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
Parking Madness 2015! First Match: Camden vs. Mobile
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Happy Selection Thursday, Streetsblog readers — our annual Parking Madness tournament kicks off today. Over the next few weeks, these 16 cities and towns will vie for the coveted Golden Crater, awarded to the most horrendous pit of parking to blight an American downtown. It’s year three of this competition, and we’re in absolutely no […]
What Else Could You Fit Downtown Instead of 93,000 Parking Spaces?
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In most American cities, parking lots are so ubiquitous and unremarkable, they mostly escape notice. But for Darin Givens, who lives in downtown Atlanta and writes at Network blog ATL Urbanist, they serve as a constant, inescapable presence. He’s been thinking about what all that space could do besides store cars. So he did the math. […]
Engineering Establishment Sets Out to Purge Deviant Bikeway Designs
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The National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices might be the most influential group of American bike policy makers you’ve never heard of. The committee shapes street design standards in the United States to a large extent. Their recommendations become part of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, a guide to street markings, signs, and […]
Bipartisan Bill Would Establish Small “Vision Zero” Grant Program
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As more cities adopt Vision Zero plans to eliminate traffic deaths, a new proposal in Congress aims to help implement them. Problem is, the amount of funding is a drop in the bucket. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Vern Buchanan (R-FL), co-chairs of the Congressional Bike Caucus, have introduced a bill they’re calling the Vision Zero Act of […]
Why Is Bus Ridership Slipping in Chicago? It’s the Service, Stupid.
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New transit ridership figures are making the rounds, and the news out of Chicago is that bus trips declined while rail trips increased. The emerging narrative is that bus ridership in Chicago has been in continuous decline, but that’s not actually the case, writes Daniel Kay Hertz at Network blog City Notes. Instead, he says, service […]
U.S. Transit Ridership Continued Upward Climb in 2014, Thanks to NYC
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Transit ridership continued to climb in American cities last year, even as gas prices sank. The American Public Transit Association is out with new data on the number of transit trips in the United States — 10.8 billion in 2014, the highest in 58 years. Total transit trips were up about 1 percent compared to 2013, […]
A House in the Suburbs, Three Kids, and No Cars
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For many people who have children and live in the suburbs, being without a car is definitely not a choice. But when a family with kids chooses to go car-free, it’s so rare that it tends to inspire curiosity. When a suburban Toronto family decided to ditch its cars, the Toronto Star wrote a full […]
Will Cities Like Stockton Fall Back Into Boom and Bust Growth?
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Stockton, California, was one of the bigger cities in a wave of recent municipal bankruptcies brought on, in part, when the cycle of never-ending, sprawling growth went bust. But now that the bankruptcy has run its course and the economy is on the mend, Jon Mendelson at Stockton City Limits wonders whether the same old mentality will reassert […]
Sprawl Costs the Public More Than Twice as Much as Compact Development
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How much more does it cost the public to build infrastructure and provide services for sprawling development compared to more compact neighborhoods? A lot more, according to this handy summary from the Canadian environmental think tank Sustainable Prosperity. To create this graphic, the organization synthesized a study by the Halifax Regional Municipality [PDF] in Nova Scotia, […]
How State DOTs Brush Off the Discriminatory Impact of Highway Projects
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When it’s time to expand or build a highway, generally speaking, it’s communities of color that bear a disproportionate burden of the impact. Unlike 60 years ago, today we have laws that protect people from the discriminatory use of state authority — at least in theory. But in practice, when highway projects threaten to demolish, […]
Survey: 100 Million Americans Bike Each Year, But Few Make It a Habit
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Many Americans have bikes at their disposal and go for a spin at least once a year, though few bike regularly for transportation, according to a survey [PDF] conducted by Breakaway Research Group for People for Bikes, the industry-backed advocacy organization. While most Americans want to bike more, 54 percent said that fear of getting […]
Seattle Mayor: “More Choices Means Fewer Cars on Our Streets”
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On Monday, Mayor Ed Murray unveiled “Move Seattle” — a 10-year vision for transportation that synthesizes planning for street safety, transit, and bicycling. “More choices means fewer cars on our streets,” Murray said when announcing the plan. “That means, when you do need to drive, you’ll be up against less traffic. And with roads less […]