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
Mica Accedes to Dems’ Request to Delay Action on Rail Privatization
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John Mica has blinked. Rather than go full steam ahead with his fast-track plan to introduce his bill to privatize the Northeast Corridor today and to have the committee discuss it and vote on it tomorrow, Transportation Committee Chair John Mica (R-FL) has agreed to delay action to allow time for a full legislative hearing. […]
Bipartisan Policy Center Proposes Major Redesign of Federal Funding
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With the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee set to introduce its reauthorization bill the first week of July and the Senate EPW Committee already behind on its own timeline to introduce its own, think tanks and policy groups have a limited amount of time left to influence the process. The Bipartisan Policy Center got into […]
Rahall, Brown Say Dems Must Be Consulted on Rail Privatization
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The top Democrats with jurisdiction over rail in the House are asking for a little old-time bipartisan cooperation in the Transportation Committee. They’re complaining that Republicans have shut them out of the process on one of the most important, game-changing proposals to come down the pike in a while: taking the Northeast Corridor away from […]
LaHood Defends Amtrak Against GOP Privatization Plan
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In an email statement to Streetsblog, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood expressed concerns about the GOP plan to privatize the Northeast Corridor: Chairman Mica and I share a strong interest in high speed rail, particularly in the Northeast Corridor. He should be commended for giving this topic the attention it deserves. However, based upon our preliminary review, we […]
House Plan to Privatize Northeast Corridor Retains Public Ownership
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Under the House Republicans’ proposal to bring more private competition to the nation’s most valuable transportation asset, the Northeast Corridor would remain in public hands. Transportation Committee Chair John Mica (R-FL) made clear that under his and Rail Subcommittee Chair Bill Shuster’s plan, “the public maintains ownership of the corridor; we’re not giving it to […]
House Transportation Committee To Begin Reauthorization Next Week
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Correction: Only the rail portion of the bill, specifically the GOP proposal to privatize the Northeast Corridor, will be rolled out next week. The rest of the bill, Mica said, will be introduced in the week after the July 4 recess, followed by a period for comment and public participation, and then a markup July […]
How Seniors Get Stuck at Home With No Transit Options
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According to AARP, 88 percent of seniors want to stay in their own homes as long as they can. But where are those homes? In auto-dependent suburbs. That’s where most Baby Boomers grew up, in the postwar era, and that’s where most of them have stayed – even as the largest (and longest-living) generation ever […]
Ray LaHood Wants to Hear From Streetsblog Readers
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Have a question for Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood? He’s all ears. He has been doing a series of video chats where he responds to questions from the public. A DOT official told me they would like to “explicitly invite Streetsblog readers to submit their questions to the Secretary” for the next episode of “On the […]
Obama Administration Pushes for Transit Maintenance
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In a press conference today sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association, Obama administration officials affirmed their commitment to transit, especially good maintenance of transit systems. As FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff told reporters: We have a challenge in that we want to provide the American public, in a maximum number of communities, with real transit […]
Fareed Zakaria: Republicans Should Embrace an Infrastructure Bank
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Have you seen Fareed Zakaria’s editorial in the Washington Post today? It’s pretty stunning. He begins with some pretty gloomy analysis of the country’s economic trajectory and some bad news about unemployment and growth. And just when it seems like there’s no hope and the country’s going down the tubes, he suggests one shining beacon […]
Google Shows That When Transit Agencies Free Their Data, Riders Win
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Earlier this week, in a forum about intelligent cities and the ways data can improve urban planning, Carolyn Young of Portland’s TriMet let it slip that Portland was one of the first cities to share its real-time transit tracking data on Google Maps. (Google announced the news two days later.) For transit agencies, letting Google […]
One Way to Cure Congestion: Urban Abandonment
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Jeff Wood at Reconnecting America attended the Congress for the New Urbanism’s annual gathering in Madison last week, and he recently posted this short Q&A with CNU President John Norquist. It happens to be a pretty timely and snappy interview. Angie wrote this morning about Kaid Benfield’s ideas about “right-sizing” Detroit. Benfield focuses on how […]