Angie Schmitt
Recent Posts
Oregon DOT Wants to “Change Cultural Norms” Related to Distracted Driving
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It’s refreshing to see public agencies go beyond PSAs to deter distracted driving, which contributes to thousands of deaths in the U.S. each year. With traffic deaths on the rise in Oregon, state officials are ramping up their efforts.
Oregon police will enforce distracted driving with a fleet of unmarked patrol cars. Photo: ODOT
Oregon DOT Director Matt Garrett has pledged to “change cultural norms when [...]
Associated Press Cautions Journalists That Crashes Aren’t Always “Accidents”
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When negligence is claimed or proven, avoid accident, which can be read as exonerating the person responsible. #ACES2016
— AP Stylebook (@APStylebook) April 2, 2016
The Associated Press has tweaked its guidance for journalists about when to call traffic collisions “accidents.”
Street safety advocates, spearheaded by New York City’s Transportation Alternatives, have been pushing police and media organizations to drop the term “accident” [...]
Parking Madness Elite Eight: Wilkes-Barre vs. Louisville
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The final spot in the Final Four is up for grabs today, as we conclude the second week of the 2016 Parking Madness tournament. So far, parking craters in Dallas, Niagara Falls, and Federal Way, Washington have advanced to this elite stage of the competition.
In today’s matchup, a waterfront parking crater in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, goes up against [...]
Tourists Keep Their Trolleys While Memphis Bus Riders Face Devastating Cuts
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Memphis bus riders protest potential service cuts. Photo: Memphis Bus Riders’ Union
Memphis’s transit system is in crisis.
For a long time, the Memphis Area Transit Authority redirected funds intended for repairing buses and trolleys to instead pay drivers and buy gas. Now the jig is up. A handful of buses as well as two of the city’s historic trolleys have [...]
If You’re Requiring Parking by Transit Stations, You’re Doing It Wrong
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The city of Waterloo, Ontario, is in the process of building a new 12-mile light rail line called Ion Rapid Transit. Now the most pressing question is how to make it a success.
And so is more mandatory parking! Image: Tritag.ca
Mike Boos at TriTag says the transit line should have no trouble meeting ridership forecasts, with bus routes along the corridor [...]
The Promise of Expanding Atlanta Transit Inside the City Limits
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It looked like the Atlanta region’s ambitious transit plans might have been thwarted late last month when state lawmakers shot down a bill to allow Fulton, Clayton, and DeKalb counties to hold ballot measures potentially raising $8 billion to expand MARTA. But maybe that was a blessing in disguise.
Extending commuter rail to Alpharetta would be very expensive and [...]
Parking Madness: Send Us Pics of Parking Lots Where Your City Should Be
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Parking craters that won the whole thing (left to right): Tulsa, Rochester, and Camden.
Does your city have what it takes to compete in Streetsblog’s fourth annual Parking Madness tournament? Who will join Tulsa, Rochester, and Camden, NJ, as winners of the coveted “Golden Crater”?
We’re looking for 16 parking scars blighting American downtowns. One will advance through our bracket to [...]
Georgia Lawmakers Won’t Even Let Atlanta Vote on Transit Expansion
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Once again, state lawmakers in Georgia have undermined urban transport in Atlanta. A bill to allow residents Fulton and DeKalb counties to vote on a half-cent sales tax to fund transit died in the Georgia Senate this week when leaders refused to bring it to the floor for a vote.
There’s strong support for expanding MARTA among Atlanta-area [...]
Vision Zero Fail: Austin PD Wants to Ban People From Lingering By Busy Roads
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The Austin Police Department doesn’t seem to understand what Vision Zero is about. Instead of making roads safer by enforcing pedestrians’ right of way or ticketing speeders, police are proposing to ban people from standing by dangerous, high-speed roads.
Austin police want to make it illegal to hang out on certain streets. Photo: Kellie CA via Flickr
As if [...]
Attack on Street Safety Funds Sets Off an Uprising in Tennessee
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A bill in Tennessee would put make it harder to build safe streets for biking and walking. Photo: BikeLaw.com
A bill to restrict spending on biking and walking infrastructure in Tennessee has ignited “a firestorm,” as the Chattanooga Times Free Press called it.
Thousands of angry Tennesseans are urging representatives to vote against a bill from state senators Mike Carter and Todd Gardenhire that would [...]
Huh? After Bailing Out Toll Road, Florida Wants to Expand It
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Tampa’s Suncoast 2 toll road is guaranteed to be a financial loser. But that hasn’t stopped the state from plowing ahead. Map: Suncoast2online.com
By any reasonable measure, the Suncoast Parkway in the Tampa Bay Area has been a complete failure.
When it was first proposed, in 1992, consultants predicted the $507 million, 42-mile toll road from Hillsborough to [...]
Traffic Engineers Still Rely on a Flawed 1970s Study to Reject Crosswalks
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When St. Louis decided not to maintain colorful new crosswalks that residents had painted, the city’s pedestrian coordinator cited federal guidance. A 2011 FHWA memo warns that colorful designs could “create a false sense of security” for pedestrians and motorists.
Shoddy, 50-year-old research is an obstacle to grassroots street safety efforts like this fleur-de-lis crosswalk in St. Louis. [...]