Tanya Snyder

Six weeks after my daughter was born, my midwife asked me if I was getting any exercise. I confessed I wasn’t. I hadn’t figured out a new routine that included exercise, my old activities weren’t baby-friendly, I just didn’t have the time, and I wasn’t up for anything high-impact.

Walking can seem like a rather mundane thing to get organized about, until you realize that it’s a direct challenge to car-oriented transportation and it’s the best thing people can do for their health. Then walking is downright revolutionary.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article included Robert Dold as the fifth potential aisle-crosser. I've since been informed that Dold lost his re-election bid this year. Charlie Bass and Judy Biggert, named briefly at the bottom for supporting the Senate transportation bill and Amtrak funding, also lost their elections, making this list even shorter.

Mica Predicts No New Bill Till 2016 (National Journal) Raise the Gas Tax As Part of the Fiscal Cliff Deal (Switchboard) Green Means Go: More U.S. Cities Adopt Bicycle Traffic Signals (Daily Mail) Mayor Rahm’s “Let Them Drive Cars” Moment Highlights Necessity of Transit (Care2) In Order For Cities to Keep Subsidizing Rural Areas, They … Continued

If I’ve learned one thing from all the meetings about transportation I’ve covered, it’s this: There is no progress without a solution on funding.

Here’s Another Obama Infrastructure Proposal For Republicans to Shoot Down (TID) In Pedestrian Crash Deaths, Blame Belongs to Street Design (WaPo/GGW) AFL-CIO’s Wytkind Hopes Shuster Will Soften His Stance on Amtrak (The Hill) Over 2.4 Million Pounds of CO2 Per Second — We’re Looking at You, China (AP) Private Infrastructure Investors Look to the U.S. … Continued

For the past two years, Amtrak has been under constant attack from House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica (R-FL), who has used his gavel to bully the rail company. He likes to call it a “Soviet-style” monopoly and he goads it for losing money on everything from long-distance routes to food service. His vitriolic diatribes against Amtrak have become white noise, and they’re about to fade into the background as Mica surrenders his post to Rep. Bill Shuster next year.

Republicans met today to choose committee chairs, and Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA) has been placed at the head of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The former chair, John Mica, dropped his request yesterday to stay on as chair despite term limits.

The current transportation law dealt a few hard knocks to bicycling and walking programs. One big one was the restructuring of the Transportation Enhancements program into something called Transportation Alternatives, which has to fund more types of projects with less money.

Rep. John Mica (R-FL) has withdrawn from the running to remain chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He was up against Republican term limits, which specify that no Congressmember can spend more than six years as the highest-ranking member of their party on a committee -- regardless of whether that time is spent as chair of the committee (while their party is in the majority) or as ranking member (when in the minority).