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
Well That Was Quick: Obama Disavows Mileage Fee Proposal
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The Hill is reporting that the Obama administration has already sworn off a move toward a vehicle-miles-traveled fee. We just reported that an undated draft of the administration transportation proposal included the creation of an office to study the feasibility of implementing such a system to replace the traditional fuel tax. The Hill’s Keith Laing […]
Obama Wants to Study Viability of Mileage-Based Fee for Transpo Revenue
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Thanks to The Hill for reading President Obama’s transportation bill draft [PDF] more thoroughly than I did – they discovered a significant detail that I’d missed. Despite his administration’s insistence that they won’t consider an increase in the gas tax or other user fees, Obama’s bill includes language establishing a Surface Transportation Revenue Alternatives Office […]
President Obama’s Transportation Bill Prioritizes Livability, High-Speed Rail
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A draft of the president’s full transportation bill [PDF], obtained by the semi-underground Transportation Weekly, has started floating around Beltway policy circles. This draft is more informative than the partial bill that started making the rounds last week, but it’s still undated and it’s not necessarily the final proposal. The draft bill closely follows the […]
Mayors Rebel Against State-Controlled Highway Expansion, Fight For Transit
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If your roads are congested, your bus lines are getting cut, and money is flowing to brand-new roads to nowhere, don’t blame your mayor. Chances are, he or she is as mad about it as you are. Mayors are speaking out against ineffective transportation funding mechanisms that direct scarce resources to sprawling highways and away […]
How Much Do You Walk? …And Other Questions From America Walks
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Got five minutes to help strengthen and refine pedestrian advocacy? America Walks has put out a survey on walking habits, and they hope the answers will advance understanding of why people walk and what would motivate people to walk more. The survey explores, among other questions: What motivates and sustains avid walkers? What deters others? […]
President Obama Expected to Release Proposed Transportation Bill
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The news agency BNA is reporting that the president appears likely to release his proposed draft of a transportation bill soon. The administration is circulating a partial draft of its proposed bill [PDF], signaling that a release could be imminent. The administration rarely writes its own legislative language to submit to Congress, and indeed, the […]
Without Adequate Federal Funding, Will States Raise Their Own Gas Taxes?
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Connecticut state senators just voted to increase the state gas tax by three cents. The New Hampshire House Speaker has proposed cutting theirs by five cents – but only for two months, to help drivers bear the pain of high gas prices. In Georgia, the gas tax jumps every time gas prices go up by […]
What the Feds Giveth, the States Taketh Away — From Bike/Ped Programs
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It’s rescission time again, folks. That Washington lingo for “gimme gimme.” We had a name for people who “rescinded” gifts back in elementary school but it’s ethnically insensitive so I won’t say it. Suffice it to say, if little kids call you a name for doing something, it’s probably not a super popular thing to […]
$100 Million for HUD Sustainability Program Survives in This Year’s Budget
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With multiple versions of two years’ worth of federal budgets flying around, some details are still emerging about what’s in and what’s out. At the end of last week we heard that the FY2011 budget, which has been sent to the president for his signature, includes $100 million for the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. According […]
Senate Introduces a Narrower Bill for Wider Sidewalks
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Like everyone else, Safe Routes to School advocates are scaling back. Last year, a bill introduced in the Senate asked for $600 million to enhance pedestrian and bike safety near schools. “We were working in a pretty different environment,” said Margo Pedroso, deputy director of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. “Everybody was talking […]
High-Speed Rail Funds Get Slashed in Detailed Budget Plan
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Just when we thought transportation had gotten off relatively easy in the shutdown-aversion budget deal: The House Appropriations Committee has released details [PDF] on the budget agreement between the two houses, including more information on the agreed-to $38.5 billion in cuts. Where we’d heard before that high-speed rail was getting a $1.5 billion haircut, down […]
You Can Open Your Eyes Now: Budget Deal Spares Transpo the Worst
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It’s Monday morning, and the government is open for business. In a last-minute agreement just an hour before the current budget extension was to expire Friday night, Democrats and Republicans avoided the nuclear option of a government shutdown. They cut $38.5 billion from the 2010 budget; $78.5 billion from President Obama’s 2011 budget proposal. Some […]