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
After Epic Struggle, the Cincinnati Streetcar Is Finally a Reality
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What a long, difficult journey it’s been for streetcar advocates in Cincinnati. After battling an extremely hostile state government, the project was nearly killed in the early stages of construction by an adversarial mayor. But a groundswell of grassroots support for the project pushed it over the top. The Cincy route is not very long and operates […]
Seattle’s Plan to Woo Neighborhoods Into Adopting Smart Parking Prices
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Seattle has a housing affordability problem. One way to address that is to reduce the amount of parking required in new residential buildings, lowering construction costs and increasing the number of apartments that can be built. But it’s politically difficult to reduce parking requirements because current residents who own cars worry it will make parking more scarce. As long as […]
Wisconsin Pilfers From the Scraps Earmarked For Walking and Biking
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About $830 million in federal funds are set aside each year for walking and biking. That’s less than 2 percent of total federal transportation spending. Even this small provision of dedicated funds has been watered down by the GOP-controlled Congress. The current federal transportation law allows states to transfer half their allocation of ped/bike funds to general road projects. Plenty of states choose to spend […]
No, Uber’s Not Going to Replace Buses, But It Can Complement Them
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Not a day goes by without a raft of stories about “new mobility” providers — ride-hailing companies like Uber or car-share services like Car2Go that have tapped into recent technological advances to provide new ways to get around. In a new report, “Private Mobility, Public Interest” [PDF], TransitCenter deflates some of the hype surrounding these services while laying out […]
Austin Plans a Bus Network Redesign of Its Own
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It’s hard to overstate the influence of Houston’s bus network redesign — an overhaul of the city’s bus routes that aimed to expand access to frequent service. Cities all over the country have taken note and many are reimagining their own bus networks. The transit agency in Austin, Capital Metro, is working on a similar project, and […]
America Has a Terrible Traffic Safety Record Because We Drive Too Much
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Even though the U.S. traffic fatality rate per mile driven has fallen by two-thirds in the last 50 years, America today still has the deadliest road system per capita in the developed world. Much of the improvement from safer driving and better emergency care has been wiped out by increases in total traffic. The American approach to traffic safety has emphasized seatbelt use, vehicle standards, […]
Rhode Island Gov Tries to Snuff Out Grassroots Push for Highway Removal
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A movement has been building in Providence, Rhode Island, to replace the aging 6/10 Connector — an elevated urban highway — with an at-grade surface street that prioritizes transit and bicycling. It’s a solution that other cities have pursued to brilliant effect (intentionally or otherwise), with highway slabs giving way to walkable places. But Rhode Island Governor Gina […]
Civil Rights Advocates Challenge Missouri DOT’s Discriminatory Spending
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Missouri, like many other states, shifts transportation funds from cities to rural areas — it collects most gas tax revenue from urban areas and spends it on roads in the hinterlands. And as in many other states, this amounts to a massive transfer of resources from the places where most people of color live. But […]
How Sprawling Development Worsened the Flooding Crisis in Louisiana
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Thousands of people are still living in hotels and shelters following last month’s devastating floods in the Baton Rouge area. After nearly two feet of rain fell on central Louisiana, 13 people lost their lives and some 40,000 homes were damaged. In a post at Network blog The Urban Edge, Craig Colten, a professor at Louisiana State University, takes a critical look at […]
One Senator’s Eye-Opening Walk Across Connecticut
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It’s difficult to understand just how terrifying it can be to walk on America’s car-oriented streets unless you’ve actually experienced it. Unfortunately, too few people in decision-making roles ever find themselves in that position. That’s why U.S. Senator Chris Murphy’s walk across Connecticut is so refreshing. Murphy set out on foot for a 110-mile constituent engagement tour, and while pedestrian […]
Engineers to U.S. DOT: Transportation Is About More Than Moving Cars
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A trade group representing the transportation engineering profession thinks it’s high time for American policy makers to stop focusing so much on moving single-occupancy vehicles. U.S. DOT is currently deciding how it will assess the performance of state DOTs. Will it continue business as usual and equate success with moving huge numbers of cars? That’s […]
Cheap Gas, More Driving Make 2016 an Especially Deadly Year on U.S. Streets
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The number of traffic deaths in America each year is so staggering, it almost defies comprehension — about 35,000 lives lost is the norm. But 2016 is shaping up to be even worse. Emma Kilkelly at Mobilizing the Region reports on newly-released data from the first half of 2016 showing a disturbing increase in traffic deaths: The National Safety […]