Angie Schmitt
Angie is a Cleveland-based writer with a background in planning and newspaper reporting. She has been writing about cities for Streetsblog for six years.
Recent Posts
Obama’s New Transportation Budget: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
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With federal transportation funding on track to run dry by May 31, Washington lawmakers are gearing up again to reset national transportation policy… or, if that doesn’t work out, to limp along indefinitely under the status quo. Today President Obama unveiled his opening bid in this process. The $478-billion, six-year plan from the White House includes many […]
Sometimes the Safer Street Design Option Is the Less Expensive One
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While there are certainly a lot of large-scale obstacles to making the Dallas region more walkable, Mark Brown at Car Free Dallas says there’s also no lack of quick fixes that could improve streets for a negligible cost. One idea is as simple as enhancing crosswalk visibility with paint, instead of the expensive, hard-to-see treatments at some […]
Washington Republicans: Put Seattle’s Highway-Borer Out of Its Misery
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If nothing else, the politics of Seattle’s deep-bore highway tunnel fiasco keep getting more interesting. With Bertha the tunnel-boring machine stuck underground and “rescue” efforts literally destabilizing city neighborhoods, a pair of Republicans in the Washington State Senate introduced a bill to scrap the project before any more money is wasted. While putting a halt to […]
People Are Fundamentally Social, Except When We’re Inside a Car
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Bill Lindeke at Twin City Sidewalks was on a high from this weekend, when he attended a pretty spectacular outdoor festival in his hometown of St. Paul. The streets were filled with people and activity. It got him thinking, as fun as it was, it would have been a miserable place to be if you were in a […]
Koch-Funded Groups: Cut All Federal Funding for Walking, Biking, Transit
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You know it’s time to fight over the federal transportation bill when the fossil fuel-soaked elements of the conservative movement start agitating to stop funding everything except car infrastructure. Yesterday, a coalition of 50 groups, several funded by the Koch brothers, sent a letter to Congress arguing that the way to fix federal transportation funding is […]
What’s Holding Back Austin Transit Ridership? Look at Where the Jobs Are
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A recent post at Keep Austin Wonky asks why transit ridership in Austin seems to be stagnating even as the region grows at a healthy clip. Julio Gonzalez Altamirano says it doesn’t seem to be gas prices or transit funding, but something about the way the city is physically developing that’s hindering ridership growth. Jeff […]
Boris Johnson Commits to a Protected “Cycle Superhighway” Crossing London
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London Mayor Boris Johnson is showing cities what it looks like to commit real resources to repurposing car lanes for high-quality bike infrastructure. Yesterday, Johnson announced the city will begin building a wide, continuous protected bike lane linking east and west London when the weather warms this spring. When complete, it will be the longest […]
This Is the Kind of Leadership We Need From State DOTs
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“A breath of fresh air” — that’s how Chuck Marohn at Strong Towns describes this interview with Tennessee DOT Commissioner John Schroer. In this video, produced by Smart Growth America, Schroer describes what he is doing to make Tennessee’s the “the best DOT in the country.” Here are some of the highlights: We did a top-to-bottom review and we looked […]
Help Streetsblog Find the Sorriest Bus Stop in America
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It’s contest time again, and competition is going to be stiff for this one. After handing out a Streetsie award for the best street transformation in America at the end of 2014, we’re going to do some good old public shaming this time: Help us find the most neglected, dangerous, and all around sorriest bus […]
Are More Families With Kids Choosing to Live in Walkable Areas?
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Bradley Calvert at Family Friendly Cities has done some impressive number-crunching to identify trends in where families with children are living. Using Walk Score and Census data, he analyzed the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S. to determine whether the population of children is growing or shrinking in walkable and unwalkable areas. (Some regions had to be […]
Tentative Good News for Maryland’s Purple and Red Lines
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Since Republican Larry Hogan was elected governor in November, transit advocates in Maryland have been holding their breath. During the campaign, Hogan threatened to kill the mostly-funded and ready-to-go Red Line in Baltimore and the Purple Line in the DC suburbs — two of the biggest transit projects on tap in the U.S. A budget […]
The Koch Brothers Win: Nashville Abandons “Amp” BRT Plans
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Nashville’s bid to build its first high-capacity transit line is dead, the Tennessean is reporting today. It’s a victory for the Koch brothers-funded local chapter of Americans for Prosperity and a defeat for the city’s near-term hopes of transitioning to less congested, more sustainable streets. The project, known as the Amp, called for a 7-mile […]