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
Restrictive Housing Policies in a Few Cities Hurt the Whole U.S. Economy
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It’s no secret that major coastal cities are dealing with a housing shortage that’s causing runaway rents. What’s less well understood, however, is how low-density zoning not only limits the supply of housing but affects the U.S. economy more broadly. Pete Rodrigue at Greater Greater Washington points to a study estimating the economic impact of policies like single-family zoning and height limits, […]
Will US DOT’s Self-Driving Car Rules Make Streets Safe for Walking and Biking?
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This week, U.S. DOT released guidelines for self-driving cars, a significant step as regulators prepare for companies to bring this new technology to market. Autonomous vehicles raise all sorts of questions about urban transportation systems. It’s up to advocates to ensure that the technology helps accomplish broader goals like safer streets and more efficient use of urban space, […]
The Threat of Racial Profiling in Traffic Enforcement
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Can urban police forces with histories of racial profiling and brutality be entrusted to carry out traffic enforcement as part of Vision Zero initiatives? In a Twitter chat yesterday, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership asked how to ensure that “law enforcement doesn’t profile or discriminate” when asked to uphold traffic laws. Responding on Cyclelicious, Richard Masoner offers some […]
Finally Some Relief for Memphis Bus Riders
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The shameful state of Memphis’s bus system is one of the more outrageous stories in American transit. When we checked in with the advocates at the Memphis Bus Riders Union in March, they told us the local transit agency, MATA, was running buses so poorly maintained that they were known to catch fire. In the midst of this crisis, local business leaders had marshaled enough cash to restore […]
What Can a Mileage Tax Tell Us That a Gas Tax Can’t?
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Can taxes on driving mileage replace gas taxes as a source of transportation funds? Right now the state of Oregon is testing a mileage tax with an opt-in pilot program called “OreGo.” Participants install a device that tracks their driving and pay 1.5 cents per mile, which is assessed from a special account. Jerry Zelada is one of the 891 […]
Where Walkability and Affordability Overlap in the D.C. Region
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Neighborhoods that are walkable, affordable for lower-income households, and provide access to jobs for people without a car are far too rare. Tracy Hadden Loh, a data scientist at George Washington University, recently completed a study sorting out which places meet this criteria in the D.C. region. She writes at Greater Greater Washington that some walkable areas do remain affordable: In the plot, the economic index is […]
Paris to Return Its Great Public Squares to the People
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If you look at paintings from the pre-automotive era, Paris’s monumental public squares were full of people strolling comfortably. But over time, car traffic has consumed most of these squares. Now, under Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Paris is setting out to remake the city’s squares as great public gathering places. The city is currently in the midst of an initiative to […]
Let Providence Decide the Fate of Its Aging Highway Relic
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The campaign to remove a 1960s-era highway relic in Providence, Rhode Island, known as the 6/10 Connector looked like it could go the distance. Local advocates had built broad support for the idea of replacing the two-mile highway segment with an at-grade boulevard that makes room for transit and bicycling while mending the divide between neighborhoods. But earlier this month, […]
Where Car Commuting Is Shrinking — And Where It’s Not
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Where are Americans making the shift away from driving to work? Crunching newly-released Census data, Yonah Freemark looked at how commute travel is changing in different cities and regions. In general, car commuting in major metro areas declined between 2005 and 2015, but the shift was greater than a couple of percentage points in only a few […]
Seattle’s Decade-Long Shift Away From Solo Car Commuting
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New Census data is out on how Americans commute, and the standout success story is Seattle, where the rate of people who drive alone to work dropped 8.8 percent over the last decade. Tom Fucoloro at Seattle Bike Blog lists some of the highlights — walking is up, the share of women biking to work is rising. All the trends in […]
FHWA’s New Goal: Eliminating Pedestrian and Cyclist Deaths in America
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The Federal Highway Administration wants to eliminate pedestrian and cyclist fatalities “in the next 20 to 30 years.” In a new strategic plan [PDF], the agency calls for reducing serious injuries and deaths 80 percent in the next 15 years, which would be an intermediate goal on the way to zero. FHWA also calls for boosting the share of […]
Complete Streets Won’t Work Without Complete Bridges
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Networks of safe walking and biking infrastructure won’t work very well if they’re interrupted by bridges that are dangerous or stressful to cross. But when transportation agencies fix up bridges, their instinct is often to do the least for walking and biking that they can get away with. Garrett Hennigan at the Washington Area Bicyclists Association reports that DC is […]