Tanya Snyder

You've been waiting for it all year: your chance to sit in judgment of everyone who's been making our transportation system what it is today, from the advocacy heroes to the DOT bureaucrats to the drunk drivers. And you'll be glad to know that this year's batch of Streetsie polls are almost completely devoid of any Washington references to legislation and trust funds, because you know what? The bozos in Congress are going to have to actually do something one of these days to make it into the Streetsies. You don't get this honor for free.

Twenty-four-year-old Taja Wilson was killed near the Louisiana bayou in August when a driver swerved on the shoulder where she was walking. Noshat Nahian, age 8, was killed in a Queens crosswalk on his way to school in December by a tractor-trailer driver with a suspended license. Manuel Steeber, 37, was in a wheelchair when he was killed in Minneapolis while trying to cross an intersection with no crosswalk or traffic signal on a 40-mph road. One witness speculated that Steeber must have had a "death wish."

NHTSA: Pedestrian Deaths Down, Bicyclist Deaths Up in 2013 Even With Gas Prices in Free-Fall, Transit Ridership Keeps Climbing (NYT) NOAA: Washington, DC, Has Hit a “Tipping” Point for Sea Level Rise (UPI) Michael Brown, Raquel Nelson, and the Injustice of Car-Based Traffic Engineering (Dissent) As HOT Lanes Open on I-95, A Brief History of … Continued

Stuck in Seattle or Stuck in Sherman Oaks. There are so many places to get stuck these days and so many clowns and jokers making it worse.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) is already proving that he’ll put some muscle into the fight for bike and pedestrian safety in his new post as ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

West of downtown Tucson, Arizona, the city runs up against the interstate first and then the mountains, cutting off development. But east of downtown, the city sprawls on for miles. The Sunshine Mile, a shopping and dining corridor centered on Broadway Boulevard, stretches two miles just east of downtown, between Euclid Avenue and Country Club Road.

EIA Says Gas Prices Don’t Actually Have Much Impact on How Much Americans Drive (UT San Diego) …Which Is Good, Because Oil Just Hit a New Low (The Hill) There Are Seven Environmental Lawsuits Against California HSR. They’re All Futile (Fresno Bee) San Diego Transpo Planners Trying to Subvert Climate Laws, Expand Highways (Voice of … Continued

The drama is over; the House and Senate have both passed the "cromnibus" spending bill [PDF] that funds government operations through the end of fiscal year 2015. And the Department of Transportation's TIGER program survived.

USA Today Calls Transpo Bill a “Big Maybe” on Boehner, McConnell’s To-Do List Senate Still to Vote on Transit Benefit (WaPo) Crude Oil Rail Transport Expands Over Objections of Unprepared Communities (Business Insider) State Officials Insist on Removing Trees for “Road Safety” in Louisville (WHAS11) 78 Years Later, Spokane Regrets Burning that Streetcar, Turns Back to … Continued

In California, whether you’re building an office tower or a new transit line, you’re going to run up against the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The law determines how much environmental analysis you need to do for new projects. But sadly, in practice it’s better at propagating car-oriented development than improving the quality of the environment.