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

And here’s the resolution to let the voters decide: drive.google.com/file/d/1I_r1...

Here’s the bill: drive.google.com/file/d/16B9C...

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.

Screenshot of text from the interim charge document linked in the post. The text says: “6. Speed Enforcement in Work and School Zones: Evaluate measures to enhance roadside worker and public safety, including limited authorization of speed enforcement mechanisms in high-speed work zones and school zones. Consider measures that would safeguard Texans’ privacy, prohibit automated retention of data, and prevent citations from being issued by third-party entities.”

Here’s that interim charge. It’s a huge opportunity. And it’s interesting why this is being allowed politically to be discussed now because of the powerful interests who want it - the road building lobby.

www.house.texas.gov/pdfs/speaker...

I can talk about the long hard grind of shifting Texas policies on speed.

But we have had some big successes that aren’t noted often and real work is ongoing and progress has been made.

Also, the Speaker of the Texas House just set an interim charge on speed enforcement in work and school zones.

Aerial bombings should be banned.

This is so good.

An NYC DOT worker puts up a street sign that reads: SCHOOL SPEED LIMIT 15 FINES HIGHER PHOTO ENFORCED

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’ve tried to ride every bus or rail option I can find in Texas and the one time I rode FlixBus was the one that I never considered doing again, and it was just many annoying things that were unpleasant happening to everyone involved that compounded to a very unpleasant experience for all.

But many engineers and cities treat the minimum allowed speed limit as a limit on the minimum allowed design speed - at least here in Texas.

So we have to pass the state law to allow safe speed limits to get narrower streets.

My bike rack was a street sign pole by the bus stop.

A tray of 20 4” herb plants and one little hibiscus plant

Two boxes of pepper plants

Here are all my new plant friends.

(So far. I haven’t hit the tomato tent yet. But that’ll be mostly for my mom and friends)

People in a long line winding to the left along a dirt walkway in the middle of the community garden.

I secured my entire pepper plan!

(And even didn’t buy any extra last minute weird ideas)

Now I’m in the herb tent line (for the wife).

More people in line on the sidewalk looking back from wheee I was waiting.

People in line at the corner and heading down the next street

The line reached the end of that block face and turned back around the next side of the block just before the doors opened at 9.

Diagram showing the layout of peppers inside the tent. It has dotted lines with arrows and stick figures showing the way you walk through and little rectangles along the edges and on an island in the middle of the tent with names of a pepper plant in each rectangle.

Behold the sacred map of the Sunshine Community Garden Plant Sale peppers tent!

Hand written list: 10 Trinidad Perfume 2 Trinidad Scorpion 4 Brasilian Starfish 2 Aji Mango 2 Balik 2 Hong-gochu 2 Elephant Ear 2 Pimiento 2 Corno di Toro

This is what I’m hoping isn’t sold out by the time I get to the pepper tent.

Selfie with a long line of people waiting on a sidewalk next to a fence side of the community garden.

The end of the long line on the sidewalk as I was walking up. You can see a bus stop and someone dropping someone off in a car to get in the line.

Closeup shot of the backs of some people waiting in the line on the sidewalk. Some people looking at their phones.

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.

Three 11 year olds standing right in front of a small kei truck in a parking lot.

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.

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.

Cold ground in the yard in front of a house with grass on the yard but a white channel of snow where the sidewalk should be.

Cold ground in the yard in front of a house with grass on the yard but a white channel of snow where the sidewalk should be.

Cold ground in the yard in front of a house with grass on the yard but a white channel of snow where the sidewalk should be.

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.

It was explained to me in Cincinnati that they uniquely didn’t have the funds to demolish during the periods that American cities were demolishing urbanism.

Even Houston had dense urbanism like that in the 40s, to some extent, but much of it was demolished.

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

"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...

The cat bus from My Neighbor Totoro

A pile of books on a dresser next to an old picture of my wife, son, and I. The books from top to bottom are: Unsafe at Any Speed by Ralph Nader, Paved Paradise by Henry Grabar, Trains, Buses, People by Christof Spieler, Key to the City by Sara Bronin, Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor, Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships by Dr. Temple Grandin and Sean Barron, Spark by John Ratey, No Straight Road Takes You There by Rebecca Solnit, Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, Killed by a Traffic Engineer by Wes Marshall, Walkable City by Jeff Speck, Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, and Urban Transportation Planning in the United States by Edward Weiner.

Here’s my current pile of books I want to dig into. I’m in a particularly book heavy phase right now. We’ll see how far I get into the books in this pile.

There’s some other ones in the pile still on my desk at the office to get into next year.

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
Carlos Casteneda
Started day before my birthday.
Finished June 22.

The Art of Procrastination
John Perry
Started Saturday 1/4/25.
Finished just after midnight the next night.

Hate The Game
Daryl Rose Fairweather
Trying to finish before YIMBYtown. Done! One day before YIMBYtown 9/13

The Black Jocobins: Toussant Louverture and the San Domingo Revolution
C.L.R. James
Started June 25. Finished December 9, 2025, then I finally read the appendix essay right before Christmas.

Men Explain Things to Me
Rebecca Solnit
Upon recommendation of ChatGPT that I write in a similar style.
Started 10/26 on plane to DC. Finished 11/7

The Art of Community:
Seven Principles of Belonging
Charles H. Vogl
Kevin Williams sent to me 10/7. Finished 10/25 one day before talking to Joe&Kevin.