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
Deranged Traffic Projections Could Cost Wisconsin $3 Billion
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The advocates at 1000 Friends of Wisconsin recently completed a report [PDF] evaluating the Cheese State’s traffic projections. The organization compared actual traffic levels with Wisconsin DOT projections on 11 highways where the state has proposed adding lanes. The total cost of the proposed expansions is $3 billion. The report found that the state’s professional traffic modelers […]
Transit Can Cut Car Traffic Much More Than Ridership Alone Suggests
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How much traffic does a transit line keep off the streets? Looking at ridership alone only tells part of the story, according a new study published in the Journal of the American Planning Association. The full impact of a transit line on motor vehicle traffic can far exceed the direct effect of substituting rail or bus […]
Is Austin’s Central Corridor a Smart Transit Bet?
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This November, Austinites will be asked to vote for a $600 million bond issue to bring a new rail line to the Texas capital. Unfortunately, a lot of local urbanists aren’t that enamored with the $1.4 billion Central Corridor plan. Network blog Carfree Austin has been taking a hard look at the proposal in a four-part series (1, […]
Mapping Accessibility: What Can You Get to in 20 Minutes?
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In the U.S., one metric dominates the public discussion about transportation: traffic congestion. Rankings are published every year assessing how clogged the streets are in different cities, and transportation agencies devote a great deal of resources trying to reduce congestion. The outcome of all this effort, however, doesn’t even help people get places. In metro […]
Madrid Moves Toward a Car-Free Center City
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Beginning in January, Madrid will enact new policies to keep cars out of almost 500 acres in the core of the city, part of a long-term plan to entirely pedestrianize the center city. El Pais in Spain is reporting that, unless they live there, drivers will no longer be allowed to enter the city’s four […]
A Milwaukee Suburb Turns to Complete Streets to Spur Business
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North Avenue in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa is in the final stages of a redesign. The safety improvements include curb extensions, shorter pedestrian crossings, green-painted bike lanes, and bike boxes. Dave Schlabowske at Urban Milwaukee calls the 16-block stretch through a neighborhood business district the most bike-friendly street in Wisconsin, outside of Madison. He says even before […]
Do Drivers Cover the Cost of Roads? Not By a Long Shot
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David Alpert at Greater Greater Washington shares this fantastic chart from a new study of transportation funding by the Pew Charitable Trusts [PDF]. Alpert explains: This chart from Pew shows where the transportation money comes from; it’s not all drivers. Basically, the bluish areas are revenues which come specifically from drivers: gas taxes, vehicle taxes, and tolls. […]
The Koch Brothers’ War on Transit
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Transit advocates around the country were transfixed by a story in Tennessee this April, when the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity made a bid to pre-emptively kill Nashville bus rapid transit. It was an especially brazen attempt by Charles and David Koch’s political network to strong-arm local transportation policy makers. But it was far from […]
Portland Tries Out “Advisory Bike Lanes”
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Portland is importing a new kind of bike lane design from the Netherlands. “Advisory bike lanes” allow drivers to use the bike lane space if they have to — and if it’s safe. Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland reports that advisory bike lanes are intended for streets with high bike traffic but not a high volume of […]
Over Time, Will More Streetcars Get Their Own Lanes?
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CityLab ran an article yesterday describing how Seattle’s new streetcar addition breaks the mold of its peers in one key way: It runs on dedicated lanes, rather than in mixed traffic. The new wave of streetcars are often criticized for slow average speeds. If the political will doesn’t exist to provide the systems with dedicated right […]
Sustainable Transportation Could Save the World (and Save $100 Trillion)
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Dramatically expanding transit and active transportation over the next few decades could reduce urban vehicle emissions 40 percent more than following a car-centric trajectory. And it could also save the world economy $100 trillion. That’s according to a new report presented recently to the United Nations by researchers at UC Davis and the Institute for Transportation […]
Why Cities Should Strive for Streets That “Fail”
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What makes a good street? Wide, tree-lined sidewalks? A concentration of businesses and activity? Or an unobstructed path to speed through in a car? Influential engineering metrics only grade streets according to the last question. But Dave Cieslewicz at the Wisconsin Bike Federation writes that if you want walkable, safe urban streets, that’s a test you should […]