Megan Kimble
@megankimble
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Texas political economy reporter @HoustonChron . Stories @nytimes @citylab @texasmonthly . Author of CITY LIMITS @CrownPublishing . Professionally curious.
Austin, TX
Joined July 2009
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on-road emissions in Texas account for 0.48% of total worldwide greenhouse gas emissions
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🧵I spent days going through every deed of purchase that the Texas Highway Department made in the 1950s and 1960s as it assembled land to build Interstate 345 through Deep Ellum in downtown Dallas. 1/
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Standing in line, in the rain, to early vote in Austin and listening again to the last episode of
@jonfavs
’s The Wilderness.
@BarackObama
offers the best defense of voting I’ve heard yet. Here’s to making it better.
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well, this is crazy: two researchers looked at the effectiveness of highway death toll message boards and found that they actually INCREASED the number of traffic crashes on Texas roads. full study here, in
@ScienceMagazine
:
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I’ve been working on this story for nearly a year and I am so excited to share it. For the
@nytimes
, I wrote about infrastructure and gentrification in a D.C. neighborhood.
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“The zoning system is rigged. People think it’s rigged toward developers, but I actually think it’s rigged toward ... single-family homeowners. Those folks have more rights, both politically and legally, to stop or change the request.”
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Title insurance is, according to one real estate developer, “a total scam.” Yet because mortgage lenders require it for virtually every home purchase, title insurance companies are raking in billions of dollars. Read
@sethharpesq
in
@TexasObserver
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I wrote this!
Widening freeways doesn't fix traffic. Texas does it anyway. | Opinion
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The Texas Department of Transportation plans to spend $25 billion widening highways to fix traffic in Texas cities. What if we tore them down instead? I wrote about
@TxDOT
's highway prophecy for
@TexasObserver
&
@thenation
:
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OK my read on this is TxDOT felt the need to publish some I-35 propaganda which means activism is working
Texas has one of the world’s largest economies, and much of that success can be attributed to one road.
#TxDOTNewsroom
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For decades, Deep Ellum had been a thriving Black community, the cultural heart of Black Dallas and an entertainment district full of bars, theaters, and restaurants.
Image c/o
@DallasTRHT
Then came the highway. 2/
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Austin has a housing problem, to put it mildly. I wrote about the city's effort to revise its land development code and build more affordable housing — and the lawsuit that stopped it — for
@CityLab
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Let me get this straight: TxDOT can predict precisely how many people will be driving in cars on I-35 in 20 years but it cannot predict how many people will be riding the bus (i.e. “mode shift”)? That's convenient.
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Finally: I have hundreds of property deeds in Austin and Houston & hope to do a similar analysis but lack time. If anyone knows a student in need of a semester project, send them my way! Here's the First Mexican Baptist Church, purchased for $140,400 to build I-35 in Austin. 8/8
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"Across the 12 states, we found that minimizing further highway expansion was the most important lever to avoid putting upward pressure on transportation emissions." Great analysis from
@Climate_Center
@RockyMtnInst
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CITY LIMITS, forthcoming from
@CrownPublishing
4/2/24. I am very proud of this book and so excited to share it with you. It's now available for preorder! Buy here, or from your local bookseller.
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It’s my first day at
@HoustonChron
! So excited to be here. Say hi / send tips: megan.kimble
@houstonchronicle
.com
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OK, one more gem from TxDOT's initial environmental review of the I-35 expansion through Austin. If we don't expand the highway, per TxDOT, by 2045, it will take 223 minutes—3.7 hours!—to drive eight miles during rush hour.
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Hello, some professional news! I'm joining the
@HoustonChron
's Austin bureau as a political economy reporter, looking at the impact of Texas policies on the state’s economy and the people who live here.
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$1 billion available for rent and utility assistance, 3 tenants served.
The Texas rent relief program has been open since Feb. 15.
To date, it's made 3 payments.
My Friday news dump for the
@HoustonChron
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These models do not predict the future. They justify the expansion.
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this is such an indictment of the "drive safe" personal responsibility messaging that comprises most Vision Zero campaigns.
