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
What Would Happen If Washington Cuts Transpo Funding 35 Percent?
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The Republicans have retreated from their insistence on cutting transportation spending by 35 percent to match Highway Trust Fund revenues — for now. But the problem is far from solved. As a reminder of the dangers such a policy presents, the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Eno Center for Transportation put out a new report […]
NRDC Poll: Americans Support New Transit Twice as Much as New Roads
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When asked what would solve traffic problems in their community, 42 percent of Americans say more transit. Only 20 percent say more roads. And 21 percent would like to see communities developed that don’t require so much driving. Two-thirds support local planning that guides new development into existing cities and near public transportation. That’s the […]
How Highway Spending Could Become as Transparent as Bike/Ped Spending
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“There’s an inverse proportion of the size of a transportation program to the amount of transparency,” says Deron Lovaas of the Natural Resources Defense Council. While anyone can easily find in granular detail anything they would ever want to know about where bike/ped money goes, and they can get a pretty good idea of what’s going […]
NACTO Beats the Clock With Quick Update of Bike Guide
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Once again, the National Association of City Transportation Officials has proven what an agile, modern coalition of transportation agencies is capable of. It was just a year and a half ago that NACTO released its first Urban Bikeway Design Guide and today, it’s released the first update to that guide. NACTO’s guide is far ahead of the industry standard, […]
September Brings “Back to School” Jump in Traffic Congestion
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Why do traffic delays jump in September? Obviously, fewer people are on vacation. But it’s not just commuters back to the grind getting to and from work. It’s parents dropping their kids off at school, often with even less forgiving start times than an adult workday. Region Forward, a DC-based livability partnership, shows that the […]
Democratic Platform’s Scarce Words on Transportation Fail to Inspire
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President Obama spent Labor Day touting his rescue of the U.S. auto industry, and today, like a chorus of backup singers, the Big Three automakers posted double-digit sales increases in perfect unison. Meanwhile, the Democrats kicked off their convention in Charlotte. Delegates will vote today on the Democratic platform, released late last night. The platform doesn’t say […]
Tennessee DOT Moves Past Road-Widening as a Congestion Reduction Strategy
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In the late eighties and nineties, every traffic issue the Tennessee Department of Transportation faced was assigned the same solution: a bypass. But over the years, the department has come around to a new way of doing things, according to 40-year TDOT veteran Ralph Comer. Comer says the current commissioner, John Schroer, wants to become […]
They Totally Went There: GOP Outlines Extremist Transpo Views in Platform
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In all issue areas, the Republicans outdid themselves on far-right-wing pandering with their new platform, approved yesterday in Tampa. Transportation is no exception. The new platform calls for the end of subsidies for Amtrak and high-speed rail, and for states to have maximum flexibility on transportation spending — unless of course they want to spend […]
Will DOT’s New Freight Council Focus on More Than Trucks?
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On Thursday, DOT Secretary Ray LaHood announced the creation of a new Freight Policy Council, which is charged with coming up with a freight strategic plan. This is a first step toward a sorely lacking national plan around freight. The movement of goods accounts for about a quarter of all transportation-related emissions. Every American is […]
Stroller-Share: Can I Get an Amen?
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Childless urbanites love to hate the stroller. New Yorker Laura Miller started a blog, “Too Big For Stroller,” dedicated to mocking older children who get around the easy way. Commenters on a Greater Greater Washington story about strollers on buses last year showcased surprising vitriol, saying, “Carry your child, like an able-bodied adult should” and […]
Romney Energy Plan: More Drilling, More Oil Dependence
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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney unveiled his energy plan today [PDF]. The idea is to break our addiction to foreign oil — by increasing our addiction to domestic oil. If by “domestic” we mean Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. Essentially, the plan is to go bananas on oil drilling. States would have the right to […]
Finally, the Presidential Race Turns to Transportation
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The Obama campaign has fired the opening salvo in a new presidential campaign front: transportation. The campaign released seven radio ads in key swing states, each playing to major concerns of voters in those states. The ad now on the airwaves in Virginia focuses on the differences between the two tickets on infrastructure spending. Here’s […]