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
High-Speed Police Chases: Not Worth the Risk
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High-speed police chases have no place in crowded cities. The risk of killing innocent bystanders is just too high to justify maybe preventing the “bad guy” from getting away. Branden Klayko at Network blog Broken Sidewalk reports that Louisville recently revised its police chase policy to become “among the strictest in the country,” and it’s saving lives: In 2012, […]
Parking Madness: Federal Way vs. Montreal
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We’re just getting started with Parking Madness 2016 — our annual hunt for North America’s worst parking craters. So far, Washington, D.C., and Rutland, Vermont, have advanced to the second round. Today’s matchup pits the Seattle suburb of Federal Way against the pride of Quebec — Montreal. It’s the second Canadian parking crater in this year’s competition, reminding us that the United […]
Can Milwaukee Build a Downtown Stadium That’s Not a Disaster?
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A promotional video for the Milwaukee Bucks’ new downtown arena promises the public a “ripple effect” for their investment of hundreds of millions of dollars, saying the stadium will “transform” the neighborhood with development and jobs. The whole thing is pretty over the top. Jeramey Jannene over at Urban Milwaukee has evaluating the recently unveiled stadium design. He notes that, for some […]
Parking Madness: Vancouver vs. Rutland
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Welcome to day two of the 2016 Parking Madness tournament. Yesterday, the assortment of surface parking between the Capitol and Union Station in Washington crushed the parking lots that greet people entering downtown Burlington, Vermont. Today pits “Vancouver’s upscale shopping mall” against the parking crater by the train station in “Vermont’s second city,” Rutland. Vancouver, BC The parking crater around the Oakridge […]
What D.C. Metro Inspectors Found During the System Shutdown
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The D.C. Metro was shut down for 29 hours straight earlier this week while inspectors checked for defects in jumper cables, which transmit power between sections of the electrified third rail, along all the track in the system. To its credit, WMATA publicly documented the process. Stephen Repetski at Greater Greater Washington reports that inspectors found 26 jumper […]
It’s Washington vs. Burlington in the Parking Madness 2016 Tip Off!
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Welcome to Parking Madness, Streetsblog’s annual Sweet 16 tournament of parking craters. What’s a parking crater? Simply put, it’s a depression in the cityscape, a void where car storage has usurped land that should be devoted to buildings. This is the fourth year Streetsblog readers have submitted more than enough entries to field a 16-crater bracket. Thanks to everyone who […]
Architect of Houston Bus Overhaul: “Why Haven’t More Agencies Done This?”
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Last time we checked in on Houston’s bus network redesign, ridership was on the rise just a few months after METRO, the local transit agency, rearranged its routes. The new pattern optimized existing resources, providing more people with access to more frequent bus service without costing more to operate. Leah Binkovitz at The Urban Edge, the […]
D.C. Metro Shutdown Should Be a Wakeup Call: Spend Smart on Transit
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Today’s emergency 24-hour shutdown of the D.C. Metro system is a transit embarrassment of epic proportions. The shutdown follows an electrical fire in a subway tunnel Monday, and will allow for system-wide safety inspections. Metro has been under federal control following a smoke inhalation death caused by a similar problem last year. David Alpert at Greater Greater Washington wonders how the region’s […]
Finally, a Little Accountability for State DOTs on Bike and Pedestrian Safety
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In a win for bike and pedestrian safety, the Federal Highway Administration announced yesterday that it will require state transportation agencies to do something they have never had to do before: set goals to reduce bike and pedestrian fatalities, and track progress toward attaining those goals. The news is part of FHWA’s roll-out of several “performance measures” […]
Imagining a New Future for Empty Garages
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If shared fleets of self-driving cars really do hit the streets in the next decade, some big changes are on the horizon. One of the biggest is that individual car ownership will become much less common. At Market Urbanism, Nolan Gray explores the effect this would have on the way we use the garages attached to typical single-family homes. There’s […]
Gun Lobby’s New Target: The Bus
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Letting people carry firearms on transit vehicles is a new priority for the gun lobby in several states where legislation to expand concealed carry rules to buses and trains is gaining momentum. Proponents of theses bills imagine armed transit riders protecting themselves from would-be assailants. Some states, like Texas, already allow guns on transit. But not everyone thinks crowded buses are a […]
How to Get Airport Transit Right
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The big rail line to the airport is an awfully seductive transit project to many political decision makers. So cities keep heaping resources on flashy airport transit even though the ridership is seldom worth the expense. Toronto, for instance, recently rolled out a new airport line that costs a bundle to ride and is drawing a disappointing number of […]