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
Sen. Boxer: Working With Mica, Inhofe on a Long-Term Transpo Bill
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Senator Barbara Boxer told reporters today that she had an “excellent”, “wonderful” meeting with Rep. John Mica (R-FL), the new chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. She confirmed that they’re working on a “longer-term” transportation bill and have come up with many points of agreement. We’ll let you know more details about […]
Auto Sales Rise Along With Gas Prices (Though Nowhere Near $5/Gallon)
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You may have heard last week that a former Shell executive predicted that gas prices would reach five dollars a gallon by the end of next year. John Hofmeister is now the head of Citizens for Affordable Energy, which advocates for increased coal, gas, and oil production in the U.S. He’s also the author of […]
Send in Your Transpo Questions for the 112th Congress
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The new Congress has been sworn in and John Boehner has been elected Speaker of the House, 241-173. Nancy Pelosi has handed him the (strangely over-sized) gavel and he just took the oath of office. In his acceptance speech, he stressed fiscal discipline and spending cuts. The first vote the new Congress will take will […]
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: The Last of the Streetsies 2010
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We couldn’t put a bow on 2010 until we’d thanked those who contributed to the cause of sustainable transportation and smart growth last year and shaken our fist at those who’d done their darnedest for sprawl and highways. Check out our first two installments of national, state and local Streetsie winners. Here are our parting […]
The Capitol Hill Streetsies, Continued: The Best and Worst of 2010
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Check out our first installment of the Streetsie winners for who will be missed, who will be a hero, and the best ideas and legislation that didn’t come to pass. We continue our look back at 2010 with some state- and local-level highs and lows for the year. Starting with: Most short-sighted governor: When it […]
Food Deserts: Another Way the Deck Is Stacked Against Car-Free Americans
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Slate has posted this map to illustrate the concentration of “food deserts,” where large numbers of people don’t have access to fresh food. The USDA considers households more than a mile from a supermarket and without access to a car to be in food deserts, often with only convenience-store junk food for nourishment. In 2009, the […]
Actually, Highway Builders, Roads Don’t Pay For Themselves
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You’ve heard it a thousand times from the highway lobby: Roads pay for themselves through “user fees” — a.k.a. gas taxes and tolls — whereas transit is a drain on the taxpayer. They use this argument to push for new roads, instead of transit, as fiscally prudent investments. The myth of the self-financed road meets […]
Republicans Want to Hoard Transpo Money and Call It Deficit Reduction
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Transportation advocates, from both the highway and transit lobbies, are up in arms about a proposed change to House rules governing transportation spending. It would jeopardize dedicated transportation funds by changing the rule requiring that a certain level of highway trust fund money be spent each year. According to a letter [PDF] sent to House leadership […]
And the Streetsies Go To…
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Happy 2011! May this year bring peace, harmony, and a six-year transportation reauthorization. The best part about 2011 is that it’s not 2010. Last year was a tough one at the federal level: constant extensions of both the transportation bill and the general budget, no progress on an adequate funding source for infrastructure investment, and […]
Today’s Headlines
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“Trains Make All That Possible”: Light Rail Transforms Cities, Guides Development (NPR) Forget Peak Oil. Have We Hit Peak Travel? (Miller-McCune) “Start Now, Figure Out How to Finish Later”: Obama’s High Speed Rail Strategy (Time) Shoupian Parking Principles, Market-Based Pricing Come to Seattle (Seattle Times) Dallas Desires Streetcar Grant Shelved by Fort Worth (Dallas Morning […]
2010 Capitol Hill Round-up: Cast Your Vote for the Streetsie Awards
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Which lawmakers have been naughty in 2010? Which have been nice? Who deserves goodwill from supporters of sustainable transportation, and who should get nothing but a lump of coal? This is your chance to decide. The Streetsie awards are a Streetsblog tradition, offering the bests and worsts of the year, determined by Streetsblog readers. Voting […]
Mica Is Against “Paving Over America,” For “Cars in Shoulder Lanes”
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I know I said I wasn’t going to post during my vacation, but I thought you’d be interested in this new report from the FHWA, and, perhaps more notably, the Republican reaction to it. The agency just submitted a report to Congress on the use of highway shoulder lanes as traffic lanes. (It’s not online, […]