Angie Schmitt
Recent Posts
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 [...]
America’s Sorriest Bus Stop: Portland, Oregon vs. Broomfield, Colorado
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Streetsblog’s quest to highlight the deplorable walking environments and waiting conditions faced by America transit riders continues with the second match of the “Sorriest Bus Stop” tournament. (You can still vote on the first match — polls are open through the weekend.)
Today pits a bus stop in Portland, Oregon, against one in Bloomfield, Colorado.
Portland, Oregon
This bus stop [...]
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 [...]
Park & Rides Lose Money and Waste Land, But Agencies Keep Building Them
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Transit agencies shell out big bucks to build and operate parking facilities. But how much do we really know about what they get for their money?
The surface parking lot at WMATA’s Branch Avenue station. Photo: TRB
Researchers Lisa Jacobson and Rachel Weinberger surveyed 37 American transit agencies about park-and-ride facilities. They found that despite the expense of [...]
“Opportunity Score” Shows Best Places to Find a Job Without Owning a Car
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The 30-minute transit shed near the author’s house, overlaid with a heatmap of jobs paying $40,000 or more. Image: Redfin/Opportunity Score
Which places put economic opportunity within reach for residents who don’t own cars?
There’s a new tool to evaluate housing locations according to the accessibility of jobs via transit and walking. Redfin, the company that runs Walk Score, today released “Opportunity Score,” [...]
6 Principles to Make Self-Driving Cars Work for Cities, Not Against Them
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Self-driving cars are coming, and maybe sooner than we think. But the question of how they will shape cities is still wide open. Could they lead to less traffic and parking as people stop owning cars and start sharing them? More sprawl as car travel becomes less of a hassle? More freedom to walk and bike [...]
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 [...]
Massive Highway Expansion Threatens to Destroy Tampa Neighborhoods
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Grassroots advocates have picked up key political support in their campaign against Florida DOT’s $6 billion plan to widen 90 miles of highways around Tampa. Photo: Sunshine Citizens
Most people still think of Tampa as a sprawling, car-centric town, but that is starting to change. In 2014, Smart Growth America [PDF] found that Tampa is shifting toward a more walkable [...]
Take a Look at Tampa’s First Protected Bike lane
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Tampa is starting to make progress on safe bike infrastructure. Last weekend, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn led a celebratory ride to mark the opening of the city’s first protected bike lane — a curb-protected two-way lane on Cass Street downtown.
The Cass Street project is one of the first protected bike lanes in Florida — a notoriously dangerous state [...]
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 [...]
Car Dependence and the Troubling Rise of Subprime Auto Loans
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There have been warning signs about the growth in subprime auto loans for years now. But the issue got some very high-profile attention last week when JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon raised concerns that there may be a bubble in the auto lending market.
Photo: Credit Now Auto Sales
Since the economic recovery began, lending institutions have actually loosened standards for car [...]
Americans Can’t Afford the High Cost of Parking Requirements
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Americans are paying off the cost of parking construction whether they can afford it or not. Chart: Access Magazine
Building a single parking spot can easily cost more than many Americans’ life savings. In the latest issue of Access Magazine, retired UCLA economist Donald Shoup brings this point home to illustrate the huge financial burden imposed by minimum parking requirements, especially [...]