Angie Schmitt
Recent Posts
Toledo Neighbors Fight Back Against City’s Plan to Widen Their Road
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Roseanne Martinez has lived at the corner of Secor and Bancroft Roads, just over the border from Toledo, for almost 30 years. She and her husband were married in the backyard. They raised four kids there. Every Sunday, they walk right across the street to attend church at Hope Lutheran. But Martinez found out recently she […]
If You Want to Fix Sorry Bus Stops, Don’t Forget to Tell the DOT
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It’s up to Montgomery County and the Maryland State Highway Administration to improve pedestrian conditions at this bus stop on Route 29.
Streetsblog just wrapped up our 2016 Sorriest Bus Stop in America competition, with a waiting area on a state highway in Silver Spring, Maryland, beating out 15 other terrible bus stops for the crown of shame. For our voters, asking [...]
Where the People Walk: A Global Glance at Walking Rates
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Image: ARUP
The way we move around is shaped by many factors — the physical environment, culture, technology, and economic status, to name a few. A new report from the engineering firm Arup, “Cities Alive: Towards a Walking World,” looks at how motorized cities can become walkable again.
Brandon Donnelly at Network blog Architect This City lifted this image from the [...]
Study: Streetcar Tracks and Bicycling Don’t Mix
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A new study out of Toronto confirms what cyclists in many U.S. cities have found out the hard way: Streetcar tracks can be a serious safety hazard.
Nearly a third of cycling injuries in Toronto involve streetcar tracks, according to a recent study. This street is designed to separate bike traffic from streetcar tracks. Photo: Bike Portland
The study comes [...]
Naomi Doerner on How Street Safety Advocates Can Support Racial Justice
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When a police officer in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, shot and killed Philando Castile earlier this month, the encounter began with a traffic stop. The stop fit a pattern: Castile had been pulled over many times before — 46 times in 13 years — but few of those citations were for dangerous driving. More prevalent were stops for minor issues like [...]
Of Course the GOP Transportation Platform Is a Catastrophe
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In the past few years, Congressional Republicans tried and failed to turn the federal transportation program into a highways-only affair. Still, the GOP isn’t giving up on eliminating federal funds for transit, walking, and biking.
Donald Trump may have made his name building on the most transit-rich real estate in the nation, but he hasn’t changed the party’s [...]
The “Choice” vs. “Captive” Transit Rider Dichotomy Is All Wrong
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The conventional wisdom about transit often divides riders into two neat categories: “choice” riders — higher-income people with cars — and “captive” riders — lower-income people who must use transit because they don’t own cars.
Transit riders are more conscious of time than they are of features like Wi-Fi. Graphic: TransitCenter
But this framework can undermine good transit, according to a new report from [...]
The Right to Peaceful Assembly vs. the “Right” to Convenient Motoring
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Demonstrations against police brutality spilled onto streets and highways in American cities this weekend, with protesters stopping traffic in Baton Rouge, Memphis, St. Paul, Los Angeles, and Oakland.
NPR reports 102 people were arrested in St. Paul and another 120 in Baton Rouge, including prominent Black Lives Matter organizer DeRay Mckesson, who was arrested while walking along Airline [...]
CDC: America Falling Behind Other Nations on Traffic Safety
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America is falling behind peer nations on traffic safety — any way you measure it. Source: CDC
How is the U.S. doing on traffic safety?
To hear a lot of people tell it, we’re making great strides. President Obama recently referred to the reduction in American traffic deaths as a success story of sorts, contrasting it with the [...]
4 Ways Road Builders Game the Numbers to Justify Highways
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The people who make the case for highways often present themselves as unbiased technicians, simply providing evidence to an audience subject to irrational bias.
Forecasts said motorists would make 21,000 trips per day on Greenville’s Southern Connector, a public-private toll road. In real life they made fewer than 9,000. Map via Toll Road News
But traffic forecasting is not a neutral, dispassionate exercise. It [...]
Columbus Wins $50 Million “Smart City” Grant. What Put It Over the Top?
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U.S. DOT chose Columbus to model how new technologies can improve urban transportation. Image: City of Columbus
U.S. DOT announced the winner of its $50 million “Smart City” grant yesterday, and Columbus, Ohio, bested finalists San Francisco, Portland, Austin, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and Denver for the prize. Many other cities had applied for this federal funding to demonstrate how new [...]
What Gun Violence and Traffic Violence Have in Common
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Traffic deaths and gun deaths in the U.S. Graph: Violence Policy Center via Transport Providence
The horrific mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando has prompted some soul-searching about America’s ability to take significant steps to curb gun violence. Congress did nothing to control guns after dozens of young kids were massacred at Sandy Hook. Will the [...]