, only one candidate stands a chance of winning: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. […]
New Survey Numbers Show Surprising, But Slight, Dip in Bike Commuting
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Bicycling advocates say that the American Community Survey has never accurately measured bike commuting, because they don’t ask the right questions. That may be true, but the upshot is that a year that appeared to be a banner year for cycling ended up being kind of a dud, according to the ACS. The ACS recorded a […]
Mica, GOP Leadership Looking to Raise Transportation Spending Levels in Bill
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According to yet another great report from Jeff Davis at Transportation Weekly, House Republican leadership has given House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica permission to seek additional revenues to fund the transportation reauthorization at levels $15 billion higher than initially proposed. One Republican source, quoted in Transportation Weekly, said that given the persistently high unemployment rates, […]
MoveOn Takes On Infrastructure
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The online nonprofit MoveOn.org is taking up the banner of infrastructure investment. Under the subject line “Can your photo create jobs?” the group just sent its 5 million members an email asking them to take a picture of an infrastructure project near them that needs doing. “It could be a bridge, a school, a road, […]
Dealbreaker: Senate Rejects House Budget Due to Lack of Car Subsidies
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What’s keeping Congress from passing an extension to the federal budget? Democratic protection of automobile subsidies. After midnight last night, the House finally managed to narrowly pass a budget extension bill, but Senate leaders have already rejected it out of hand, since it includes about half the disaster relief they’d like and cuts $1.5 billion […]
In Push For Jobs Bill, Obama Picks the Wrong Bridge to Highlight
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President Obama chose the home turf of two of his principal political opponents to highlight the need for more infrastructure investment in the U.S. Standing beneath the Brent Spence Bridge, which connects Cincinnati (the home city of House Speaker John Boehner) with Kentucky (the home state of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell), Obama made his […]
Senate Saves a Sliver For High-Speed Rail
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President Obama had sought $8 billion for high-speed rail in 2012. The House-passed budget had exactly zero. The Senate bill approved by the Transportation subcommittee Tuesday followed suit. But the full Appropriations Committee yesterday put $100 million back into next year’s budget for the president’s signature transportation initiative. That’s still starvation wages for the program, […]
Communities Urge Congress: “Don’t X Out Transit”
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Yesterday, transit advocates in more than two dozen cities around the country held rallies to urge Congress to maintain funding for public transportation. The “Don’t X Out Transit” events brought attention to the massive cuts in service and fare hikes that have besieged U.S. transit agencies, and made it clear that the 30 percent funding […]
Senate Strips High-Speed Rail Funding
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The Senate’s transportation budget proposal is still under wraps, but we’re getting some clues about what’s in it. This morning, a subcommittee marked up the transportation and HUD appropriations bill, and the full committee will consider it tomorrow afternoon. Only after that will the draft bill be released. During this morning’s subcommittee markup, though, a […]
Eco-Libertarian Alliance Pushes Replacement of Rural Air Service With Buses
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Buried in the FAA extension passed last week was a line item for air service to connect rural communities to major airports. These are usually tiny flights, leaving from remote airports. All together, they use annual subsidies of over $163 million. In July, when Republicans forced a temporary shutdown of the FAA, this “essential air […]
Federal Support for Smart Planning Is on the Line Tomorrow
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Tomorrow, a Senate panel will vote on two budget bills for FY2012, one of which is for transportation and housing programs. The draft of the bill isn’t available until after the subcommittee markup tomorrow, but Smart Growth America is calling attention to the fact that it’s important to make sure the bill includes funding for the […]