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The Great Springs Project wants to build a 100-mile hike-and-bike trail between Austin and San Antonio and preserve 50,000 acres of land over the fragile Edwards Aquifer recharge zone. I wrote about the effort—and why we need it—for
@texasmonthly
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In honor of the new
@IPCC_CH
report, a reminder that the greenhouse gas emissions generated on Texas roads account for 0.48% of TOTAL WORLDWIDE CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS
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With few exceptions, the deeds list only property owners, obscuring the full displacement that occurred. Many of these buildings would have been occupied by tenants: families and small businesses. Where did all these people go? How did they start over? 6/
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NO ONE WILL DO THIS. People will change their behavior rather than sit in traffic for 223 minutes. For example, I could *walk* eight miles in less than two hours.
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And, importantly, as Dallas considers the future of I-345: What might they be owed?
I'm happy to share this research with anyone also grappling with this question
@WalkableDFW
@JerryLEADS
@msberbiage
@NeighborsDTX
7/
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Excited to report that I'll now be reporting regularly for
@TexasMonthly
!
My first story is all about trains 🚄🚆With $2.5 million in federal grants, Amtrak and TxDOT will study adding passenger rail in Texas.
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To build I-345, the Texas Highway Department purchased 128 properties comprising 26 acres of right-of-way. Only 32 property owners contested the price they were offered by the state. The total cost *just for the land* was $14.9 million, nearly $150 million in today’s dollars. 4/
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In August, TxDOT approved a $4.5 billion project to widen I-35 through the heart of Austin, locking the city into a higher-emissions future despite widespread opposition from environmental groups and city leaders. I wrote about the project for
@CityLab
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The elevated structure would relieve congestion by taking traffic out of the city—“people who have no desire to be downtown and are just cluttering up downtown by going across,” reported the Dallas Morning News. Here's a picture of the first car on the highway, in 1971. 3/
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Again, that's straight from the deed records. This makes I-345 one of the most expensive stretches of highway in the country, according to
@WalkableDFW
5/
Here's a fun fact today's research has uncovered. A 1960 report (for President Eisenhower) stated the most expensive urban highways were costing $16 million/mile. In 1962, the Dallas city manager estimated property acquisition for IH-345 would cost $12 million.
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you can just not read the book. no need to tell me about it.
@megankimble
@TexasStandard
I’m not likely to read your book though I respect you for writing it. As a lifelong Austinite, I’m confident I could easily win a debate with you over what the best future of I-35 and other transportation infrastructure for my hometown ought to be.
#respect
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thousands of people marched from
@HustonTillotson
to the Texas State Capital, 3 miles round-trip, in nearly 100-degree heat
#BlackLivesMatter
#JusticeForThemAll
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Anyway, I am burying the lede: Here are the three proposed designs for an expanded I-35 through downtown Austin. The first has 20 lanes. The other two have 19. For comparison, the downtown stretch of I-35 currently has 12 lanes. That’s *a lot* more highway.
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that the Texas Observer's gofundme has nearly reached $100,000 in less 12 hours should be an embarrassment to everyone who voted to shutter this Texas institution. proud to support the fight.
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"After those interviews, we asked American experts If they thought we could do it.
Their answer?
None of you are close to being ready."
We interviewed experts and frontline officials from Italy, Germany, Spain, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.
Of all of them, we found more commonalities than differences. So…
These are the 7 things we must do before we open up America.
A thread:
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NEW: For
@Grist
, I wrote about how the Texas Department of Transportation evaluates the environmental impacts of its highway projects—potentially in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. 1/
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In September, I read
@dwallacewells
's The Uninhabitable Earth—which begins "it is worse, much worse, than you think"—and also talked to
@KHayhoe
, who said "what makes people feel empowered to act [is] very closely tied to hope." & I think we can hold both.
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big news out of Hawaii: after 13 young people sued, the Hawaii Department of Transportation must develop a plan to fully decarbonize transportation by 2045.
from
@EENewsUpdates
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Houston Mayor John Whitmire declined an invitation to be the keynote speaker at the Texas Vision Zero Summit.
So you get me instead!
Houston, see you tomorrow. I'll be in conversation with the one-and-only
@evan7257
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Juuuust in case anyone is curious, the reporters & editors who have left the Observer since October include:
@Tahtone
, me,
@amalahmed214
,
@Pdineclah
,
@SophieNovack
,
@michaelsbarajas
& Michael Patti 👀
No one’s saying it, but whatever they are doing to the Texas Observer is a damn shame! They had a fuckin all-star lineup.
