Tanya Snyder

The 47 members of the transportation bill conference committee have a lot on their plates: The Senate's MAP-21 bill includes many provisions Republicans don't like, the House slapped controversial "poison pills" onto its non-bill, and chair Barbara Boxer wants this all wrapped up in a few weeks.

House Vote Shows Weakness of GOP’s Hand on Keystone (Trans Issues Daily) The Catch-22 of Surging Transit Ridership (WaPo) Pentagon Wants to Make Military Bases Less Sprawling, More Walkable (USA Today) Here Comes Schuster to Take Over T & I (Post-Gazette) Sen. Gillibrand Asks Amtrak to Allow Bikes on Board (Times-Union) A Setback for Maryland’s … Continued

This morning, a Minnesota Public Radio host asked me if the exurbs, whose growth rate flattened when the recession hit, are going to come back. Lots of people from far-distant suburbs like Blaine and Farmington called in, saying they like the way of life out there – they like having acres of trees buffering them from their nearest neighbor -- and people won’t want to stop living in communities like that.

You Are Here: A Handy Roadmap to How This Bill Becomes A Law (If It Ever Happens) (T4A) Rahall Supports Keystone But Bets Against It (The Hill) The Onion: Sec. LaHood Loses It When Informed of a Pothole in Baltimore Study: “Resilient Walkables” Will Lead the Housing Recovery (Switchboard) Search Data Shows Angelenos Want Elbow … Continued

Last week, I published a list of seven questions I had as the Transportation Conference Committee started meeting. I was examining the politics, not the policy. Turns out some readers wanted to hear more about the policy.

Transportation Doesn’t Make Obama’s Short To-Do List (Trans Issues Daily) Boxer: Transportation Conference “Past the Organizational Stage” (The Hill) Bike Advocates Activate Campaign to Keep Cardin-Cochran Amendment (Bike Portland) Sources Say GOP Ready to Bend on Keystone (It’s Good Election Fodder) (The Hill) Foreign Nails May Screw Up Buy America Requirements (Salt Lake Tribune) The Oil and Gas Industry … Continued

The brilliant thing about car-sharing is that it leads people to drive less by providing access to cars. It allows people to give up their personal vehicles (along with the gas, maintenance, parking, and insurance costs they entail) without giving up the ability to use the car once in a while when necessary. It diminishes the need for parking spaces, since one vehicle can serve several households. And it makes people think harder about the trips they take, since each trip constitutes a higher cost than in a personal vehicle, which come with high upfront costs but low per-trip costs, encouraging more driving just to get your money's worth out of your investment.

The people behind Walk Score, the real estate rating service that goes by the slogan “Drive Less, Live More,” are out with a new rating system, based on hard data, that should prove useful to prospective city dwellers: Bike Score.

What Is Really Happening Behind Conference Committee’s Closed Doors? (Trans Issues Daily) Obama Administration Needs to Show More Leadership on Transportation (Politico) What Does the Transportation Bill Mean For Truckers? (Bismarck Tribune) Can CA High-Speed Rail Be Built Fast Enough to Avoid Risking Federal Dollars? (LAT, NBC) HSR: CA vs. NEC (Politico) Governors Want Transpo … Continued

Streetsblog Capitol Hill will be publishing lightly today.