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
Anti-Rail Candidates Take Aim at High Speed Dreams in the Midwest
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In the latest installment of our series on key governor’s races, here’s the news from Wisconsin and Ohio. Check out our previous coverage of California, Texas, Maryland, Colorado, and Tennessee. Let them serve as a reminder to vote on Tuesday. “I’m Scott Walker. And if I’m elected as your next governor, we’ll stop this train.” […]
Governor Moonbeam versus eMeg: What’s at Stake for Transportation?
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Continuing with our series on key governor’s races, here’s some news on the contest in California. We’ve taken a look at some races in Maryland and Colorado where pro-transit, pro-bike candidates are likely to win. We examined the nuances of a candidate in Tennessee who’s a mixed bag on transportation issues. And yesterday we brought […]
T4America Maps TIGER Grantees: Find One Near You
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Thanks to Transportation for America for putting together this handy map of U.S. DOT’s TIGER grant recipients. It shows the geographical reach of the program, as well as the broad range of projects benefiting from the grants. T4America says: In two batches in February and October 2010, USDOT gave out a total of $2.1 billion […]
Texas Gov Rick Perry Could Get Four More Years to Build Mega-Highways
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This is the fourth installment of Streetsblog Capitol Hill’s series on key governor’s races. Earlier we brought you stories about a candidate who likes bikes but isn’t sure about transit in Tennessee, the choice between light rail and bus rapid transit in Maryland, and how bike paranoia is cutting the GOP off at the knees […]
Will Bike-Phobic Dan Maes Cost the Colorado GOP Major Party Status?
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This is the third installment of Streetsblog Capitol Hill’s series on key governor’s races. Earlier we brought you stories about a candidate who likes bikes but isn’t sure about transit in Tennessee, and the choice between light rail and bus rapid transit in Maryland. Here we turn our attention to Colorado. Colorado is a classic […]
Avoiding the Unintended Consequences of Transit-Oriented Development
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We see it over and over again in our cities. Migration out of central cities hollows out neighborhoods and leaves the people who remain struggling with the consequences of disinvestment. But when development returns to urban areas, the arrival of new residents can impose burdens on people who never left. Often, as amenities come into […]
Even Portland’s Model Transit System Has Labor Disputes
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Rail~volution’s participants were treated to a whole series of workshops titled “Portland: How Did We Do It?” on the last day of the four-day conference. The sessions touted Portland’s excellence on everything from regional partnerships to bike innovations to Metro. But outside the conference, just as TriMet’s General Manager took the stage, dozens of picketing […]
Why Transit Agencies Expand Capacity While They Cut Service
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The past couple of years have been bittersweet for American transit riders. While the Obama administration’s TIGER grant program and livability initiatives have spurred investments in new streetcar and bus projects, service cuts and fare hikes have been the order of the day in cities large and small, as transit agencies cope with shrinking revenues […]
If You Come, They Will Build It: Notes on Livability From Rail~volution
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Those looking for hope in this era of transit service cuts took heart from the words of William Millar, President of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), at Rail~volution yesterday. In his keynote speech, Millar reasons to hope for a better future — despite the fact that 84 percent of APTA members were cutting service, […]
Fighting Freeways: War Stories From Portland
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Rail~volution is underway in Portland, Oregon, bringing together more than 1,000 city planners, engineers, transit advocates, bike policy experts, and elected officials to strategize about making cities and towns better for transit, walking, and biking. Monday started with 15 different workshops that took place around the city, including one highlighting Portland’s “Lost Freeways” – the […]
Filling in the Void Left Behind By Sprawl and Abandonment
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The Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference wrapped up in Cleveland on Friday. It brought hundreds of people together to strategize a way out of the state of abandonment so many urban areas are in. Vacant properties are a symptom of greater social ills: abandonment of cities, poverty, and sprawl. In many places, the foreclosure crisis has […]
HUD Announces Winners of $100M in Sustainability Grants
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Planners in 45 regions in 27 states have a little more to work in their efforts to shape sustainable growth. Yesterday the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the winners of nearly $100 million in grants from its new Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program, intended to connect “housing with good jobs, […]