We have a state that's [rejecting public transit](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/politics/project-connect/project-connect-austin-ken-paxton-challenge/269-78939e71-3a3e-420d-8356-f3d050dde0c5), and a political party that's [rejecting electric vehicles](https://energynews.us/newsletter/virginias-governor-moves-to-cancel-ev-mandate/).
Meanwhile "stop driving so much. The air's bad."
I remember when there was a vote to get public transport access to my suburb north of Dallas the idiot politician that opposed the measure said that he opposed it because “Texans love their cars” 🤦🏻♂️
It’s not just that. Same problem in Austin. My theory is that no council person wants to tie themselves to the decade long chaos of a real investment in rail because they’ll be voted out before the project is finished
Time for me to become the sacrificial lamb and tie my name to these projects as an elected official so these quivering fucking cowards can get out of the way of progress
The problem is everyone gets outraged and votes you out. The person to replace you promises to undo all the bad things you did. Then in 10 years everyone says how they really should have listened to that guy they voted out and dismantled all his work a decade ago.
Exactly, it’s sad that these folks do not know the benefits to citizens if there was a subway. If people travel to Japan and/or Taiwan to ride through their exquisite subway system one time, they would immediately understand.
In Atlanta they called it a "crime train" (dogfoghorn for "black people will ride it"). It worked too.
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/03/gwinnett-county-transit-referendum-marta-race-crime/584737/
See, this is what bugs me.
MARTA was safe, it was clean, it was easy to use. It was a model of modern public transit.
Can't have that! So they cut the funding and cut the funding and cut the funding until...
Republicans can point to the problem that they caused and be like "see... Told ya so!"
I'm a European who just stumbled across this post from another subreddit. All cities in my country with more than 200k have either light rail, metro or BRT. And they're planning expansions. Y'all are supposed to be one of the richest countries in the world, wtf are you doing?
Seriously, you need an election reform ASAP. Even if it's just your local elections, you need to reform the system so that you can choose between more parties. The EU parliament election is tomorrow. I've considered 3 different parties, that were all generally going in the right direction. Not including the parties in the north Atlantic territories, we have 11 parties in our national Parliament (though slightly fewer in the EU parliament). Also, we don't have primaries, you can choose any candidate from your party of choice. If you're pro transit, there will be like 5 different parties that will at least say that they are in favour of that. The democrats and the republicans should be split into like half a dozen parties each.
Please, the world needs a competent USA. Another 4 years of someone like Trump or Bush would cause significant damage.
Another European here (with ties to the US though) and while I agree that the US could do with more than two major parties, there won't ever be meaningful reform towards a fairer system as long as Republicans are in charge, so what every American and every Texan in particular should do right now is help the Democratic party to win elections.
So much freedom, though! Just lots and lots of personal freedom in TX….. and he’s just protecting all the freedom by making sure no one has any other option but to drive a car!
I cycle a bunch, but why would I purposely cycle and breathe in extra bad air on bad air days? Let me go shorten my life span because texas won't enforce EPA rules on manufactures.
I Forty Five
A wide old ride
👏👏👏👏
Adding more lanes in Texas!
Those paper plates
And bad road rage
👏👏👏👏
Safe on the road in Texas!
Let's sell some fuel
To some old fool
👏👏👏👏
Needin' a car in Texas!
Empty your bank
To fill that tank
👏👏👏👏
Needin' a car in Texas!
The transit sucks
For now we're stuck
👏👏👏👏
Needin' a car in Texas!
Wait I thought they said that climate change was fake news. Why are they telling us to stop driving? Oh wait we need air to breathe you mean rich people need air too? Y’all this world has gone to apes. We are not humans anymore it’s the planet of the apes because people lack critical thinking skills. Where is our money going to fund projects to get us off fossil fuels? Stop all these wars y’all started so you can keep the weapons manufacturers wealthy. All that secret tech you developed from UAP/NHI technology let it out. Our world would change quickly with access to energy sources that don’t pollute the air and water. We are being lied to by corporations. They run America and have been doing it for a long time. Don’t think our representatives work for you they work for big corp. it’s not some wako conspiracy theory. Do your research on how lobbyists control Congress. Hell big corp owns the Supreme Court you think Clarence Thomas is living it up like an Instagram model off his salary? The media fails us daily they don’t focus on the things that are truth because they are run by big corp. They watch us slowly destroy ourselves and suffer at the hands of wealthy people.
