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
Arizona Police Arrest “Jaywalking” Professor in Racially-Charged Incident
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Arizona earned its reputation for police excess yet again recently when an officer demanded identification of an African-American pedestrian — for the crime of walking in a campus street to avoid construction on the sidewalk — and got violent when she refused to produce it. Arizona State University professor Ersula Ore was walking around some […]
FHWA: Bike-Ped Investments Pay Off By Cutting Traffic and Improving Health
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Nine years after launching a program to measure the impact of bike and pedestrian investments in four communities, the Federal Highway Administration credits the program with increasing walking trips by nearly a quarter and biking trips by nearly half, while averting 85 million miles of driving since its inception. In 2005, the FHWA’s Nonmotorized Transportation […]
371 City Leaders Ask Boxer For More Local Control Over Bike/Ped Money
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Last week, 371 mayors and other city leaders wrote a letter [PDF] to Sen. Barbara Boxer, chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, in support of local control over transportation dollars for bike and pedestrian projects. About two-thirds of the signatories are mayors, from cities as big as Philadelphia and Los Angeles and as […]
Talking Headways Podcast: Helmet Hair
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Did you wear your helmet when you biked to work this morning? Whether you did or you didn’t, it’s up to you. So why are there so many people shrieking about it? On one side, the 85-percenters, overstating the protection helmets offer against head injuries. On the other side, the 3-footers, claiming that it’s actually […]
Is Obama Opposed to the Bipartisan Gas Tax Proposal or Just Noncommittal?
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Yesterday, The Huffington Post ran this headline: “White House Appears More Open To A Gas Tax Hike.” Minutes later, The Hill published this one: “White House opposes gas tax hike to fix transportation funding.” So, which is it? The Hill’s headline was based on a statement by new White House press secretary Josh Earnest, who said about […]
Talking Headways Podcast: Rondo Revisited
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Finally, there is a light rail line connecting the Twin Cities. The Green Line, running 11 miles from Union Depot in downtown St. Paul to Target Field in downtown Minneapolis, cost $957 million and took decades to build. The process of choosing stations was contentious but eventually incorporated the proposals of low-income communities that wanted […]
Senators Murphy (D) and Corker (R) Propose 12-Cent Gas Tax Increase
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There are several proposals on the table to stave off the impending insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund (which pays for transit, biking, and walking projects too) in two months. Just now, two senators teamed up to announce one that might actually have a chance. Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) have proposed […]
The “Worst Cities for Driving” Include a Lot of America’s Best Cities
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Don’t you just hate going to a really lively city with a pulsing street life? Where there’s a lot going on and people can walk from one place to the next? You might if you’re trying to drive there. And once again, NerdWallet has delivered the windshield perspective on America’s cities. The pop-finance website’s new […]
Talking Headways Podcast: A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings In the Metro
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The metro is coming to Loudon County, Virginia. Eventually. The Silver Line expansion that opens this summer will only go as far as Reston, but by 2018 it’ll be in Loudon, one of the nation’s fastest-growing — and wealthiest — counties. As the county’s population continues to grow — especially among communities of color — will […]
How Shared Vehicles Are Changing the Way We Get Around
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Cities around the country are cracking down on ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, conducting sting operations and sending cease and desist letters, but that doesn’t seem to be slowing down the meteoric rise of shared transportation. The Shared-Use Mobility Center launched yesterday at a policy summit for shared-use transportation in Washington, DC. Here are […]
Trucker in Tracy Morgan Crash: Lay Off, It Was an “Accident”
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If my ACCIDENT occurs with no media spotlight i am issued a few traffic tickets. The excuse of me being up 24 hours is complete BS! — Kevin Roper (@Kevinmoneytalks) June 10, 2014 Kevin Roper, the Walmart trucker who reportedly slammed into a limo bus carrying several comedians early Saturday morning, is having his say […]
“Every Street’s Going to Prioritize Pedestrians”: MoveDC’s Lovely Fine Print
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Livable streets advocates all over the country are buzzing about DC’s far-sighted new transportation plan, called MoveDC. So yesterday Streetsblog sat down with some of the people responsible for writing and implementing the plan. I spoke to Matt Brown, the District Department of Transportation’s new acting director; Colleen Hawkinson, strategic planning branch manager at DDOT’s Policy, […]