We are hiring for two Fall paid internships at 15 hours a week helping with research & education on the problem of traffic crashes in Texas and possible solutions. One position will focus on data & GIS & the other will focus on policy analysis & communications. farmandcity.org/2026/09/17/f...

Guy at table next to me at an Austin coffee shop told another guy about all the trouble on recent projects w/ zoning administrators putting up barriers & useless buerocracy. He explains he’s getting out of architecture, shifting to training others. It’s just not joyful anymore because of zoning.

Crashes cost Texans $54B a year while congestion costs us about $15B. Our funding system is built for the smaller problem. The Legislature can fix that. Farm&City submitted these comments today to the Texas House Subcommittee on Transportation Funding: farmandcity.org/2026/09/02/c... #txlege

Happy Juneteenth everybody! May we all live in freedom together forever more. May we all remember the horrors done by people who enslaved other people right here in Texas, and honor those who suffered and those who fought for freedom for all.

"We have to stop limiting the amount of people allowed to live . . . low-carbon lifestyles in walkable neighborhoods. And the whole idea that there are some places in our city where we shouldn't have tall buildings was wrong. And that idea was always wrong." - @jaycrossley.bsky.social

So cool to be at opening celebration of @capmetroatx.bsky.social’s 800 Pleasant Valley & 837 Expo Center Bus Rapid Transit lines. These were cut from Project Connect in 2017 based on foolish decision-making data, but were -arguably- saved by this blog post I wrote. farmandcity.org/2017/06/23/p...

Montserrat Garibay seems to be winning perhaps the most important state house race on the Texas Democratic primary side of things – for those that care about urbanism, equity, the environment, fair markets, etc.

Charlie Henry@modalshift.co · 4mo ago

Garibay won the first batch of election day vote 63%-37%

Luckily, the Texas Department of Transportation and Texas research institutions have studied how to implement credit-based congestion pricing (the correct answer) for the Austin region fairly extensively. Let’s do this!

Rebecca Saltzman@rebeccaforec.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Every metropolitan area in the US should be studying congestion pricing now to be ready to implement with a new administration. There is no other tool that so quickly and effectively decreases traffic, increase bus speeds, increases transit ridership, and reduces emissions.

Thank you Chris Riley and Brewster McCracken (among others) for putting Austin in the stratosphere of climate responsible city policies (at least in West Campus).

Yonah Freemark@yonahfreemark.com · 5mo ago

Top 10 neighborhoods by housing density added, 2020–25: 1—Greenpoint waterfront Brooklyn 2—East Harlem Manhattan 3—Navy Yard DC 4—Downtown Brooklyn 5—Hunters Pt Queens 6—Journal Sq Jersey City 7—Lower E Side Manhattan 8—The Drag Austin 9—Downtown Jersey City 10—LI City Queens

Rain garden was hard at work today near one of Austin’s roundabouts

That feeling when your state (Texas) and local governments spend more money on roads than almost anywhere else in the world, and the roads just keep getting worse.

@bethosborne.bsky.social · 5mo ago

t4america.org/resource/rep...

I think one of the world clocks at the @nytimes.com offices is off in this @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social podcast, which just seems kind of a a perfect little picture of where we're at in the world. The third clock from the right is apparently gonna be at whatever minutes it wants.

there is literally one proven policy to reduce traffic congestion long-term. it’s congestion pricing. and Trump just spent a whole year trying to illegally scrap it in New York City

Wes Marshall@wesmars.bsky.social · 5mo ago

They are talking like traffic engineers haven't been trying - and failing - to fix traffic congestion for the last 70+ years It's the wrong question to ask And a good part of the reason we're in the mess that we're in

I’ve been working on this in Texas for several years & believe it is the right answer for #txlege to use weight-based user fees to cover the costs of driving. We got the Safe Texas Streets & Sidewalks Fund drafted as a resolution to let Texas voters decide this, but couldn’t get it filed last year.

Tony Borroz@nemounruhe.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Good.

Aerial bombings should be banned.

Julia Carrie Wong@joolia.bsky.social · 6mo ago

ngl I like this pope

This is so good.

Nichole@tnwhiskeywoman.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Gonna hold on to this croissant metaphor for the rest of my creative life

We're implementing the largest expansion of Sammy’s Law in city history: lowering speed limits to 15 MPH at all eligible school locations by the end of our first term. And we’re not waiting to start. In 2026, we’re reducing 800 locations to 15 MPH, for a total of nearly 1,300 School Slow Zones.

I feel like this is actually a pretty good spot in line for the Sunshine Community Garden Plant Sale ten minutes before it opens. The entrance is all the way down the block and around the corner and halfway down the next side of the block. I’m heading straight for the peppers tent.

The opposite of those truck bloat danger pictures.

Everyone must go see Katy Perry Candy Darling Mary Magdelene at MATCHouston by March 7th. matchouston.org/events/2026/...

If we are considering high speed rail in the Texas Triangle, all of these same questions apply, but on an even grander scale, and with the added crucial element of stations needing to be tied directly into the heart of effective local transit grid networks in each metro region.

Christof Spieler@christofspieler.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Some questions I ask whenever I see a crayon like this:

TIL that "squeek" is actually spelled "squeak," and it just seemed really fun – just like a nice little tune up for my little brain engine. You gotta take the wins you can get, I suppose.

I live in a state (Texas) w/ horribly mismanaged transportation spending that’s left us with a worthless pedestrian transportation system. The rare snow and sleet accumulation on the ground in Austin yields a sneckdown kind of effect showing the desire lines where people walk on missing sidewalks.

"I'm so sorry that we could not have done this earlier...to have saved the loved ones in your life. But I thank you fopr the work that you have done...to ensure that this pain not be felt by others who call this same city home." — Mayor Mamdani at McGuinness Blvd. presser youtube.com/shorts/uwAYI...

Mayor Mamdani commits to ending traffic violence across NYC on third day in office #safestreets

YouTube video by Streetsblog NYC

youtube.com

Books I’m reading or read this year The Triumph of the City Edward Glaeser Started during Thanksgiving break Arbitrary Lines Nolan M. Gray Started 12/5/25 at Arturo’s underground Phenomenology of Spirit Hegel Reading selected passages. Nov/Dec 2025

When your punk band is over 25 years old, it’s important to play at least one show a year. I’ll be doing that tomorrow 12/20/25. We — Woozyhelmet — play at 6pm. Free. Kids welcome. It’s a dive bar and we’ll be loud, but also there will be informative short PowerPoints. (This is in Austin)

Mondays, ammirite?

Collin County Connects Committee members dissent against alternative options proposed

Collin County Connects Committee members dissent against alternative options proposed

Plano’s 4C wraps up without making a recommendation

l.ridewithdata.org

Austin would have had public fiber internet infrastructure connecting every building in the city in the 1990s (allowing private & public entities to provide services), but the same people who kept Austin from building a great transit system around that time (led by Mike Levy) killed that plan.

Karl Bode@karlbode.com · 9mo ago

A new study has found that Chattanooga, Tennessee's decision to build their own affordable community-owned fiber broadband network has driven $5.3 billion in economic benefits back to the community. From my colleague and friend @seangon.bsky.social: