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
Expanding the Mission of “Safe Routes to School” as Kids Return to Class
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It’s hard to believe summer is almost over. In many places, the weather was so mild it seems like it never quite started. But kids are already going back to school. While the weather has been cool, temperatures have reached a boiling point on many of our nation’s streets. In many communities, violence is very much […]
TransitMix: A New App for Your Fantasy Map
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I’m a little intimidated by sharing my first fantasy transit map with an audience that I know to include some ardent and accomplished fantasy transit mappers. But here goes: my first attempt. It’s a little circuitous, but it connects neighborhoods that don’t have great connections right now. I didn’t bring it all the way into […]
Is Your City a Great Place to Raise Kids? Could It Be?
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Jennifer Langston of the Sightline Institute in Seattle has so far published eight articles in a series called Family-Friendly Cities. She shows that while Seattle has a lower share of the population under age 15 than the rest of the state of Washington, that gap is closing. The number of kids in Seattle is growing far […]
Are Children Parasites on Cities’ Finances?
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No sooner did Streetsblog LA roll out its new series (and hashtag) #streetsr4families than the Washington Post asked whether it really benefits cities to attract families with kids at all. After all, wrote Lydia DePillis yesterday, while single twenty-somethings freely spend their money on $12 cocktails and $50 concert tickets, parents avail themselves of taxpayer-funded […]
Talking Headways Podcast: Crown Prince of Fresh Air
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What would you think of a city planner, out ruffling feathers with his bold ideas about density and urbanism — who commutes to work an hour each way from his ranch way outside the city? Ironic — or hypocritical? That’s the question we wrestle with in our discussion of Brad Buchanan, the head honcho at […]
Why It Makes Sense to Add Biking and Walking Routes Along Active Rail Lines
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This post is part of a series featuring stories and research that will be presented at the Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike/Pro-Place conference September 8-11 in Pittsburgh. You’ve heard of rail-trails — abandoned rail lines that have been turned into multi-use paths for biking and walking. There are more than 21,000 miles of rail-trails across the country, in urban, suburban, and rural areas. […]
Will the Supreme Court Help Amtrak Run Its Trains on Time?
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The Supreme Court has the chance to redeem its spotty record of late by making the trains run on time. Yes, it’s in their power. If you’ve noticed lately that Amtrak trains have been more delayed and more run-down than usual, there’s a very good reason for that. Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for […]
Talking Headways Podcast: Zoned Out
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Welcome to the dog days of summer! Before skipping town, Congress passed a transportation funding patch so they wouldn’t have to deal with the real problem of the unsustainable way our nation builds and pays for infrastructure. I give the briefest possible rundown of where we are now before Jeff and I launch into discussions about the issues of the […]
Turning a Suburban Retail Bus Stop Into a Place People Want to Go
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This post is part of a series featuring stories and research that will be presented at the Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike/Pro-Place conference September 8-11 in Pittsburgh. Last week, Pittsburgh got its first suburban bus stop makeover. And the results were beautiful. The new IKEA “super-stop” lies in a shopping center along an interstate highway, surrounded by surface parking, between a TGI Fridays […]
Uber and Lyft Take a Step Toward Real Ride-Sharing
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Uber and Lyft have set out to upend the taxi industry in American cities. But are they the traffic-busting “ride-sharing” services they’re often portrayed to be? Not really: Using an app to hail a driver and take you where you’re going isn’t fundamentally different than any traditional for-hire vehicle service. But both Uber and Lyft are […]
At Transpo Town Hall, Sec. Foxx Pushes for Local Control, Full Funding
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“Our transportation problems are easy to see but often difficult to explain.” That’s how Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx opened his virtual town hall meeting on the theme “Moving from Uncertainty to Long-Term Transportation Investment” this afternoon. “We have signs that warn you when traffic is ahead,” he went on. “But those signs don’t always tell […]
Missouri Says No to Amendment 7’s Monster Tax Hike for Roads
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Last night, Missourians decided overwhelmingly to reject a ballot initiative that would have raised the sales tax by three-quarters of a cent to pay, almost exclusively, for roads. It would have been the largest tax increase in the state’s history. Voters voted 59 percent to 41 percent to reject the tax. “It’s difficult to pass […]