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If you drive an average of 15,000 miles per year and spend a total of 50 years driving, then there is a one in 100 chance that you will die in a fatal car crash. Happy
#EarthDay
!
@thewaroncars
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This is the hardest thing I've ever written. My dad was brilliant and brimming with love. I am so very proud to be his daughter, forever devastated to lose him.
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hey, transportation nerds: anyone have any good studies that show how access to transit supports upward economic mobility? or conversely, how the expense of car ownership perpetuates poverty? ty ty ty!
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TxDOT intends to expand I-35 to 20 lanes and the City of Austin would like to know what people think of the parks they want to put on top
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hello! Are you a journalist with a ⚡️story⚡️about Texas that you haven't yet found a home for? I want to hear from you! Currently assigning features for
@TexasObserver
/ email me kimble
@texasobserver
.org
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There's a pretty big assumption here: That widening the highway will somehow make it both safer *and* faster. Lots of evidence suggests it could very well do neither.
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"The idea that a freeway is going to mitigate flooding. Do you think we’re drunk? The idea that a freeway is going to address climate change. Do you think we’re stupid?"
@RodneyEllis
at
#StopTxDoTI45
rally in Houston
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"why don't we fund public transit in Texas?" is a question I've asked hundreds of people over the two years I've been reporting on transportation and I guess I finally got my answer: freedom
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🌵 personal news!!! 🌵 On Monday, I'll be joining the staff of the
@TexasObserver
as senior editor. Excited doesn't begin to cover it.
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"The social costs of these fatality messages are large: Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that this campaign causes an additional 2600 crashes and 16 fatalities per year in Texas alone, with a social cost of $377 million per year."
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TxDOT is really out here claiming that a $9 billion highway expansion will create <$72 billion> in economic benefit.
Here's Deputy Executive Director for Planning and Administration Brandye Hendrickson at the North Houston Highway Improvement (NHHIP) press conference on Monday:
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Y’ALL. We redesigned the
@TexasObserver
! The new issue is finally out in the world, including my cover story about Texas highways & so much more. Want to get a copy of the mag? Join here:
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Hi, if you are in your car right now, 1. put down your phone 2. tune your radio to
@TexasStandard
to hear me talk about CITY LIMITS and why we should tear down the very highway you're driving on
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There's a new generation of freeway fighters. They are young and old, increasingly diverse, and galvanized by climate change. And they are going national.
I went to Cincinnati last month to cover the first-ever freeway fighters summit for
@CityLab
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good morning! do you have something to say about Texas? I want to publish your essay or editorial or shortform-whatever in
@TexasObserver
! send pitches to kimble at texas observer dot org. we pay 50 cents a word & especially want to hear from new and emerging writers.
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big crowd for
@StopTxDOTi45
’s protest again
@TxDOTHouston
’s planned demolition of the Lofts at Ballpark, which is in the footprint of the I-45 expansion
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Today is my last day at
@TexasObserver
. I am so grateful for my time here. I learned how to be an investigative journalist by working alongside our amazing staff and freelancers—what a privilege to be their editor & colleague!—and I am so proud of the magazine we've made. (1/2)
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I am proud of the newsroom we built at the
@TexasObserver
and, months later, still sad and angry about how it got wiped out. Thanks to
@naomiandu
&
@ObjectiveJrn
for tackling this story.
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“I mean, it’s one banana, Michael. What could it cost, ten dollars?”
.
@SecretaryCarson
says eviction proceedings “typically take about a year,” proving once again that the Secretary of Housing knows painfully little about housing.
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NEW:
@rethink35
@EnvironmentTex
@TexPIRG
sue TxDOT over the I-35 expansion in Austin, alleging it violated federal law by splitting the project into three segments “to avoid a more rigorous environmental review and public engagement.” Case filing here:
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lol breaking news
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@alyssaharad
last year,
@amalykinz
wrote about the history -- and future -- of highway displacement in Texas, for the
@TexasObserver
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When I started reporting on highway expansions three years ago (!), this was the question I kept asking that no one could answer... so I pitched a whole book about it.
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I woke up today and this was on my doorstep. What an honor to get to tell this story for
@nytimes
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I am an NPR junkie so I was absolutely thrilled to talk to
@hereandnow
's
@odowdpeter
about CITY LIMITS, Texas' freeway fighters, and how we might reclaim cities for people, not cars.
