Tanya Snyder

AAA Projected More Driving This Labor Day Weekend (The Hill) New FTA Guidance Incentivizes Affordable Housing Near Transit (Rooflines) Arlington, Texas, Loses Distinction of Biggest U.S. City Without Transit (Wired) Infographic: “Pushing a Ton of Metal to Move 200 Lbs. of Flesh is Insanely Inefficient” (Treehugger) How Bike-Share Can Close Cycling’s Gender Gap (Good) Come … Continued

For those who say driving rates will pick right back up again when the economy's really humming, here’s something to chew on: In a report released this morning, “Moving Off the Road,” U.S. PIRG presents further evidence that unemployment rates and driving rates have changed independently of each other.

More than 9,000 babies have been born in each of the last five years in Washington, DC -- but will their families stay in the city as these kids grow up? A recent study by the real estate company Trulia found that there was just one zip code in DC's city limits where backpacks outnumbered strollers. Wealthy, west-of-the-park Chevy Chase has more kids in the 5-9 age group than 0-4. Every other part of the city has more babies and toddlers than school-age kids.

Developers and employers think transit access is great. But if the hurdles are too high, they’ll forgo it -- choosing locations that shackle people to car dependence. That’s the finding of a recent report by University of Minnesota researchers Yingling Fan and Andrew Guthrie.

Two weeks ago, I posted some thoughts on raising kids in cities and right away, the comments section and Twitter lit up with a fruitful discussion of urban and car-lite parenting.

FHWA Publishes State VMT and Highway Info, Showing Just How Much California Drives Transportation Committee Learns to Live Without Earmarks — But Doesn’t Like It (National Journal) Is the Mainstream Media Incapable of Doing Decent Coverage of Traffic Enforcement? (Streetsblog LA) Why Doesn’t Anyone Talk About the Costs of Transit Congestion? (Business Vancouver) After All … Continued

Washington Post: Don’t Coddle the Ethanol Industry; Impose a Carbon Tax Former DOT Secretaries Look to States and Cities to Solve the Transpo Funding Crisis (The Hill) Running Buses on a Highway Is Not BRT, and Is Not Smart Transit Planning (GGW) Cargo Train Carrying Honduran Migrants Derails, Killing At Least 5 (AP) Transit-Accessible Development … Continued

I was all set to write a feel-good story about how the latest report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics [PDF] shows that transit ridership is up and driving is down. I made up my mind to write that story before I even looked at the report, so sure was I that that was the message.

This week, complete streets advocates came together in Washington, DC, to celebrate the passage of the 500th complete streets policy. That happened in Memphis more than seven months ago, but perhaps the delay in marking the occasion was fortuitous: There are now at least 25 more policies to celebrate.