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
Surgeon General’s Warning: Unwalkable Places Are Hazardous to Your Health
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Physical activity is essential to people’s health, but dangerous streets and spread-out, sprawling communities prevent Americans from getting enough of it, says the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy.
Murthy issued a call to action this morning to highlight how walking — and building walkable places — can benefit a nation where chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis afflict [...]
Major MARTA Expansion Could Transform the Atlanta Region
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MARTA hopes to expand its rail service in Fulton and DeKalb Counties. Map: ItsMARTA via WABE
Transit planners in the Atlanta area are getting serious about the largest expansion in MARTA’s history. MARTA officials have proposed new, high-capacity service into North Fulton County and east into DeKalb County that could link important job centers by rail for the [...]
Senate Preserves TIGER Program While House Punts on Long-Term Bill
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Advocates successfully mobilized to prevent the Senate from eliminating the multi-modal TIGER grant program in its long-term transportation bill, but that bill appears to be on hold for at least another five months after the House passed another short-term extension of the current law.
The TIGER program helps cities access federal funds to support projects like [...]
Seattle Policy Honchos Look to Parking Reform to Make Housing Affordable
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They look like houses, but people can’t live in them. Photo: Brett VA/Flickr
Buried under headlines about Seattle Mayor Ed Murray’s plans to battle “economic apartheid” are little-noticed reforms that would reduce or do away with parking quotas that inflate the cost of housing.
Murray’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) Committee released its recommendations yesterday. Noting that about [...]
Senate Committee Moves to Eliminate TIGER Program in Next Transpo Bill
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A TIGER grant helped Normal, Illinois, create a more walkable downtown and new transit hub. Photo: Transportation for America
The Republican-controlled Senate is poised to eliminate the TIGER program, one of the few sources of federal funds that cities can access directly to improve streets and transit.
While the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s outline for its portion of [...]
Can a New Way to Measure Streets Help Advocates Tame Speeding?
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You’ve heard of sensors that can count cars or bikes. Tools like that can help transportation planners make smarter decisions about where bike infrastructure is needed, for example. A new digital tool called Placemeter aims to measure streets at a much more fine-grained level, analyzing a variety of different aspects of movement in an urban environment.
Placemeter’s [...]
Senate Committee Passes DRIVE Act Unanimously After Some Tinkering
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Given the bipartisan gushing that accompanied the release of the DRIVE Act on Tuesday, it came as no surprise that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed the bill unanimously yesterday, with more gushing for good measure.
The insertion of a few little words into the DRIVE Act may lead to safer designs for walking [...]
Inhofe’s DRIVE Act — Not as Big a Disaster as You Might Think
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Sen. Barbara Boxer unveils another stab at a long-term transportation authorization bill — this time as a member of the minority party. Photo: Ali Weinberg/Twitter
No, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s new six-year bill, obnoxiously named the DRIVE Act (Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy) [PDF], won’t usher in a more enlightened era of [...]
The Pendulum Swings Away From Highways on the Dallas City Council
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Half of the Dallas City Council now opposes the construction of a six-lane, limited-access highway along the Trinity River. Image: Army Corps of Engineers via Dallas Morning News
A runoff election Saturday has solidified who’s in and who’s out of the Dallas City Council. At stake were the future of two highway projects: the construction of the Trinity Toll [...]
Brace Yourself: Here Comes Another Attack on Bike/Ped Funding
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Projects like this sidewalk in Bayonne, New Jersey, might not get built without the crucial support of the federal Transportation Alternatives Program. Photo: Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
If petty Congressional attacks on bike/ped funding were a drinking game, you’d be drunk by now. And now two House Republicans want to pour you another shot.
Reps. Sam Johnson (TX) and Vicky Hartzler (MO) [...]