Contests

Caption Contest: TxDOT’s Shiny Happy People Sucking in Highway Exhaust

This rendering of State Highway 45 Southwest in Austin -- one of 12 highway boondoggles singled out by U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group this year -- inspired some mockery on Twitter:

By Angie Schmitt

12:49 PM EST on January 22, 2016

Caption this rendering! Source: TxDOT — Your caption here. Source: TxDOT

This rendering of State Highway 45 Southwest in Austin — one of 12 highway boondoggles singled out by U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group this year — inspired some mockery on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/ahow628/status/690263672711610368

@StreetsblogNet @uspirg “Just gonna go walk the dog out by the highway, honey!” — Parker (@EnergyWarning) January 21, 2016

And that got us thinking… Caption contest! Give us your entry in the comments and we’ll choose a winner.

As an aside, it seems like slapping a ped/bike path next to a highway is a real trend these days, even though no one really wants to walk or bike a few feet away from noisy traffic moving at 65 mph. This path is a clear example of greenwashing by a state agency that wants to show people it’s “multi-modal” without making any meaningful shift in values or priorities.

Angie Schmitt

Angie is a Cleveland-based writer with a background in planning and newspaper reporting. She has been writing about cities for Streetsblog for six years.