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
San Diego Planners Envision a Future With More Driving
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When it comes to forward-looking transportation and planning policy, California is out in front of other states, with legislation that requires regional agencies to incorporate carbon reduction goals into their transportation plans. But not all regions are up to the challenge. San Diego seems to be having a hard time mustering the political will to adapt, as […]
3 White Elephants That Help Explain America’s Infrastructure Crisis
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A new report by the Center for American Progress zeros in on an under-appreciated culprit in America’s much ballyhooed infrastructure crisis: All the money we waste on useless roads. CAP highlights three “white elephant projects” that illustrate how billions of dollars in federal infrastructure funds are squandered thanks to a lack of accountability in the transportation funding process. “States receive federal […]
In Oakland, a “Green Street” That Doesn’t Live Up to Its Name
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Downtown Oakland is growing and changing. Earlier this year, Mayor Libby Schaaf said it’s time for the city to “re-envision our roads.” That’s easier said than done, however, and it looks like Oakland is about to blow its chance to re-envision a major downtown street. Ralph Jacobson at GJEL Accident Attorneys blog takes a close look at plans for […]
Miraculous! Philly’s Open Streets Open Eyes During Papal Visit
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Father-son soccer in the street on 16th near Spruce pic.twitter.com/Mt47dbiHJo — Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) September 27, 2015 The official name for it was the “traffic box” — the 4.7-square-mile chunk of center city Philadelphia where incoming motor vehicles weren’t allowed when Pope Francis was in town this weekend. But rather than the traffic nightmare some anticipated, […]
How Portland (Maine) Pairs Car-Share With Parking Reform
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Is your city skittish about reducing parking minimums? Here’s one way to ease people into the idea that new buildings shouldn’t be forced to include lots of parking along with housing, and it comes from Portland — Maine. Network blog Rights of Way reports that this city of 66,000 pairs the reduction of parking mandates with the expansion […]
Without Transit, American Cities Would Take Up 37 Percent More Space
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Even if you never set foot on a bus or a train, chances are transit is saving you time and money. The most obvious reason is that transit keeps cars off the road, but the full explanation is both less intuitive and more profound: Transit shrinks distances between destinations, putting everything within closer reach. A new study published by the Transportation Research Board quantifies […]
Scenes From the Big Car-Free Day in Paris
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-Journee sans voitures, Les Champs Elysees, maintenant. -Day without cars, Champs Elysees, now. -Arabasiz gun, Champs Elysees, simdi. #journeesansvoitures #daywithoutcars #arabasizgun #champselysees #champselysées #nofilter #photooftheday A photo posted by Arkun Demiroglu (@arkundemiroglu) on Sep 27, 2015 at 3:13am PDT The air was noticeably clearer yesterday over the city of Paris, where people walking, biking, skating, […]
The Cafe Table Test — What Outdoor Seating Tells Us About Places
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You can tell a lot about a place by its outdoor seating. So says Darin Givens at ATL Urbanist, who compares a sidewalk in Atlanta where cafe seating looks inviting to a place where it essentially fails. The first photo he shares is from Broad Street in downtown Atlanta: Most every weekday afternoon office workers, GSU students and […]
Boulder’s New Bike Lanes Work Well, But the City May Yank Them Anyway
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Boulder, Colorado, is considered one of the best cities for biking in the U.S. But the car is still king on Boulder’s streets, and designs like road diets and protected on-street bike lanes are still new concepts for people to digest. This summer, the city embarked on a plan to “right-size” four major streets by […]
The World’s Nuttiest Bike Lane NIMBYs Live in a San Diego Beach Community
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Think you’ve read about every possible NIMBY objection to bike lanes? Think again. These recent comments from a public meeting in San Diego’s affluent Coronado beach community are definitely, um, different. At the meeting, city leaders were bombarded with objections — not about parking, traffic, or “scofflaws” on bikes, but about the “visual pollution” of painted stripes on […]
The Movement to Eliminate Traffic Deaths Gains Strength in Texas Cities
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Texas cities are some of the most dangerous places in the U.S. to walk or bike — or drive, for that matter. In 2013, the per capita traffic death rate in Texas was 24 percent higher than the nation as a whole. And because so many people live in the state, it regularly leads the nation in total […]
Cities Won’t Mainstream Cycling By Going Halfway With Infrastructure
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Like any city, Atlanta needs real bike infrastructure to make cycling an appealing option for most people. But like many other cities, a lot of times Atlanta only seems to be able to muster the will to designate leftover, marginal spaces to cyclists, putting them in potentially dangerous, or at the very least, highly uncomfortable positions. Darin at […]