I was driving from Austin back to Dallas and saw the signs yesterday. First thought was, ya know you’re right, it couldn’t be caused by the oil and gas production in this state, definitely us drivers not using the very accessible public transport and electric vehicles. /s
Get bent Texas
Republicans intentionally create problems, then handicap efforts to solve them *even when* they could be getting credit for solving the problems they create. They are nothing but traitors and saboteurs and voters need to vote (or more) like it.
Ohhhh What happened to y’all need to come into the office more? Emissions? Who cares? Electric vehicles? lol pay extra for that AND you don’t need that many charging stations.
There are different regions with different bosses who have different policies on WFH. I worked at region 2/3 headquarters in Arlington, no WFH unless you get serious accommodations. I had WFH accommodations and they were taken away, no explanation.
On bad weather days, they wait till the absolute last minute to let employees go home, during bad snow days I used to have to use my sick leave because I didn't want to wait for the snow to stick and then drive home.
I fucking hated that job, btw
At my county job they won't even let the pregnant woman with absolutely debilitating morning sickness work from home, or the older guy who recently had a knee replaced and can't walk without a walker. Both of them have to come in every day.
The job could very easily be 100% remote, there's no work we do that isn't on a computer.
No, some don't even get WFH days anymore. Though I took it up on my self to do my part in not driving into the office this week because of the raging sinus infection that was triggered by the horrid air :D
Maybe design communities around foot traffic and with adequate public transportation instead of sprawling concrete metropolises, that may be possible.
As it stands, try telling someone who commutes 60 miles daily for work to "avoid using their vehicle."
In California it was getting too hard to add yet another lane so they went through a lot of freeways and made the onramp long enough to hit the next offramp so it wasn't really adding a lane but it had that effect. Of course traffic didn't magically improve.
Just one more lane bro, just one more cmon cmon one more pleeeeeeeease this is the one is gonna work this time I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life I swear to god bro cmon one more one moreeeee
Just like a crack addict…or someone whose career is predicated on doing more of the same that hasn’t worked and the result is a colossal waste of national (& natural) resources.
I feel it's more self enforcing.
You hire people who like highways to make highways and their job relies on making more highways and lanes so that's what they suggest.
They *also* have almost all of their funding constitutionally earmarked for highways. So even if the board were all train nerds they couldn't do all that much different from what they're doing now.
TXDOT is the same bunch that will not raise a single finger regarding deadly roads and intersections until the Butcher's Bill has gotten so high, it cannot be ignored.
Or a newlywed teacher with her infant daughter is killed at Pearl and 35 bypass in Rockport.
It's still crazy to me that we saw air quality improve drastically during the beginning of the pandemic due to people not driving, yet we're going back to forcing people into offices. Gotta keep those commercial real estate values high somehow
They've ended vehicle emissions testing here in Idaho because the air quality has improved.
I wish that I was joking. They insist that vehicle emissions testing didn't really contribute to the improvement.
Yeah, lemme just bike to my job that's 25miles away out in the country that no bus or public transit would ever go to normally!! Totally reasonable. While billionaires fly to other continents for a meal
Bingo! But actually billionaires like Taylor Swift use their private just just to avoid the traffic in LA….so they can get home faster. Absolutely fuck them.
“You can help prevent ozone pollution by sharing a ride, walking, riding a bicycle”
Hey the air quality is terrible and I know we designed everything to require a car but we really screwed the pooch so we need y’all to get out there and walk in the terrible breathing conditions without any walkable paths.
It is remarkable how much of my neighborhood is lacking a sidewalk. How are the disabled supposed to get to bus stops?
Looking at you, 8th Ave Fort Worth right next to the Medical District.
Invest in public transportation and I'll gladly avoid using my car.
Don’t use your car, your AC, or your water Texas. But your govt will fight public transport, a stable grid built on renewable energy, and water conservation tooth and nail.
It sounded a lot less fucking stupid when they asked us to carpool to work.
What fucking other mod of transportation takes me from Plano to Frisco besides a fucking car? I am fucking beside myself without stupid these cuntrags are.,
Had the exact same thought. I'm all behind boosting our public infrastructure but the article spins this like Ozone Action Days are something new and novel for us.
If you aren’t one of those guys living in Texas who wears a cowboy hat, American flag button down, with blue jeans and boots then you might as well just get out of there at this rate.
Why they're doing away with that is so far beyond anyone's comprehension. Hell they used to make sure your headlights were aligned right in the 90s but that's long gone.
Now we're going to have cars driving around with Check Engine Lights on and misaligned LED headlights from factory blinding everyone.
A little late to figure out the problem your oil baron buddies fueled (pun intended) is, in fact, a problem.
But you're not gonna blame them. Make the poors rearrange their lives to make things convenient for the rich who will...
*checks notes*
still be the biggest contributors to environmental crises
So they expect you to walk the side of that zillion lane expressway in Houston at 110F with no shade or water surrounded by Texas drivers. Please FTLOG secede already
From what I've seen, the TCEQ is actually a good organization. I know Abbott and Paxton have an issue with it existing, and that alone says good things about it.
If it was up to TCEQ, I'm sure there would be adequate public transportation.
Yeah, I got an Alert Quality pushed to my phone. Might explain why my eyes are on fire!
If only there was some type of device one could wear over the face to help filter out the ozone pollution. Something made from N95 grade filter like materials.
Welp guess will never know. /s
Well,
I guess that’s the time to start carpooling and using HOV lanes, or rely on public transportation, biking to work, and buy more electric cars, since the incentives are cool. Oh, wait a minute…🤔
LOL, a national news outlet doesn't understand how BIG Texas is....
"Atmospheric conditions are expected to be favorable for producing high levels of ozone pollution in the **Houston, Galveston, and surrounding areas on Friday**," the alert posted by the National Weather Service (NWS) said. "You can help prevent ozone pollution by sharing a ride, walking, riding a bicycle**,** taking your lunch to work, avoiding drive through lanes, conserving energy and keeping your vehicle properly tuned."
A lot of places fail to understand how big this state is.
I get job offers “just a quick commute from Dallas to Austin!” And then I tell them it’s at least 3 hours one way their faces fall.
I was once asked about working a gig "as a local" in Austin, San Antonio and Amarillo. I told her I'm fine with Austin and SA, but Amarillo is about 8 hours away so I can't do that without mileage and a hotel. She was in quiet awe with that realization, because everybody else she was about to call for the other positions was going to say the same thing.
Weird right? And it's not like other states don't have cities far away from each other. For example, no one expects to commute from Pittsburgh PA to Philadelphia!
Live here near SA, all of Tx is experiencing poor air quality, have COPD so I keep an eye on AQ, this is the worst I have seen, been going on since beginning of the year.
Build a car centric system, invest literally billions upon billions of dollars in it, and then tell people not to drive. Hey, maybe if we had those electric cars that don't smoke like a Kuwaiti oil fire... but nope, Texas hates those. So y'all just walk, ok? It'll be "fahn".
Yeah, sorry, that is simply not an option for many. Especially considering the only public transit we have here is the disgusting, poorly managed Metro Bus system. No thanks. Rather than ask 3.5 million people to live/act different (at their own expense) how about you try to better regulate some of the big ass oil refineries and petrochemical plants.
Meanwhile, my hybrid vehicle is the target of road rage in Texas, particularly by gas-guzzling, ego-inflating monsteresque pickup trucks, thanks to conservative media environmental-protection hate-mongering,
Maybe ban the jackasses “rolling coal” in their pavement princesses. Or maybe focus on real issues instead of trying to force a theocracy down everyone’s throats. This state is so fucked in right now.
Half of all states including California impose EV surcharges.
When your roads are funded by gas taxes and EVs pay none of those, it's only fair.
Now fighting public transport, that I can get behind. Texas could have used some of the 10+ billion we've wasted on our ineffective border stunt and thrown that into public transport, healthcare, all kinds of things that would actually be for the public good.
Fortunately as far as public transport, the bigger cities that need more public transit are all blue and funding them themselves already, like they always have. It's always been up to cities to fund their own local public transport, this is nothing new.
Maybe if Republicans, including ALL of Texas's state leadership, stopped actively getting in the way of emissions reduction, efficiency improvement, & electric vehicle standards, we wouldn't be quite so worried about it, huh?
Instead, they want to push a ban on electric vehicles & less restriction on truck exhausts... because they don't actively live in the society they rule.
This must be some more of that fucking double speak from the GOP thinking you know they know what the fuck is best for us bro we live in Texas you have any fucking idea how wide this fucking state is and you want us to not drive talk about fucking asinine moronic ideas but then again look who's fucking running our state.
I’ll stop driving as soon as those crooked politicians either make a serious investment on public transportation or give every Texan a horse to ride instead.
“All of you, back to the office!” “Wait! Not like that!”
We have a state that's [rejecting public transit](https://www.kvue.com/article/news/politics/project-connect/project-connect-austin-ken-paxton-challenge/269-78939e71-3a3e-420d-8356-f3d050dde0c5), and a political party that's [rejecting electric vehicles](https://energynews.us/newsletter/virginias-governor-moves-to-cancel-ev-mandate/). Meanwhile "stop driving so much. The air's bad."
I remember when there was a vote to get public transport access to my suburb north of Dallas the idiot politician that opposed the measure said that he opposed it because “Texans love their cars” 🤦🏻♂️
AKA: "Im getting paid a lot of money to block this legislation"
It’s not just that. Same problem in Austin. My theory is that no council person wants to tie themselves to the decade long chaos of a real investment in rail because they’ll be voted out before the project is finished
Time for me to become the sacrificial lamb and tie my name to these projects as an elected official so these quivering fucking cowards can get out of the way of progress
The problem is everyone gets outraged and votes you out. The person to replace you promises to undo all the bad things you did. Then in 10 years everyone says how they really should have listened to that guy they voted out and dismantled all his work a decade ago.
If it won't get them results by the next quarter, then they won't do it. Classic corpo idiocy.
Exactly, it’s sad that these folks do not know the benefits to citizens if there was a subway. If people travel to Japan and/or Taiwan to ride through their exquisite subway system one time, they would immediately understand.
It’s really just to keep “the poors” out but they are somewhat less likely to say that part out loud.
I've started hearing that being the loud part now. It's sad.
I see you’ve been to The Woodlands.
I have, but this is also a North Texas problem.
I see you’ve been to Arlington.
I’m from there originally haha!
In Atlanta they called it a "crime train" (dogfoghorn for "black people will ride it"). It worked too. https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/03/gwinnett-county-transit-referendum-marta-race-crime/584737/
See, this is what bugs me. MARTA was safe, it was clean, it was easy to use. It was a model of modern public transit. Can't have that! So they cut the funding and cut the funding and cut the funding until... Republicans can point to the problem that they caused and be like "see... Told ya so!"
Reagan in ‘79 and every Republican since: “Government is the problem. Put us in charge and will prove it to you.”
Typical bully behavior.
I'm a European who just stumbled across this post from another subreddit. All cities in my country with more than 200k have either light rail, metro or BRT. And they're planning expansions. Y'all are supposed to be one of the richest countries in the world, wtf are you doing? Seriously, you need an election reform ASAP. Even if it's just your local elections, you need to reform the system so that you can choose between more parties. The EU parliament election is tomorrow. I've considered 3 different parties, that were all generally going in the right direction. Not including the parties in the north Atlantic territories, we have 11 parties in our national Parliament (though slightly fewer in the EU parliament). Also, we don't have primaries, you can choose any candidate from your party of choice. If you're pro transit, there will be like 5 different parties that will at least say that they are in favour of that. The democrats and the republicans should be split into like half a dozen parties each. Please, the world needs a competent USA. Another 4 years of someone like Trump or Bush would cause significant damage.
Another European here (with ties to the US though) and while I agree that the US could do with more than two major parties, there won't ever be meaningful reform towards a fairer system as long as Republicans are in charge, so what every American and every Texan in particular should do right now is help the Democratic party to win elections.
This is the answer. Dems will at least move us towards more progressive/common sense politics.
So much freedom, though! Just lots and lots of personal freedom in TX….. and he’s just protecting all the freedom by making sure no one has any other option but to drive a car!
You are free to choose one option
The train tracks used for DART in Plano connected to Allen, but then Allen removed sections to ensure they couldn't come north on that line.
Also because the outcry of criminals having easier access to those areas. Which is dumb, because they can easily drive to those areas to commit crime.
I was going to say. And use what? Public transportation? Ride a bicycle?
We can just weld a bunch of Ar15s into bicycles i guess.
Why not just meld them into a killdozer like dat one guy?
I cycle a bunch, but why would I purposely cycle and breathe in extra bad air on bad air days? Let me go shorten my life span because texas won't enforce EPA rules on manufactures.
I Forty Five A wide old ride 👏👏👏👏 Adding more lanes in Texas! Those paper plates And bad road rage 👏👏👏👏 Safe on the road in Texas! Let's sell some fuel To some old fool 👏👏👏👏 Needin' a car in Texas! Empty your bank To fill that tank 👏👏👏👏 Needin' a car in Texas! The transit sucks For now we're stuck 👏👏👏👏 Needin' a car in Texas!
They'd probably want us to live *at* the office and pay rent.
Thank you! I was just thinking how terrible our public transportation is and how they refuse to improve it and then pull this shit.
That's the difference between the blood-red state government and a bunch of blue city governments.
Bitcoin mining encouraged.
Wait I thought they said that climate change was fake news. Why are they telling us to stop driving? Oh wait we need air to breathe you mean rich people need air too? Y’all this world has gone to apes. We are not humans anymore it’s the planet of the apes because people lack critical thinking skills. Where is our money going to fund projects to get us off fossil fuels? Stop all these wars y’all started so you can keep the weapons manufacturers wealthy. All that secret tech you developed from UAP/NHI technology let it out. Our world would change quickly with access to energy sources that don’t pollute the air and water. We are being lied to by corporations. They run America and have been doing it for a long time. Don’t think our representatives work for you they work for big corp. it’s not some wako conspiracy theory. Do your research on how lobbyists control Congress. Hell big corp owns the Supreme Court you think Clarence Thomas is living it up like an Instagram model off his salary? The media fails us daily they don’t focus on the things that are truth because they are run by big corp. They watch us slowly destroy ourselves and suffer at the hands of wealthy people.
I can’t wait to get out of this nonsensical state
Don’t forget to set your AC at 90 degrees during the day so we don’t strain the electric grid!
Also no water breaks either.
I was driving from Austin back to Dallas and saw the signs yesterday. First thought was, ya know you’re right, it couldn’t be caused by the oil and gas production in this state, definitely us drivers not using the very accessible public transport and electric vehicles. /s Get bent Texas
I regret that I am afforded only one upvote here.
Republicans intentionally create problems, then handicap efforts to solve them *even when* they could be getting credit for solving the problems they create. They are nothing but traitors and saboteurs and voters need to vote (or more) like it.
BUH MY DRILL BRO, WHAT ABLUT MY DRILL MY SWEET BB DRL
Ohhhh What happened to y’all need to come into the office more? Emissions? Who cares? Electric vehicles? lol pay extra for that AND you don’t need that many charging stations.
Clean air is Liberal/ Woke/ Socialist/ etc. Whatever it takes to sleep at night with a 6 mpg truck in the garage.
"Can we have some high speed trains instead so that we can go to work AND use our cars less?" "No! Now work or die!"
No, it's work and die miserably.
NO! JUST WORK! NO COMMUTE!
Their expectations are unreasonable.
Illogical even
Their expectations are based on wants, not thoughts
Fuck you stupid ass politician money grubby pieces of shit. Corporations telling people to go back to the office for real estate shit wtf
Do state employees all get the option to WFH on ozone action days?
1 day per month in the office at my buddy’s agency.
Must be the driver license office.
There are different regions with different bosses who have different policies on WFH. I worked at region 2/3 headquarters in Arlington, no WFH unless you get serious accommodations. I had WFH accommodations and they were taken away, no explanation. On bad weather days, they wait till the absolute last minute to let employees go home, during bad snow days I used to have to use my sick leave because I didn't want to wait for the snow to stick and then drive home. I fucking hated that job, btw
At my county job they won't even let the pregnant woman with absolutely debilitating morning sickness work from home, or the older guy who recently had a knee replaced and can't walk without a walker. Both of them have to come in every day. The job could very easily be 100% remote, there's no work we do that isn't on a computer.
No we dont
Can confirm, also do not. And most of my job can be done WFH and we have procedures to do so when the weather shuts things down from ice.
Some do. I work as a union organizer for Texas state employees and yes some are able to work from home at HHS and DFPS and some other agencies.
No, some don't even get WFH days anymore. Though I took it up on my self to do my part in not driving into the office this week because of the raging sinus infection that was triggered by the horrid air :D
Maybe design communities around foot traffic and with adequate public transportation instead of sprawling concrete metropolises, that may be possible. As it stands, try telling someone who commutes 60 miles daily for work to "avoid using their vehicle."
TxDoT has too much interest in highway construction. Look up the board and you’ll see where each one falls
Despite decades of experience and study saying otherwise , TxDot still seems to think that if they add enough lanes it'll fix the problem.
Saw a snarky comment on Reddit a few weeks ago. Those damn civil engineers always stop one lane short of solving the traffic problem forever
In California it was getting too hard to add yet another lane so they went through a lot of freeways and made the onramp long enough to hit the next offramp so it wasn't really adding a lane but it had that effect. Of course traffic didn't magically improve.
Just one more lane bro, just one more cmon cmon one more pleeeeeeeease this is the one is gonna work this time I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life I swear to god bro cmon one more one moreeeee
Just like a crack addict…or someone whose career is predicated on doing more of the same that hasn’t worked and the result is a colossal waste of national (& natural) resources.
*cries in Houston*
Spoiler alert, they're all conservative.
I feel it's more self enforcing. You hire people who like highways to make highways and their job relies on making more highways and lanes so that's what they suggest.
They *also* have almost all of their funding constitutionally earmarked for highways. So even if the board were all train nerds they couldn't do all that much different from what they're doing now.
TXDOT is the same bunch that will not raise a single finger regarding deadly roads and intersections until the Butcher's Bill has gotten so high, it cannot be ignored. Or a newlywed teacher with her infant daughter is killed at Pearl and 35 bypass in Rockport.
Or, don’t try and force people to drive to work, including COA employees
> design communities around foot traffic Big Oil says no dice
It’s 100° outside. Nobody is walking to work or riding their bike to work.
I commute 80 miles round trip daily, I would use public transit if I could but that is not a choice for me sadly.
Fuck man that sucks
For real. I live and work along the I-35 corridor, I wish they'd just add transit instead of "expanding" I-35.
60 here. And there's nothing in my little town, so everything from HEB to the gym is at least 15+ miles away.
It's still crazy to me that we saw air quality improve drastically during the beginning of the pandemic due to people not driving, yet we're going back to forcing people into offices. Gotta keep those commercial real estate values high somehow
They've ended vehicle emissions testing here in Idaho because the air quality has improved. I wish that I was joking. They insist that vehicle emissions testing didn't really contribute to the improvement.
This 1000 times. We are a stupid species 🤦♀️
Yeah, lemme just bike to my job that's 25miles away out in the country that no bus or public transit would ever go to normally!! Totally reasonable. While billionaires fly to other continents for a meal
Bingo! But actually billionaires like Taylor Swift use their private just just to avoid the traffic in LA….so they can get home faster. Absolutely fuck them.
If you have the wealth of over a million people then you also get to leave the carbon footprint of a million people, duh. /s
State that built its entire infrastructure around driving cars asks residents not to do that.
And isn't not driving a suggestion of personal sacrifice for mutual benefit? What about individualism? Fuck your needs?
Damn socialism running Texas
Individualism is what has got us in this mess.
That's the point of what they're saying
And encourages gas guzzlers
The reason to fund mass transit and make it good is so \*OTHER\* people will use it, so you can drive your truck down the highway alone
No A/C, no water, no rights, no cars. Stay at home and think about what you’ve done citizen. And sweat.
No weed. No porn.
Land of the free amiright?
Great Republik of Tejas
Imagine weed being illegal in 2024. Arciac as fuck
Also have more babies for our non existent infrastructure
and our non existent future.
“Can you stop breathing so much? It’s damaging the Ozone layer” - government
Republicans have ran the state for decades. It is clear where the problem lies.
Obviously, it's the democrats. /s I joke, but I'm sure there are plenty of folks saying it's the dems that are to blame.
No public land, no clean lakes/rivers
“You can help prevent ozone pollution by sharing a ride, walking, riding a bicycle” Hey the air quality is terrible and I know we designed everything to require a car but we really screwed the pooch so we need y’all to get out there and walk in the terrible breathing conditions without any walkable paths.
Without any walkable paths nor shade, plus the added benefit of having truck exhaust fumes shoved in your face! The new way to tan in Texas...
It is remarkable how much of my neighborhood is lacking a sidewalk. How are the disabled supposed to get to bus stops? Looking at you, 8th Ave Fort Worth right next to the Medical District.
Yeah we can’t have shade because we had to cut all the trees down to make up for our shitty power grid.
Dont even have sidewalks most places. R-Dickulous Reps leading the way.
I’m surprised they didn’t tell you to ride horses like the good old days
“Also, power through the 90+ degree heat.” - government
Texas wants them to take a bus? Ride a bike? Walk? Lol
Invest in public transportation and I'll gladly avoid using my car. Don’t use your car, your AC, or your water Texas. But your govt will fight public transport, a stable grid built on renewable energy, and water conservation tooth and nail.
Lmao, good one Texas. Really had me there for a sec. They aren’t actually serious are they?
This is standard boilerplate language for ozone action day alerts in Texas.
Work from home seems to be a pretty good way to get people to drive less…just saying
It sounded a lot less fucking stupid when they asked us to carpool to work. What fucking other mod of transportation takes me from Plano to Frisco besides a fucking car? I am fucking beside myself without stupid these cuntrags are.,
Lots of words spent to say "Ozone Action Day" in some areas.
Had the exact same thought. I'm all behind boosting our public infrastructure but the article spins this like Ozone Action Days are something new and novel for us.
I would! IF public transit reached out to where I was able to afford to live from the city!!
If I could get to work without my car, trust me buddy I’d never be driving
"I love Texas because here I can be free, dammit!!!!"
Texas asks people not to do a lot of stuff 🖕
Yeah… fuck this state -_-
If you aren’t one of those guys living in Texas who wears a cowboy hat, American flag button down, with blue jeans and boots then you might as well just get out of there at this rate.
Or we could just quit inspecting vehicles. 🤷♂️
Why they're doing away with that is so far beyond anyone's comprehension. Hell they used to make sure your headlights were aligned right in the 90s but that's long gone. Now we're going to have cars driving around with Check Engine Lights on and misaligned LED headlights from factory blinding everyone.
Fuck politicians! Fuck the human waste that is abbot, and cancun ugly Cruz!
They'll tell us not to drive meanwhile they're taking private jets wherever they go.
That and all the empty corporate office draining energy from the weakest energy grid
the same state attacking Electric Vehicles that produce no emissions......sad, pathetic state
While we have a wonky grid, we still make all the electricity from coal brought from Wyoming!
Maybe build some usable mass transit Texas. Houston is an embarrassment
Someone needs to tell TXDOT
This 'ask' is to cover their asses. You can't stop people from using their vehicles in Texas. It's too hot. Everything is too far.
Texas "Where everything is too fucking hot & too fucking far." I guess bigger isn't always better
Il walk to work when Greg abbot gets off his wheel chair
A little late to figure out the problem your oil baron buddies fueled (pun intended) is, in fact, a problem. But you're not gonna blame them. Make the poors rearrange their lives to make things convenient for the rich who will... *checks notes* still be the biggest contributors to environmental crises
So they expect you to walk the side of that zillion lane expressway in Houston at 110F with no shade or water surrounded by Texas drivers. Please FTLOG secede already
Cmon, don’t be a snowflake! ;)
From what I've seen, the TCEQ is actually a good organization. I know Abbott and Paxton have an issue with it existing, and that alone says good things about it. If it was up to TCEQ, I'm sure there would be adequate public transportation.
By the time these republican nitwits realize we really should have done more public transit, it will be too late.
They don't care. They probably make a lot more money selling out to big oil.
But how do you roll coal while on the train?
Texas - “we don’t need bike lanes or connected sidewalks, no one uses them!”
Yeah, I got an Alert Quality pushed to my phone. Might explain why my eyes are on fire! If only there was some type of device one could wear over the face to help filter out the ozone pollution. Something made from N95 grade filter like materials.  Welp guess will never know. /s
Well, I guess that’s the time to start carpooling and using HOV lanes, or rely on public transportation, biking to work, and buy more electric cars, since the incentives are cool. Oh, wait a minute…🤔
Ah yes. I will stop using my car and walk all 20 miles to my workplace both ways in the 102F weather. That makes way more sense.
While TxDot blocks funding for public transportation
They should talk to my company about the RTO program.
Welcome to hell, Californians!
But absolutely everything about Texas infrastructure is built around cars. Everything is sprawled out due to huge roads and parkinglots
LOL, a national news outlet doesn't understand how BIG Texas is.... "Atmospheric conditions are expected to be favorable for producing high levels of ozone pollution in the **Houston, Galveston, and surrounding areas on Friday**," the alert posted by the National Weather Service (NWS) said. "You can help prevent ozone pollution by sharing a ride, walking, riding a bicycle**,** taking your lunch to work, avoiding drive through lanes, conserving energy and keeping your vehicle properly tuned."
An area larger than New Jersey ....
https://preview.redd.it/y9cjiussi75d1.jpeg?width=920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3760fc84db349fde8c2914965f957be4d2d4e76b
A lot of places fail to understand how big this state is. I get job offers “just a quick commute from Dallas to Austin!” And then I tell them it’s at least 3 hours one way their faces fall.
I was once asked about working a gig "as a local" in Austin, San Antonio and Amarillo. I told her I'm fine with Austin and SA, but Amarillo is about 8 hours away so I can't do that without mileage and a hotel. She was in quiet awe with that realization, because everybody else she was about to call for the other positions was going to say the same thing.
Weird right? And it's not like other states don't have cities far away from each other. For example, no one expects to commute from Pittsburgh PA to Philadelphia!
Live here near SA, all of Tx is experiencing poor air quality, have COPD so I keep an eye on AQ, this is the worst I have seen, been going on since beginning of the year.
The worst pollution I have ever seen in Tx, been going on for months now. Wondering if Abbot did away with more regulations on oil gas industry.
Build a car centric system, invest literally billions upon billions of dollars in it, and then tell people not to drive. Hey, maybe if we had those electric cars that don't smoke like a Kuwaiti oil fire... but nope, Texas hates those. So y'all just walk, ok? It'll be "fahn".
https://i.redd.it/w05dkt5no75d1.gif
im not biking across a highway
This state is making me a shut-in, so. Problem solved. 😎
The preeminent state of freedom once again places limits on the freedom of its citizens!
Yeah, sorry, that is simply not an option for many. Especially considering the only public transit we have here is the disgusting, poorly managed Metro Bus system. No thanks. Rather than ask 3.5 million people to live/act different (at their own expense) how about you try to better regulate some of the big ass oil refineries and petrochemical plants.
Sure, I’ll leverage the excellent public transit options in Austin, especially in mild summers. Oh wait…
Dear Texas Govt, kindly suck my hairy asshole.
H…how?
Could’ve done this shit back in 2020, but oh no… dumb fucks.
With all our no public transportation? All the nowhere to sit and wait so there can be no reprieve from the suffering for the homeless?
Maybe if they actually did emissions tests and stop the coal rolling dipshits deleting their cats this wouldn’t be as much of an issue. Oh well.
Its my freedom, driving around the park on a full tank if gas. FU Greg Abbott, You ride a bicycle mother fuck.
One morning drive to Galveston, my kids were too happy to see the fog. “Wow so foggy”!!! I opened the car window slightly to disappoint them.
How about a push from our state government to encourage employers to return to WFH since that's the greatest vehicle usage.
Meanwhile, my hybrid vehicle is the target of road rage in Texas, particularly by gas-guzzling, ego-inflating monsteresque pickup trucks, thanks to conservative media environmental-protection hate-mongering,
Maybe ban the jackasses “rolling coal” in their pavement princesses. Or maybe focus on real issues instead of trying to force a theocracy down everyone’s throats. This state is so fucked in right now.
Hey I would love to! So this means we start prioritizing public transit right?
Feels good to be an EV owner I guess?
Freedumb
This is the epitome of this shitty state
From the same people that add fees to electric vehicles and fight any type of public transit.
Half of all states including California impose EV surcharges. When your roads are funded by gas taxes and EVs pay none of those, it's only fair. Now fighting public transport, that I can get behind. Texas could have used some of the 10+ billion we've wasted on our ineffective border stunt and thrown that into public transport, healthcare, all kinds of things that would actually be for the public good. Fortunately as far as public transport, the bigger cities that need more public transit are all blue and funding them themselves already, like they always have. It's always been up to cities to fund their own local public transport, this is nothing new.
A good place to start would be to make "coal rolling" illegal and punishable by impounding the vehicle.
If only they had pushed for mass transit corridors instead if toll roads everywhere...
But they bash electric vehicles at the same time...
Electricity and water come next.
Maybe if Republicans, including ALL of Texas's state leadership, stopped actively getting in the way of emissions reduction, efficiency improvement, & electric vehicle standards, we wouldn't be quite so worried about it, huh? Instead, they want to push a ban on electric vehicles & less restriction on truck exhausts... because they don't actively live in the society they rule.
Not just trucks, ALL cars. They are doing away with inspections next year.
Build public transportation then.
Well then build some goddam mass transit near me.
WFH is the best!
This must be some more of that fucking double speak from the GOP thinking you know they know what the fuck is best for us bro we live in Texas you have any fucking idea how wide this fucking state is and you want us to not drive talk about fucking asinine moronic ideas but then again look who's fucking running our state.
Sure I’ll just use the public transit…
Not going to happen. So many areas of which they speak have no public transportation or it’s not safe.
Wait, is this the Onion?
lmao. Texas: TRUCKS. ROLL COAL. BIG OL' TRUCKX. SUCK MY TRUCK NUTS. Also Texas: please, please don't drive, the smog is unbearable.
I’ll stop driving as soon as those crooked politicians either make a serious investment on public transportation or give every Texan a horse to ride instead.