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
Houston’s Big Chance to Turn Back the Tide of Car Traffic
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There’s a lot riding on Texas DOT’s $7 billion plan for downtown Houston freeways. TxDOT has been working for more than a decade on a plan for the three highways that roughly form a circle around the city — I-45, I-10, and U.S. 59. Last April, the agency revealed a draft version of the plan, and another revision […]
The More People Live and Work in Central Philly, the Less Parking They Use
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Here’s a great example of a “virtuous cycle” in action: Center City Philadelphia has seen the number of parking spaces decline recently as population and jobs continue to rise at a healthy clip. You might expect one result to be a downtown parking crunch, but that’s not the case at all, reports Jim Saksa at Plan Philly: If everyone drove to […]
“Opportunity Score” Shows Best Places to Find a Job Without Owning a Car
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Which places put economic opportunity within reach for residents who don’t own cars? There’s a new tool to evaluate housing locations according to the accessibility of jobs via transit and walking. Redfin, the company that runs Walk Score, today released “Opportunity Score,” which ranks millions of addresses across 350 cities based on the number of jobs within a 30-minute walk […]
Philly Gets a Boost From U.S. DOT to Mend Neighborhoods Split By a Highway
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Earlier this year Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said he wants to help repair the damage done to cities by highways. And this week U.S. DOT took some steps to make that haappen, announcing the winners of its “Every Place Counts Design Challenge.” The four chosen cities (out of 33 applicants) will get technical assistance from U.S. DOT to tear down or cap highways, or […]
How to Counter the Victim-Blaming Impulse After a Traffic Crash
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When a driver strikes someone walking or biking, the tendency to blame the victim runs deep. Ask Raquel Nelson, who lost her young son to a hit-and-run driver, then got convicted for vehicular homicide, even though she was just trying to walk across the street with her children from a bus stop to her home. Or […]
DC Insurers Try Scare Tactics to Avoid Paying Victims of Reckless Driving
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If a driver strikes you while you’re walking or biking in D.C., there’s a good chance you won’t be allowed to sue for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering under the law. That’s thanks to a legal standard known as “contributory negligence” in effect only in D.C. and a handful of states. Contributory negligence holds that if a […]
6 Principles to Make Self-Driving Cars Work for Cities, Not Against Them
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Self-driving cars are coming, and maybe sooner than we think. But the question of how they will shape cities is still wide open. Could they lead to less traffic and parking as people stop owning cars and start sharing them? More sprawl as car travel becomes less of a hassle? More freedom to walk and bike […]
What If “Commuter Rail” Was for Everyone, Not Just 9-to-5 Commuters?
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Rhode Island has been investing in commuter rail — long distance service connecting Providence to Boston and towns in between. But lackluster ridership at a new park-and-ride rail station at the end of the line (by a Walmart!) is sapping support for much more useful investments, reports Sandy Johnston at Itinerant Urbanist. Anti-rail critics are piling on. The libertarian Rhode Island Center […]
How Leadership in 1972 Saved Boston From Highways and Shaped Today’s City
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There aren’t too many places in the United States like Boston — truly walkable cities with good transit. And it didn’t happen by accident. Boston could have ended up like so many other American cities, criss-crossed by elevated roads and crammed with parking structures. In the early 1970s, transportation planners wanted to gouge highways through some of its most densely populated neighborhoods — […]
Send Us Your Nominations for the Sorriest Bus Stop in America
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Streetsblog’s “Sorriest Bus Stop in America” contest is back by popular demand. Last year, readers nominated dozens of forlorn bus stops to call attention to the daily indignities and dangers that bus riders have to put up with. This sad, windswept patch of grass between two highway-like roads in a St. Louis inner suburb took the […]
Columbus Wins $50 Million “Smart City” Grant. What Put It Over the Top?
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U.S. DOT announced the winner of its $50 million “Smart City” grant yesterday, and Columbus, Ohio, bested finalists San Francisco, Portland, Austin, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and Denver for the prize. Many other cities had applied for this federal funding to demonstrate how new technologies can improve urban streets and transportation. In its application, Columbus focused on improving job access […]
Massive Highway Expansion Threatens to Destroy Tampa Neighborhoods
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Most people still think of Tampa as a sprawling, car-centric town, but that is starting to change. In 2014, Smart Growth America [PDF] found that Tampa is shifting toward a more walkable development pattern. The city is starting to build out a bicycle network, and its Riverwalk project is bringing people out to stroll downtown. Tampa’s recent progress could be overwhelmed, however, […]