Tanya Snyder
Tanya became Streetsblog's Capitol Hill editor in September 2010 after covering Congress for Pacifica Radios Washington bureau and for public radio stations around the country. She lives car-free in a transit-oriented and bike-friendly neighborhood of Washington, DC.
Recent Posts
How TIGER Transformed Transportation Planning — And Lived to Tell About It
| | No Comments
When the buzz about a new, stimulus-funded, discretionary transportation grant program started to circulate in 2009, some environmentalists opposed it. They worried it would be a slush fund for the Federal Highway Administration, used to build unnecessary roads that would aggravate sprawl and pollution. But insiders knew that wasn’t how the new Obama administration would […]
FRA Responds: Amtrak Will Be Able to Use “Proven” Trainsets
| | No Comments
On Monday, we featured a Systemic Failure post about FRA regulations in our morning round-up from the Streetsblog Network. Systemic Failure indicated — and Streetsblog repeated — that the FRA was unwilling to change its rules to allow Amtrak to use “off-the-shelf” trainsets and other equipment. The Systemic Failure post consists almost entirely of the FRA’s own words, from its […]
How Amtrak Can Provide World-Class Service on the Northeast Corridor
| | No Comments
Yesterday was a tough day to try to get attention for a Senate hearing on the future of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. After all, at least one senator had gotten a poisonous letter and everyone on Capitol Hill was on high alert. What’s more, the Amtrak hearing coincided with the vote on gun control, one of […]
Reps. Duncan (R) and Nadler (D) Will Lead New House Panel on Freight
| | No Comments
MAP-21 pushed U.S. DOT to get serious about freight: In recent months, the agency has announced the creation of a national freight policy, a National Freight Advisory Committee, and a Freight Policy Council, as mandated by the bill. Now the House Transportation Committee is getting in on the action. The committee announced today that Rep. John Duncan […]
Counting Bikes and Cars Without a Clipboard
| | No Comments
Liberate yourself from government transportation data that doesn’t tell you what you need to know! Break the chains of ignorance about how streets in your town are being used! Declare your independence from five-year-old data sets in PDF spreadsheets! Advocates have for too long been at the mercy of the limited data on travel patterns they […]
Study: Too Many Drivers Fail to Look for Pedestrians When Turning Left
| | No Comments
Drivers turning left are a leading cause of pedestrian crashes in urban areas. Where drivers can only turn left with a green left-turn arrow, pedestrians are more protected. But when drivers are watching oncoming traffic for a chance to make their turn, they tend not to be as vigilant as they should to watch for […]
What Should the Surgeon General Say to Get More People Walking?
| | No Comments
What if cars came with a Surgeon General’s warning like the ones that come on cigarette packs: “Sitting in this seat could lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, and divorce.” Surgeon General Regina Benjamin is getting ready to go halfway there. She announced in December that she’d be issuing a call to action on […]
How Much Driving Is Avoided When Someone Rides a Bike?
| | No Comments
If Jane Doe rides her bike a mile to the post office and then back home, is it fair to assume she just avoided two miles of driving? And can we then assume that she prevented 2.2 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted? That’s more or less the way most agencies calculate averted vehicle-miles traveled. One […]
Congress to U.S. DOT: Streets Aren’t Safe Until They’re Safe For Everyone
| | No Comments
Yes, traffic fatalities have been (mostly) going down, but as long as cyclist and pedestrian fatalities keep going up, we can’t truly say our streets and roads are getting safer. That’s the message from 68 members of Congress to one pretty receptive audience: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. In their letter to LaHood, sent on Saturday, […]
Study: Homes Near Transit Were Insulated From the Housing Crash
| | No Comments
If you live close to a transit station, chances are you’ve weathered the recession better than your friends who don’t. Your transportation costs are probably lower, since you can take transit instead of driving. Transit-served areas are usually more walkable and bikeable too, multiplying your options. And while home values plummeted during a recession that […]
Will Big Highway Projects Have to Consider Climate Change?
| | No Comments
Since 1970, the National Environmental Protection Act has required federal agencies to consider the impacts of their projects on air, water, and soil pollution — but not on climate change. Until recently, carbon dioxide, which causes global warning, wasn’t classified as a pollutant and so couldn’t be regulated under environmental laws. The EPA in 2009 […]
Is ASCE Failing to Tell America to Spend Wisely on Infrastructure?
| | No Comments
The American Society of Civil Engineers released its new report card for U.S. infrastructure yesterday. The topline grades: The country’s “GPA” has gone from a D four years ago to a D+; roads have gone from a D- to a D; transit has stayed steady at a D; and rail made the biggest leap, from […]