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
Senate’s “Dr. No” Says He’ll Block Transpo Extension Unless Bike/Ped Is Cut
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Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn is known around the Senate as “Dr. No” for his propensity to hold up key legislation, single-handedly, because it contains something not to his liking (or sometimes because he’s upset about something else entirely.) On Veterans Day in 2009, he shocked even his GOP colleagues by blocking veterans’ benefits because he […]
GOP Leader’s Infra “Compromise” Is Just Another Ploy to Kill Bike/Ped
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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has put forth an idea that major news outlets are calling an “olive branch” to President Obama on infrastructure funding. Is he offering to increase spending levels over the starvation program being proposed by Republicans on the House Transportation Committee? No. Is he proposing to include performance measures, making sure […]
Polluters Rejoice! Obama Caves on Proposed Ozone Standard
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This morning, President Obama announced that he would direct the EPA to back off of new ozone standards that would have saved an estimated 12,000 lives [PDF]. They’ll revisit it in 2013. Get used to it. Obama said the action was taken in the interest of “reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our […]
Tennessee Mom Threatened With Arrest For Letting Daughter Bike to School
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It’s back-to-school time, and along with it, the requisite crackdown over kids getting to school by bike. A few years ago, we highlighted cases from Mississippi to British Columbia where authorities stopped kids from walking alone. And now, we have the case of Teresa Tryon of Tennessee, threatened with criminal charges for letting her child […]
President Obama Pushes Congress For a Clean Extension of Transpo Bill
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“I’m calling on Congress, as soon as they come back, to pass a clean extension of the surface transportation bill,” President Barack Obama said from the Rose Garden this morning. “This bill provides funding for highway construction, bridge repair, mass transit systems, and other essential projects that keep our people and our commerce moving quickly […]
With Deadlines Looming, Mica Supports Transportation Extension
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Congress returns from a monthlong recess — oh sorry, “district work period” — next Wednesday. Before September 30, they’ll have to figure out next steps for keeping the transportation program going, assuming there’s no way that the two chambers will come to an agreement about a long-term bill before the current extension expires. Both houses […]
Well That’s a Relief: Hurricane Irene Shouldn’t Affect Gas Prices Much
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Now that we’ve made it through Hurricane Irene, in many cases with less damage than expected, we can turn our attention to the real question: what does this mean for gas prices? Hurricane Irene certainly had an impact on transportation, but don't expect a lasting change in gas prices from it. Photo: NY Daily News […]
Civil Rights Group Demands End to Car-Centric Transportation Policies
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“This is the civil rights dilemma: Our laws purport to level the playing field, but our transportation choices have effectively barred millions of people from accessing it.” So says a report from the Leadership Conference Education Fund, a project of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. The coalition wasn’t involved in the transportation […]
It’s Official: Congress’s Next Spitting Contest Will Be Over the Gas Tax
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Since the 112th Congress convened in January, the federal government almost shut down, the government almost defaulted on its debts, and the FAA was temporarily shuttered. It’s the Crisis Congress, thriving on the chaos of catastrophe. Next up: a bruising fight over funding the transportation system. A few weeks ago, Ben Smith at Politico mentioned […]
Feds Call “All Hands On Deck” For Detroit Transit
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For the last two days, transit experts from around the country have been hunkered down in Detroit to devote their collective expertise to making the Motor City a better city for transit. The Federal Transit Administration convened the panel, which included current and former transit agency leaders from Salt lake City, Denver, Portland, Atlanta and […]
Alex Steffen: We Can’t Avert Climate Change Without Dense Cities
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Alex Steffen goes by the title “planetary futurist,” which makes me realize I should probably spruce up my title to something that makes me sound like I should be wearing a cape, too. What he does is write about sustainable cities, on WorldChanging.com for seven years and more recently in his book, Carbon Zero. He […]
Larry Hanley: Part-Time Labor Won’t Save American Transit
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Streetsblog sat down last week with Larry Hanley, the president of the Amalgamated Transit Union and member of the AFL-CIO executive council. Yesterday, we published the first part of our interview, focusing on movement-building around transit. Here, we had a vigorous discussion about union rules and Buy America provisions that are the subject of some […]