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some very exciting book news! Thrilled and honored to be included on this shortlist from
@columbiajourn
and
@niemanfdn
Congrats to Megan Kimble, whose forthcoming book City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America’s Highways is on the shortlist for the Lukas Work-in-Progress prize!
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TxDOT is about to embark on a decade-long construction project that will shape Austin for generations but apparently I missed the window on "media availability"
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oh, just sitting here thinking about
@amalahmed214
's story about Texas' electric grid, which in the summer of 2019 "had the lowest reserve margins, or extra supply, out of any grid system in the United States."
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the "basic right" Kirk Watson is referring to was enacted in 1927, the same year Texas passed a law that gave "cities the right to withhold building permits to such firms or individuals as seek to build houses for negro inhabitants in white communities"
Kirk Watson, after refusing to answer my questions about why he had a sign from Fred Lewis's NIMBY group in his yard, offers this explanation to the Statesman 1/
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hi, this is the thread you'll want to read if you're wondering what happened at the Observer
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TxDOT: we'll take some of the most valuable parkland in the city but in return we'll give you a few parks on top of a highway that you have to pay for
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Austin needs more housing — much more. But where should it go? That question is now being answered largely by homeowners, as they negotiate with developers over what they will permit in their backyards.
I wrote about one zoning fight, for
@TexasMonthly
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& by calling to tell your elected reps that if they *don't* fight the NRA tooth & nail, then you'll elect someone who will.
You can beat the NRA by voting for or donating to a candidate who will fight them tooth and nail.
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I-35
Where in Austin would you like to see traffic calmed to create a shared street safer for pedestrians and cyclists? Tell us first, then tell the city at the link below.
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Hey, it’s a tough time for journalism and journalists, but we’ve had a few big months at the
@TexasObserver
, so I thought I’d take a moment to celebrate some exciting changes. 1/
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The pandemic offers one data point: Between January and June this year, drivers covered 17 percent fewer miles while fatalities rose by 20 percent compared to the same six-month period in 2019. Why? Less traffic > higher speeds. (Stat from
@BethOsborneT4A
)
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I remember when I was fact checking my book way back in (checks notes) 2023, and the estimated price tag for this project was $9 billion
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“Here we are with question marks over our heads. Why is he doing this? Who can talk him out of this? And nobody can answer that question.”
I wrote about Houston Mayor John Whitmire's about-face on safety-focused street projects for
@CityLab
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TxDOT wants to expand I-35 to 20 lanes through Central Austin. Here's a map of every property that would be impacted. This is some excellent public service journalism by
@KUTnathan
at
@KUT
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A victory for freeway fighters in Ann Arbor: "A major U.S. 23 overhaul project in the works for Ann Arbor’s east side won’t include a freeway expansion ... The change comes after a wave of resistance to widening the highway."
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standing room only at the "housing not highways" panel (moderated by me)
This room is filled with folks passionate about fighting highway expansion! This great panel includes folks from Dallas and Houston, as well as
@kelseyhuse30
and
@megankimble
who are doing the work here in Austin.
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opened my paper this morning to find this: CITY LIMITS featured in
@nytimesbooks
two days until publication!!!
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also yes, I am aware that Austin's mayor does not vote on TxDOT's plans for I-35. But Kirk Watson is the reason the I-35 Capital Express Project finally got funded in 2020 after two decades of planning. If you think that doesn't matter, well, I've got an extra lane to sell you.
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Austin is one of the most segregated and sprawling cities in Texas. A new land development code aims to change that. My latest in
@TexasObserver
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I think this graphic is *supposed* to be telling me that Texas’ transportation-related emissions are tiny in the grand scheme of things (the report actually uses the word “tiny”). Only 0.5% of the whole world’s emissions, nbd. (7/)
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I am devastated but mostly infuriated by this news. The
@TexasObserver
deserves better. What an enormous & avoidable loss. 1/
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this has always struck me as an odd data point to make the case for expanding I-35: nearly 20% of trips are NOT local. I'm no traffic engineer but it sure seems like diverting one of every five cars on I-35 to another road (👀SH 130) would ease congestion & not cost $7 billion
Did you know? 82% of traffic on I-35 through Central ATX is LOCAL. That’s how many vehicles start or stop within the project area. Watch this video to learn more:
#ForAllOfUs
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