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
GAO: Mileage Fee Could Be More “Equitable and Efficient” Than Gas Tax
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While governors debate raising (or eliminating) their states’ gas taxes, buzz is building about mileage-based fees, or a vehicle-miles-traveled charge. A House provision to ban U.S. DOT from studying such a fee has gone away (along with its sponsor), while Rep. Earl Blumenauer is trying to get the Treasury Department to look into how it could […]
What Does It Mean That LaHood Isn’t on the Second-Term List? Nothing.
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A White House official yesterday named three Cabinet members who are staying on for Obama’s second term and set off a storm of speculation about those he didn’t name — among them, Ray LaHood. The fact is no one knows yet whether the transportation secretary will stay on for the second term or not, or for a part of […]
Do T&I Committee Members Get the Transpo Needs of American Cities?
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Who will be looking out for the interests of transit riders in the 113th Congress? It’s easy to figure it out, said Cap’n Transit over the weekend: Just check whether they have an R or a D next to their names. The Cap’n ranked House Transportation Committee members, from both parties, by the percentage of car-free […]
Study: Shorter Blocks May Be the Key to Cutting Traffic in Small Cities
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It’s well-established that density and mixed-use development reduce driving. Right? But strategies like those don’t work the same way everywhere, according to new research published in the Journal of Transport and Land Use. While in major cities, denser development is linked to lower rates of driving, researchers found that in smaller cities it might not […]
Mica’s New Post Gives Him a Good Vantage Point For Sniping at Amtrak
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Perhaps Rep. John Mica’s most remarkable legacy as chair of the House Transportation Committee is the single-minded focus he gave to attacking Amtrak. Under the guise of wanting it to succeed, Mica has repeatedly excoriated it as a “Soviet-style monopoly” and a waste of taxpayer dollars. He’s tried to sell off its only profitable line, […]
What Do Anti-Density NIMBYs and Road-Wideners Have in Common?
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Matt Yglesias made an excellent point about anti-density NIMBYs over at Slate yesterday. Writing about opposition to multifamily residential construction in the tony neighborhood near Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis, Yglesias wondered how much value residents really place on keeping the area a “single-family residential community.” Just because there’s value in something doesn’t mean people are willing […]
Walk Score Ranks the Bikeability of Every Address in 36 Cities
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Walk Score came out with its bikeability rankings in the spring, but they were only at the citywide level. If you wanted to plug in your address and come up with a custom rating for your own address, like you can with Walk Score, the system wasn’t quite ready. That all changes today. Using an […]
New Black Box Rule Isn’t Enough to Hold Drivers Accountable For Ped Crashes
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Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed a new rule requiring automakers to install event data recorders, known as EDRs or black boxes, in all light passenger vehicles. While the rule would expand the number of vehicles equipped to record critical information in the moments preceding a crash, that alone won’t aid […]
Ford Tries to Sell More Cars By Looking to a Future With Fewer Cars
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Ford has spent the last few years fretting about how to reach out to Gen Y. The car company made news earlier this year when it re-designed its 2015 Mustang to appeal to buyers born between 1980 and 1999. (Apparently Gen Y just screams “shark-nosed grille and round headlights” to Ford.) Last year, Ford turned to […]
Seven Jiu-Jitsu Moves for Advocates to Use MAP-21 to Their Own Advantage
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OK, truth: Raise your hand if you find federal transportation legislation intimidating and incomprehensible. I thought so. Me too. The problem, as you know, is that it’s enormously important that advocates not only understand the new transportation law, MAP-21, but that they understand it in granular detail so they can find the small opportunities buried […]
A “Movement For Movement” Puts Walking Front and Center
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Six weeks after my daughter was born, my midwife asked me if I was getting any exercise. I confessed I wasn’t. I hadn’t figured out a new routine that included exercise, my old activities weren’t baby-friendly, I just didn’t have the time, and I wasn’t up for anything high-impact. She recommended I try walking for […]
Surgeon General Announces Call to Action on Walking
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Walking can seem like a rather mundane thing to get organized about, until you realize that it’s a direct challenge to car-oriented transportation and it’s the best thing people can do for their health. Then walking is downright revolutionary. Not only that, but it can be joyful. That was the message that the U.S. Surgeon General, […]