Posts by Tanya Snyder — Guest Contributor
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Debt deal could mean more painful cuts for transportation
The House and Senate are getting close to voting on a deal, reached over the weekend, to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending. Keep reading…
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The streets and the courts failed Raquel Nelson
Last week, many reported the horrific story of Raquel Nelson, whose four-year-old son was killed as she attempted to cross the street with him to reach their home. Nelson was convicted of reckless conduct, improperly crossing a roadway and second-degree homicide by vehicle, all for the crime of being a pedestrian in the car-centric Atlanta suburbs. The conviction carried a… Keep reading…
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Bipartisanship brings zilch for bike-ped in Senate outline
Correction: This article, originally posted on Streetsblog yesterday, reported yesterday that the outline of the Senate bill appeared not to preserve dedicated funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs. It has come to Streetsblog’s attention that the complete draft of the bill will include a hard commitment to bike-ped programs. Senate staff tells Streetsbog… Keep reading…
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GOP transportation bill’s new direction is the same old one
The transportation reauthorization proposal that House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica unveiled last week calls for $230 billion over six years, cutting 33 percent out of current spending levels. The plan maintains the current 80/20 split between highways and transit funding, supports state infrastructure banks in lieu of a national one, and expands the popular… Keep reading…
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Put your (transportation) money where your mouth is, Governor McDonnell
On Earth Day last Friday, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell issued a “transportation challenge” to the people of his state: to “try a form of transportation other than driving alone once every two weeks.” The language he used would please any reformer: Virginians must begin a fundamental shift in the way we travel to take greater advantage of the… Keep reading…
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Will the Silver Line produce sprawl like highways do?
Here in the Washington, DC area, our Metro system is expanding with the Silver Line. It’s always great to see transit flourishing, and it will be nice to be able to take the Metro all the way to Dulles without switching to the bus. But does transit expansion give the official thumbs-up to people moving farther and farther outside the urban core? The Silver Line will go all the… Keep reading…
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Can the US make BRT work as well as in Latin America?
In the DC area, bus rapid transit is sometimes seen as the choice of people who don’t really want transit to succeed. Democrat Martin O’Malley and local environmentalists lobbied for light rail on the Purple Line, for example, while Republican Bob Ehrlich’s push for BRT was largely seen as an effort to “obfuscate, alter, study and delay”… Keep reading…
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GAO: Trucking the least efficient mode of freight shipping
Freight transportation, which accounts for nearly a quarter of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, doesn’t get as much attention as passenger transportation because most people don’t feel it affects them as much. But more than 15 million trucks deliver 70 percent of the goods this country consumes — and the GAO says that’s a mistake. The… Keep reading…
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Senate committee backs infrastructure, but not bike lanes
“We need to take care of this sooner than later,” Senator. Barbara Boxer said yesterday morning in reference to a surface transportation reauthorization. “We can’t keep doing extension after extension.” Before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee even has all its members named (that should happen in the next day or so, according… Keep reading…