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
Uncle Sam Wants You to Drive: 5 Tax Breaks for Cars in the U.S. Tax Code
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It’s April 15. If you bought an electric car in 2013, you can claim a tax break today. If you bought a plug-in hybrid, you can get a tax break today. But if you don’t own a car and walk to work instead? Sorry, Charlie. There’s a whole array of goodies in the U.S. tax […]
Talking Headways Podcast: Let Them Drive Cars
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Quick quiz: What city is the world leader in highway teardowns? San Francisco? Portland? Madrid? Wrong, wrong, wrong. It’s Seoul, South Korea, which has removed 15 urban highways — and is about to remove another. In this week’s Talking Headways episode, Jeff and I talk about what can take the place of a freeway in […]
Talking Headways Podcast: Knight Rider Rides Again
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It was a dark and stormy day in San Francisco and Jeff Wood stayed dry in Woonerf studios, recording the Talking Headways podcast with co-host Tanya Snyder, who was bitter that days after the spring equinox, Washington, DC, was getting hit with another snowstorm. But more importantly — what does the future hold after a […]
How the Self-Driving Car Could Spell the End of Parking Craters
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Here’s the rosy scenario of a future where cars drive themselves: Instead of owning cars, people will summon autonomous vehicles, hop in, and head to their destination. With fewer cars to be stored, parking lots and garages will give way to development, eventually bringing down the cost of housing in tight markets through increased supply. […]
Making Transit Better Isn’t Enough. Driving Needs to Be Worse.
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So transit ridership is up. Everybody knows that. It’s at its highest point since 1956. Right? Well, ridership per capita is still less than half its 1956 point. And by 1956, transit ridership was already at a 40-year low. But with transit growing faster than car travel, at a rate that outpaces population growth, there […]
#GOPHipster Ads Try to Reach Young People With Gas-Price Populism. Oops.
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How embarrassing. The Republican National Committee’s outreach to young potential voters misses the mark so badly they’re just proving the point they were hoping to disprove: The party is absolutely clueless about young people. Exhibit A: the whiny young #GOPHipster in this RNC ad (the party calls it the “Create Your American Dream” campaign but […]
Talking Headways Podcast: From the Free Market to the Flea Market
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You think the conflict between Uber and regular taxi drivers — and cities like Seattle — is bad? Check out how new taxi apps in China are upending the transportation system and central economic planning. Meanwhile, in Houston, a flea market has brought revitalization without gentrification to a depressed area near the airport, and now […]
FHWA Proposes to Let States Fail Their Own Safety Goals With Impunity
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Secretary Anthony Foxx has made clear that safety — and specifically, safety for bicyclists and pedestrians — is a priority of his administration. If that’s true, his administration sure has a funny way of showing it. The Federal Highway Administration’s proposal on safety performance measures allows states to fail to meet half their own safety […]
Talking Headways Podcast: Taking Transit Numbers for a Spin
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What a week! Transit ridership skyrocketed (ahem, by 1.1 percent) to levels not seen since 1956 (depending how you look at it). Radio Shack is shutting down 20 percent of its stores. Is brick-and-mortar retail collapsing — and is it just as well, if getting delivery from Amazon is more efficient than driving to the […]
With Ridership on the Rise, Will Congress Step Up and Invest in Transit?
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Yesterday the American Public Transportation Association reported that Americans made more transit trips in 2013 than in any other year since 1956. Of course, per capita ridership is still low compared to the 1950s, and we’re nowhere near the ridership peaks of the 1940s. But when transit trips increase 1.1 percent while population rises 0.7 […]
Bill Peduto: If Pittsburgh Can Make Streets Bikeable, You Can Do It Anywhere
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Bike advocates from places like Portland, New York, and Boulder got a little Rust Belt envy this week when Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto spoke to the National Bike Summit Tuesday morning. Peduto took office in January with big plans for bike lanes, express bus service, and eventually an expanded light rail network. (He got sworn […]
Talking Headways Podcast: One More Freeway Without a Future
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So, Bertha is stuck digging an enormous highway tunnel underneath Seattle. Jeff Wood and I ask the essential question: Does Seattle really need to spend $2.8 billion on a new traffic sewer, when traffic on the Alaskan Way Viaduct has been plummeting? We also highlight this week’s public conversation about CNU’s big report calling out […]