I-345 South in Dallas by Formulanone licensed under Creative Commons.

Texas officials want to bury a highway in a trench. A master plan for the LA River. An affordable monthly pass to encourage transit ridership in Germany.

TxDOT wants to bury Dallas’ I-345: The Texas Department of Transportation has released its preferred alternative for replacing the elevated I-345 highway, which splits downtown Dallas from the Deep Ellum neighborhood. They believe that burying the road in a trench is the optimal solution rather than removing it completely and replacing it with a surface boulevard, claiming that traffic models indicate more congestion if the freeway was removed. (Matt Goodman | D Magazine)

LA County’s river plan: Los Angeles County has released its final master plan for the LA River, which is meant to help with community revitalization and ecological restoration along the multi-faceted urban waterway. It details how the agency will create 51-miles of connected open space that supports clean water, native habitat, parks, recreation, trails, art, and more. (Josh Niland | Archinect)

Germany introduces 9-euro pass for summer: The monthly transit pass would help residents offset the high costs of fuel due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The program, which will cost the government 2.5 billion euros, would last until August and offer an incentive to get more people riding public transit. (Denis Balgaranov | The Mayor.eu)

Regulating brake particles: In Europe, ultra-fine particles created by braking will be included in the next round of emissions regulations. Previous regulations didn’t include these particles which contain both coarse and fine dust that can penetrate deep into the lungs. While a switch to electric vehicles will remove tailpipe emissions, brake dust will still be created, especially with larger vehicles like SUVs. (Sean Goulding Carroll | Euractiv)

The NIMBYs who defend overpopulation: Jerusalem Demsas writes about a certain type of NIMBY that says housing supply should be limited to combat population growth and save the environment. But this argument is not new and has been made, inhumanely, over the last century to argue against immigration, the growth of countries in the global South, and housing interventions that would ultimately benefit the planet. (Jerusalem Demsas | The Atlantic)

Quote of the Week

“[Lawmakers in Florida] do not understand how they fit into nature or how nature works. Perhaps they just don’t care. Many hold the belief that there is no ‘value’ to nature. … If it isn’t ‘improved,’ it’s worthless. There is a lack of recognition of the ecosystem services that conserved lands can provide, therefore it is easy to claim that more conservation lands are not needed, or that they are too expensive.”

Marjorie Shropshire in Current Affairs discusses how lawmakers don’t understand the impact of road expansion in Florida on the environment.

This week on the podcast, