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Miriam Schoenfield

@miriamschoenfield.bsky.social
216 followers 96 following 77 posts

I post mostly about freeway fighting, urbanism, and environmentalism, especially as they relate to Austin, TX - the city I first fell in love with when I began to fall in love with cities.

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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Most of you know me from transportation, but I also direct UT's prison-ed program and we need your support! Our instructors are volunteers, but we rely on community funds to pay for books and supplies. Our fundraiser goes through the end of August. 💚 give.utexas.edu/texas-prison...
give.utexas.edu
Texas Prison Education Initiative
Join me in supporting prison education—make a gift to the Texas Prison Education Initiative!
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
What would it to take to make Austin's Lady Bird Lake swimmable? 😍🏊 Especially as temperatures rise, this would be of tremendous value to the city!
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Austinites: milk cartons, disposable coffee cups, etc should now be recycled! www.austintexas.gov/recycling
austintexas.gov
Residential Recycling Collection
Austin Resource Recovery provides curbside collection of recycling to single-family households up to four-plexes in Austin. Place mixed paper, hard plastic (no bags), metal and glass directly in your ...
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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
SB 15 has now been revived and scheduled for the Tuesday calendar, after being killed by a point of order earlier today An impressive organizing effort, required emergency meetings of two different committees to vote the bill through today, great job y’all!
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
Please call (512) 463-1000 ASAP and ask Speaker Burrows to bring SB 15 (allows smaller lot sizes) as a major state bill! Just did it - it takes less than a minute. Thank you!!
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Air pollution kills millions of people worldwide every year, and without research and air pollution standards, millions more will die.
go.nature.com
Landmark air-pollution lab under threat from Trump cuts — can it be saved?
The US government is shutting down a state-of-the-art facility that has provided data to inform health and environment regulations for decades.
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
NYTimes didn't flag this, but the most consistent increase in police killings since 2020 in this graph is by VEHICLE, currently outpacing all the other non-gun methods. Any idea why this would be? Size? www.nytimes.com/2025/05/24/u...
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Why not do your Saturday walk at the state capitol and save Project Connect while you're at it? 👣🛤️
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
Make three quick calls this weekend (before Monday at 10) to save Project Connect! Just these 3 numbers and say (likely on voicemail) that you oppose SB 2519. The state should not override the will of Austin voters for transit! More info: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Another person killed on I-35 in Austin. This is your annual reminder that fatal crashes on TxDOT roads in Austin are increasing, while City of Austin efforts to increase safety are yielding results. www.kvue.com/article/news...
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
"In Mississauga, Ontario, the 130-acre Square One district is undergoing a huge transformation, with thousands of residential units set to replace some of its 8,000 parking spaces. Last spring...Toronto announced plans to develop up to 130 parking lots across the city to support housing."😍
macleans.ca
How To Fix Canada’s Housing Crisis - Macleans.ca
Twenty-five bold, entirely doable ways to make Canada affordable again
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
A new CDC report shows that pedestrian deaths fell across the rich world 2013-2022 -- but not in the USA. Americans were 50% more likely to die walking in 2022 than they would have been in 2013. By 2022, the US was more deadly for pedestrians than all other countries studied.
cdc.gov
Pedestrian and Overall Road Traffic Crash Deaths ...
This report describes traffic-related deaths rates in the ...
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Austin's I-35 expansion is in Scientific American: "Widening projects are sold to the public by touting benefits that won’t last, but their unadvertised costs will remain for decades." www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...
scientificamerican.com
Widening Highways Doesn’t Fix Traffic. Here’s What Can
Highway widening projects usually don’t solve congestion, but less expensive toll programs known as congestion pricing can. Here’s why
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Great article!
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Fascinating!
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Today in unsurprising but important news: Building bike lanes increases bikeshare usage doi.org/10.1016/j.jt...
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Parker Welch @parkerwelch.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Info for protest on Monday if you're in Austin or nearby. If you make a sign, I recommend something simple on foamboard & anti-Elon. Firing Elon is a limited, achievable goal. Dems will need people on the ground to show them their base is on board for playing hardball with the March 14th shutdown.
NATIONAL PROTEST
Call to action
"No Kings On President's Day"
17th February 2025, 12:00 PM
Texas State Capitol
1100 Congress Ave, Austin

"50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement"
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
🥳
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Austin's HOME allows 3 units per lot. And that's *just below* what we need. "In sum, investors..may not see much benefit in buying a single-family home, tearing it down, and replacing it with 2-3 units ....[In Portland] permits for fourplexes have far outnumbered those for duplexes and triplexes."
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Let's go Austin!!
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Parking Reform Network @parkingreform.org · 08/02/2025
Rest in peace, Professor Shoup (1938-2025) We will keep up the good work. Share your stories and thoughts with the parking reform community here: parkingreform.org/donald-shoup
Donald Shoup on a bicycle in two photos decades a apart.  He is near a parking sign in both and wearing a crocheted sweater.
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
Pedestrians and bicyclists will have to cross EIGHT lanes of fast moving frontage roads to access the I-35 cap from downtown. 🙄. Pathetic. (p.26 of ACT publicinput.com/Customer/Fil...). Absolute MAX # of lanes here should be 4.
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Also in Cedar Park 💔 www.kut.org/politics/202...
kut.org
ICE has detained a Cedar Park teen with no criminal record. It's happening to migrants nationwide.
The Trump administration says it has already arrested thousands of immigrants in the U.S. without legal status. Officials say some have committed heinous crimes, but many don't have criminal records.
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Happy car free day to those celebrating! Mayor Enrique Peñalosa who started this tradition in 2000 is one of my urbanist heroes. Read up on him if you need some good vibes! www.reuters.com/video/watch/...
reuters.com
Bogota goes car free for a day to curb traffic, pollution
Streets in Bogota were car-free on Thursday (February 6) as part of the city’s fight against air pollution, encouraging locals to use means of transportation such as buses, bicycles, and scooters. Veta Chan produced this report.
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The War on Cars @thewaroncars.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
"The most abundant nanoplastic was tyre particles (41%), then polystyrene (28%) and polyethylene (12%). Each tyre on the world’s 1.6bn vehicles can lose 4kg during its lifetimes and may be the largest source of tiny plastic pollution."
theguardian.com
Vehicle tyres found to be biggest source of nanoplastics in the high Alps
Mountaineers now scaling more peaks for first global study of nanoplastics, which can enter lungs and bloodstream
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
A great resource for tracking progress on the city's climate and environmental goals! Excited to see what 2025 brings for helping us get on track for land/use transportation. austin-climate-equity-plan-implementation-dashboard-austin.hub.arcgis.com/pages/database
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
New evidence that reducing cars is good for business: In London, retail spending was stronger after neighborhoods were added to the Urban Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ). Spending was also higher than in areas nearby but outside the ULEZ. www.centreforcities.org/blog/ulez-ex...
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
The laws of physics have entered the chat! 💥
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Hayden Clarkin @thetransitguy.com · 13/01/2025
Florence vs an American highway interchange (Reddit)
Florence vs Highway interchange
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
“It’s really important to me that we, as a city, stop forcing developers to build parking they don’t want to build — it’s an unnecessary burden.” That's my council member @cmzoqadri.bsky.social in the NYTimes! 🫶 www.nytimes.com/2025/01/12/b...
nytimes.com
Why Cities Are Getting Rid of Decades-Old Parking Rules
Hundreds of cities have cut back parking requirements for real estate projects. That’s led to more housing development, but it has also resulted in backlash from residents.
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
👀
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Even the best of the models used by MPOs, rarely account for the impact of highway expansions on land use! This is a problem! "study of models.. found underestimation of induced VMT up to 102% and overestimation of reductions in travel time up to 236% when feedback to land use was not included"
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
"Two of the most important factors were by then ubiquitous technologies: the automobile and the television set...Americans used their cars to move farther and farther away from one another, enabling the growth of the suburbs and, with it, a retreat..."
theatlantic.com
The Anti-Social Century
Americans are now spending more time alone than ever. It’s changing our personalities, our politics, and even our relationship to reality.
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
"Public safety in the Sixth Street area is, in my opinion, unacceptable. One thing is you can't talk about an entertainment district without incidents like what happened in New Orleans being top of mind." Proposed solution: We open up 6th St to...[checks notes]..CARS?!
kut.org
Despite deadly attack in New Orleans, Austin plans to reopen Sixth Street to vehicles
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said reopening the stretch from I-35 to Congress on weekend nights would make it easier for police to respond to calls for help.
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Great article. One policy challenge in the car bloat case that didn't exist in the cigarette case: Consumers see purchasing larger cars as a way to protect themselves against others having larger cars, while smoking was never considered a protection against others smoking.
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
"Research has shown that adding lanes does not cut commute times." Another great piece by @megankimble.bsky.social
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
It's not just me! The "this grade does not reflect the effort I put into this course" complaint is a recent phenomenon that drives me crazy. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | No, You Don’t Get an A for Effort
High marks reward excellence, not grit.
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Did you see this? 7 blocks in downtown Houston are going to be permanently transformed into a people-place and pedestrian promenade. From Rusk Street to Allen’s Landing Park. No trial or pilot. Not seasonal. Permanent. If Houston can do it, what’s your city’s excuse? www.bisnow.com/houston/news...
Houston street with food trucks, people walking etc
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
A national trend that must stop!
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
What do you think Austin?🤔
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Rethink35 @rethink35.org · 15/12/2024
Huge thanks to Council Member @paige-ellis.bsky.social and co-sponsors @zoforaustin.bsky.social, R. Alter, A. Alter, and Vela for the Austin City Council resolution saying that the Mopac South project should not increase vehicle miles traveled or greenhouse gas emissions! 👏👏👏
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
What considerations should be used to determine whether it makes more sense to invest in transit vs bike/ped infrastructure for mode-shift goals?
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
L.A needs to Austin their California.
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Charles Montgomery @charlesincities.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
The most brutal class divide in America may be around social support. Rich, college educated Americans have more access to social spaces, and enjoy more support from friends. The poor and less-educated are increasingly left out. Read the report: www.americansurveycenter.org/research/dis...
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Gross
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15-Minute City @15minutecity.com · 08/12/2024
The strength of this piece is in the data visualizations, which are fantastic. From @washingtonpost.com.
Data visualization of walkability in Atlanta and Nashville.
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AURA: An Austin for Everyone @aura-atx.org · 06/12/2024
Austin's zoning commission recommends allowing walkable shops and offices in neighborhoods! We're excited to see this move forward, and we're very proud of our very own board member, Ryan Puzycki, for co-sponsoring the recommendation!
austinmonitor.com
ZAP Commission forwards recommendation allowing some commercial uses in residential zones - Austin Monitor
The Zoning and Platting Commission voted to move forward a recommendation on allowing some commercial uses in residential zones to the Codes and Ordinances Joint Committee and Comprehensive Plan Joint...
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Great article on a rarely discussed aspect of the challenge of car dependency.
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Miriam Schoenfield @miriamschoenfield.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
It's one click!
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No More Freeways @nomorefreewayspdx.com · 04/12/2024
the orwellian turn from state departments of transportation is really underdiscussed
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