Angie Schmitt
Recent Posts
All the Best Places in Cleveland Are Illegal Under Its Current Zoning
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East Fourth Street in Cleveland could not be built under the city’s current zoning code without a host of variances. Image: City of Cleveland via Green City Blue Lake
Cleveland’s first zoning code was written in 1929, and since then it’s been amended in ways that have eroded the walkability of the city. City leaders acknowledge that [...]
Sober Non-Partisan Analysis: America Wastes a Ton of Money on Highways
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Photo: Dhanix/Wikipedia
A good deal of the $46 billion the federal government pours into highway spending each year is going to waste, according to a new Congressional Budget Office report [PDF].
The conclusion won’t surprise regular Streetsblog readers, but it’s the source that’s interesting. The CBO is not an advocacy group or an ideologically-minded think tank. It’s a non-partisan budget watchdog charged [...]
Where Are the Best Places for Protected Intersections in Your City?
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How a protected intersection could fit into the Portland streetscape. Image: Nick Falbo via Bike Portland
Protected intersections are the best new thing in American bike infrastructure since, well, protected bike lanes. They greatly reduce the potential for turning conflicts between drivers and cyclists — left turns on a bike, especially, become easier and less stressful — and they make pedestrian [...]
Obama’s Politically Impossible Transpo Plan Is Just What America Needs
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Even with a tax on oil, the U.S.’s effective gas tax rate would be the lowest in the industrialized world. Graph: Tony Dutzik via FHWA
It may be “seven years too late,” as tactical urbanist Mike Lydon put it, but President Obama has released a transportation proposal that calls for big shifts in the country’s spending priorities.
Obama’s proposal would [...]
Where Does Bernie Sanders Stand on Transportation and Cities?
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With Bernie Sanders pulling off a virtual tie with Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses, it’s time to take a closer look at his transportation policy platform.
Bernie’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan would boost transit funding — and increase highway funding a lot more. Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr
Two months ago, Clinton released a transportation platform that echoes a lot of [...]
Study: Upward Mobility Much Higher in Regions With Less Sprawl
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Living in a sprawling area, like Atlanta, or a compact one, like Boston, doesn’t just affect how you get around. A new study published in the Journal of Landscape and Urban Planning suggests it may also have a significant impact on your chances to escape poverty.
Children in a sprawling area like Atlanta are less likely to escape poverty than [...]
5 Things States Can Do to Bring Transportation Policy Out of the Stone Age
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A growing number of states are taking steps to ensure projects are selected on merit rather than politics. Image: Transportation for America
On its page commemorating the 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower signing the Federal Aid Highway Act, the Federal Highway Administration offers a “Then and Now” chart showing how much America has changed since 1956. It’s a little corny, [...]
Study: Sharrows Don’t Make Streets Safer for Cycling
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Sharrows are the dregs of bike infrastructure — the scraps cities hand out when they can’t muster the will to implement exclusive space for bicycling. They may help with wayfinding, but do sharrows improve the safety of cycling at all? New research presented at the Transportation Review Board Annual Meeting suggests they don’t.
Sharrows without traffic-calming won’t do [...]
What Happened When a Newspaper Became an Advocate for Bicyclists
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In too many cities, newspaper coverage of bicycling has stoked some of the darker aspects of human nature. Opinion pieces about bike lanes tend to cater to the reactionary opposition, goading the trolls of the comments section, where casual death threats are standard fare.
News-Press reporters Janine Zeitlin (center) and Laura Ruane (right) accept an award for [...]
2-Minute Video: Why Parking Minimums Are the Worst
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“Minimum parking requirements act like a fertility drug for cars,” Donald Shoup wrote in his celebrated investigation of parking economics, The High Cost of Free Parking. The above video, from the city of Ottawa, does a good job explaining exactly why that is and the problems it causes.
Ottawa commissioned the animation to explain why its 1960s-era parking regulations [...]
St. Louis Struggles With an Old Question: “Why Go Downtown at All?”
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Alex Ihnen at NextSTL uncovered this video from a 1965 television program about traffic and commuting in the St. Louis region. Noting the growing number of businesses in the suburbs with “free parking,” the narrator asks, “Who needs to go downtown at all?” This leads to a vision of the future that turned out to be eerily [...]
Send in Your Nominations for the Best Urban Street Transformation of 2015
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Center-running, level boarding sbX bus service helped E Street in San Bernardino capture “Best Urban Street Transformation” honors last year. Photo courtesy of Matt Korner
Did your city turn a dangerous, high-speed street into a safe place to walk and bike this year? Got a new transitway or protected bike lane in your hometown that’s changing how [...]