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
Bikes on Bridges: A How-To Guide for Advocates
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The country’s crisis of crumbling infrastructure could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand bicycle access. With one out of every four U.S. bridges deemed deficient, obsolete, or inadequate, a spate of bridge reconstruction is already overdue. And as planners start engineering the improvements, pedestrians and cyclists have to make sure they’re part of the process. […]
House Passes Extension of Transportation Reauthorization
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Remember those heady days in mid-2009, when Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN) introduced an ambitious, half-trillion dollar reauthorization that would transform the country’s infrastructure? What the House passed last night, as part of the continuing resolution that will keep the government running at current spending levels through the end of the fiscal year, was no transformational […]
Rep. Mica Confirmed as Transportation Committee Chair
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Rep. John Mica (R-FL) was confirmed today as the next Chair of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. There have been some contested leadership elections this month but this wasn’t one of them. Mica’s position as chair was basically a foregone conclusion as soon as November’s election results came in. After the Republican conference voted […]
House Punts on Budget, Votes on Yearlong Extension Instead
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Back in February, the Department of Transportation requested a two percent budget increase for next year (FY 2011). [PDF] The extra $2 billion would pay for things like a new Distracted Driver Prevention Program, high speed rail, and livability grant programs. They’re finally getting an answer from Congress, and it’s a resounding “no.” Congress has […]
What the GOP Spending Rollback Would Mean for Transportation
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Back in September, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), now Speaker-elect, told Good Morning America he wanted to “pass a bill this month at 2008 spending levels – you know, before the TARP, before the bailouts, before the stimulus – and let’s put some certainty in the economy.” He continued, “That in itself would save about 100 […]
Would an Infrastructure Bank Have the Power to Reform Transportation?
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Our report yesterday on transportation financing may have left you with a few more questions. We started with a look at TIFIA, which provides credit assistance for infrastructure projects. Many observers see the program as limited by its position inside the DOT and its opaque decision-making process. But what about a National Infrastructure Bank, you […]
Why Reformers Should Care How We Pay for Transportation
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TIFIAs and TIGERs and NIBs — oh my! The alphabet soup of infrastructure funding mechanisms can be alienating even to committed transportation advocates. But with the power of the gas tax diminishing and elected officials refusing to raise it, other financing options are taking on increasing importance. If you’re interested in reforming our transportation system […]
Deficit Commission Pushes For Anti-Sprawl Reforms
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If political pandering and bad economic policies have encouraged sprawl and an autocentric transportation system, better incentives can start to correct past mistakes. Here’s one place to start: the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform report, released this Wednesday. The report has plenty to make anyone squirm. As co-chair Alan Simpson said when he […]
EPA Recognizes Small Towns and Big Cities For Smart Growth Efforts
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When Don White was young, his dad would drive him from the Boston area to Blue Hill, Maine up coastal Route 1. “In those days,” he reminisces, “the road wound through little, small towns. And some of that has been bypassed.” The bypasses have been “hugely controversial, hugely disruptive, hugely expensive,” according to Kate Beaudoin, […]
Clock Ticks on a Popular Way to Pay for Infrastructure
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A few weeks ago, when a new ferry was inaugurated in Puget Sound, Washington Governor Chris Gregoire smashed a bottle of champagne and declared, “God bless this boat.” It had been three years since the leaky electric boats that had ferried passengers between Coupeville, Whidbey Island, and Port Townsend were retired three years ago. The […]
Rahall Says His Transpo Record Is About More Than Just Highways
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Earlier this month, we reported that Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) was in the running for Ranking Member on the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee in the House. We mentioned our alarm that his ideas about transportation seemed limited and road-centric – specifically, that his website’s issue page on Transportation mentioned only highways, water, and broadband. Got […]
Earmark Ban Goes Down to Defeat in the Senate
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The Senate just voted down the Republican proposal to ban earmarks. The proposed ban was met with profound ambivalence in the transportation community. Some, like Rob Sadowsky, Executive Director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, worried that a ban would remove a primary funding mechanism for bike-ped projects. The day after the election, Sadowsky told BikePortland, […]