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
FHWA Gleefully Declares That Driving Is Up, Calls for More Highway Spending
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Well, so much for the predictions that changing preferences and new technologies will lead to a car-free utopia. The Federal Highway Administration announced last week that after nine years of steady decline, vehicle-miles-traveled in the U.S. was 1.4 percent higher this June than last June. Apparently, red-blooded Americans everywhere are finally getting back to their […]
Are Children Parasites on Cities’ Finances?
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No sooner did Streetsblog LA roll out its new series (and hashtag) #streetsr4families than the Washington Post asked whether it really benefits cities to attract families at all. After all, wrote Lydia DePillis yesterday, while single twenty-somethings freely spend their money on $12 cocktails and $50 concert tickets, parents avail themselves of taxpayer-funded services like […]
Why It Makes Sense to Add Biking and Walking Routes Along Active Rail Lines
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Despite high train frequency, southeastern Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill River Trail — 60 miles long and about to double in length — provides a stress-free biking and walking experience. All photos from RTC This post is part of a series featuring stories and research that will be presented at the Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike/Pro-Place conference September 8-11 in Pittsburgh. You’ve […]
Talking Headways Podcast: Zoned Out
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Welcome to the dog days of summer! Before skipping town, Congress passed a transportation funding patch so they wouldn’t have to deal with the real problem of the unsustainable way our nation builds and pays for infrastructure. I give the briefest possible rundown of where we are now before Jeff and I launch into discussions […]
Turning a Suburban Retail Bus Stop Into a Place People Want to Go
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This post is part of a series featuring stories and research that will be presented at the Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike/Pro-Place conference September 8-11 in Pittsburgh. Last week, Pittsburgh got its first suburban bus stop makeover. And the results were beautiful. The new IKEA “super-stop” is technically inside the city limits, but it’s along an interstate highway, surrounded […]
Uber and Lyft Take a Step Toward Real Ride-Sharing
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Uber and Lyft have set out to upend the taxi industry in American cities. But are they the traffic-busting “ride-sharing” services they’re often portrayed to be? Not really: Using an app to hail a driver and take you where you’re going isn’t fundamentally different than any traditional for-hire vehicle service. But both Uber and Lyft […]
At Transpo Town Hall, Sec. Foxx Pushes for Local Control, Full Funding
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“Our transportation problems are easy to see but often difficult to explain.” That’s how Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx opened his virtual town hall meeting on the theme “Moving from Uncertainty to Long-Term Transportation Investment” this afternoon. “We have signs that warn you when traffic is ahead,” he went on. “But those signs don’t always tell […]
Missouri Says No to Amendment 7’s Monster Tax Hike for Roads
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Last night, Missourians decided overwhelmingly to reject a ballot initiative that would have raised the sales tax by three-quarters of a cent to pay, almost exclusively, for roads. It would have been the largest tax increase in the state’s history. Voters voted 59 percent to 41 percent to reject the tax. “It’s difficult to pass […]
Study: People in Low-Income Areas More Likely to Be Killed While Walking
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Who is most at risk of being hit by a car? People on foot make up a growing proportion of people killed in traffic — 15 percent in 2012, up from 11 percent in 2007. Children, seniors, and people of color account for a disproportionate share of the victims. So do people living in low-income […]
Talking Headways Podcast: Poor Door Von Spreckelsen
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In this week’s podcast, Jeff and I take on the infamous New York City “poor door,” designed to keep tenants of affordable units segregated from the wealthy residents that occupy the rest of the high-rise at 40 Riverside. In the process, we take on the assumptions and methods that cities use to provide housing, and […]
Congress Hits the Snooze Button on Transpo Funding Until May
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Someone had to cave and last night, it was the Senate. The upper chamber had fought as long as it could to adjust the House transportation bill so it wouldn’t expire when the GOP controls both chambers of Congress. But senators were never willing to actually let the Highway Trust Fund go broke. U.S. DOT […]
Time’s Up: 6 Things to Know About Today’s Transportation Showdown
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Today is the House of Representatives’ last day in session before departing for an August recess full of photo ops and electioneering in their districts. The Senate will stick around DC for one more day before going home. Before that happens, the two houses have to come together on a plan to keep the Highway […]