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
If Larry Hogan Kills Maryland’s Purple Line, It’s Not About Saving Money
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Building the Purple Line, a major expansion of the DC-region Metro system in Maryland, seems like a no brainer. The project is almost fully funded, with federal, local, and private commitments covering most of the expense. It promises to spur development that will provide major economic benefits as well. Business groups in that populous and growing […]
Dallas Highway Teardown PAC Snags Two Council Seats. Next Up: Runoff
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A coalition of Dallas residents trying to build a more walkable, people-friendly city gained some momentum in Tuesday’s election, picking up at least two City Council seats. At stake is the potential replacement of a downtown highway segment with mixed-use development and parks. The balance of power in the council now comes down to a June runoff. There were six […]
The Case for Building a Garden in the Middle of the Street
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Here’s a great example of how excess street space can be repurposed to beautify a neighborhood, improve safety, and bring people together. Branden Klayko at Broken Sidewalk shares this story out of Louisville, where a public utility helped a neighborhood fix a problematic intersection by building a rain garden: One of the top many-problem-one-solution projects we’ve seen is […]
House Votes to Slash Amtrak Funding Just Hours After Horrible Crash
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Just hours after seven people were killed and hundreds injured in an Amtrak derailment near Philadelphia, the U.S. House voted to cut funding for the passenger rail service. Early reports suggest the derailment was caused by excessive speed — exactly the type of crash that could be avoided with a new safety system that Amtrak is in […]
The Oregonian: Run a Red Light and Kill 3 Kids? “Just a Tragic Accident”
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In February, a pickup truck driver in suburban Eugene, Oregon, ran through a red light at 40 miles an hour, killing three children — 4-year-old Tyler Hudson, 5-year-old McKenzie Hudson, and 8-year-old John Day — and critically injuring their mother. The family was walking with the right-of-way in a crosswalk, returning from getting ice cream. The response to this […]
Capital Bikeshare’s Plan to Handle the Rush Hour Dock Shortage
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Full docks are one of the big problems that bike-share users run into. Showing up at your destination and finding yourself without a place to return your bike adds time and erodes convenience and reliability. The problem is especially intense at commuter hubs, and bike-share systems in cities like New York and DC are ramping […]
Too Many Cities Make Their Most Valuable Land Worthless
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This image of downtown Memphis caught the eye of Charles Marohn at Strong Towns. A parking wasteland topped by a tangle of highway spaghetti, it was taken, perfectly enough, from the Bass Pro Shop that now occupies the top of the Memphis Pyramid. So many cities have done the same as Memphis: take some of their most […]
Scott Walker’s Bid to Strip Street Safety From Wisconsin Road Projects
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There’s really no argument: GOP presidential hopeful Scott Walker has been an absolute disaster for transportation progress in Wisconsin. As governor, he’s slashed funding for transit, isolating urban workers in Milwaukee. Meanwhile, he’s increased funding for all sorts of wasteful highway projects, like the billion-dollar widening of I-94 in Milwaukee, pilfering funds for local roads […]
How Seattle Children’s Hospital Took the Lead on Healthy Transportation
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It’s more than a little ironic that in many places, hospitals are some of the worst offenders when it comes to perpetrating unhealthy transportation patterns. Often surrounded by enormous parking decks, hospitals have earned a reputation as isolated institutions hermetically sealed off from surrounding neighborhoods. But that’s beginning to change. Healthcare providers are undergoing a fundamental shift from focusing on […]
Connecticut’s New BRT Line Smashes Ridership Expectations
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March 30 marked the launch of CTfastrak, the 10-mile busway running between Hartford and New Britain that has all the ingredients of real bus rapid transit: exclusive lanes, off-board fare collection, level boarding, and multiple routes using the BRT infrastructure. Five weeks later, the line is living up to the hype. Students from the University of Connecticut are […]
The Real Danger to Children Is Cars, Not Strangers
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Free-range parenting is having a moment in the national media, after neighbors in Silver Spring, Maryland, called the police to report that two children of the Meitiv family were frequently seen — gasp! — walking home from a park. Whether children need to be supervised all the time or should have the freedom to navigate […]
Salt Lake City to Install Nation’s First Protected Intersection for Bicycling
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Salt Lake City is on track to implement America’s first protected intersection for bicycling this summer. The intersection design is based on a Dutch template that minimizes potential conflicts between people biking, driving, and walking. For example, it allows cyclists to make a left turn in two stages without crossing against oncoming car traffic. It will be part of […]