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
Seattle Doesn’t Need a Highway on Top of Its New Underground Highway
| | No Comments
The construction of Seattle’s budget-busting underground waterfront highway has been a great reminder of why car-based urban megaprojects are such a bad idea. The one advantage of the tunnel is that it would allow for better walking, biking, and transit connections on surface streets by the waterfront. The trouble is, Seattle is on track to waste that opportunity by […]
The Stress of Navigating Unwalkable Bus Stops With a Wheelchair
| | No Comments
Pedestrian access to transit is important. A recent study by TransitCenter found that people who use transit most often tend to walk to the bus or train. But as our “Sorriest Bus Stop in America” contest highlighted, there are some very serious challenges on this front in American cities. The problem of lousy walking access to transit is compounded […]
When Cities Force Developers to Widen Roads, Everyone Loses
| | No Comments
It’s a common practice for cities to make developers widen a street when they put up a new building. The thinking is that development creates car trips that must be accommodated with more asphalt. But new research suggests these policies don’t help anyone. The main effect is to increase the cost of building, making housing less affordable. “As traffic management […]
Earth to U.S. DOT: Streets Succeed When They Do More Than Move Cars
| | No Comments
What makes a street successful? Does a street succeed when it’s economically productive, when it helps reduce carbon emissions, and when people can conveniently and safely get around using a variety of transportation modes, regardless of age, ability, or social status? Or does success boil down to moving as many cars as fast as possible? The way public agencies answer these […]
Stark Divisions Between Dems and GOP on Climate Impacts of Transportation
| | No Comments
How polarized are the two political parties on key questions about transportation policy and climate change? As you can imagine, the answer is “very.” The senior Democrat and Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — California’s Barbara Boxer and Oklahoma’s Jim Inhofe, respectively — each wrote an opinion this week for the Eno Center for […]
Portland Will Connect Streets Over a Highway With a Car-Free Bridge
| | No Comments
Here’s one way to heal some of the damage created by urban interstates. Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland reports that the city has won a $2.6 million state grant to help it complete a key bike route. To fill in the missing segment, Portland has to create a path across a big sunken highway. So the city will […]
Carless Renters Forced to Pay $440 Million a Year for Parking They Don’t Use
| | No Comments
Many residents of American cities can’t escape the high cost of parking, even if they don’t own cars. Thanks to policies like mandatory parking requirements and the practice of “bundling” parking with housing, carless renters pay $440 million each year for parking they don’t use, according to a new study by C.J. Gabbe and Gregory Pierce in […]
An American Take on the “Bus Stop of the Future”
| | No Comments
Four years ago, the regional transit agency in Paris, RATP, set out to create the “bus stop of the future.” This bus stop would be designed to give riders and even passersby a comfortable place to relax. In addition to a sleek shelter, it featured a bike-share station, a library, and snacks and coffee. Inspired by that example, College Park, […]
State DOTs to Feds: We Don’t Want to Reveal Our Impact on Climate Change
| | No Comments
Every year state DOTs receive tens of billions of dollars in transportation funds from the federal government. By and large, they can do whatever they want with the money, which in most states means wasting enormous sums on pork-laden highway projects. Now that U.S. DOT might impose some measure of accountability on how states use these […]
Wisconsin’s Anti-Urban Policies Fed Milwaukee’s Notorious Racial Segregation
| | No Comments
After Milwaukee police shot and killed 23-year-old Sylville Smith, setting off a violent confrontation between protesters and police in the predominantly black neighborhood of Sherman Park last weekend, news outlets looked at how the region’s history of discrimination set the stage for an uprising. Milwaukee is one of the most segregated and unequal cities in the country, saddling its black […]
Study: High-Traffic Arterial Roads Reduce Quality of Life, Even Blocks Away
| | No Comments
Seminal research by Donald Appleyard in the 1970s found the volume of traffic on a street affects quality of life for residents in profound and unexpected ways. For example, the amount of social contact people had with their neighbors was curtailed for those who lived on high traffic streets compared with those living on quieter streets. People even defined their “home […]
A Year After Houston’s Bus Network Redesign, Ridership Is Up
| | No Comments
After years of declining bus ridership, last August Houston METRO overhauled service patterns around the city, updating the bus network for the first time since the 1970s. Practically overnight, Houston’s network changed from a hub-and-spoke model to a more grid-like system designed to expand access to frequent service to more of the city. Night and weekend service dramatically […]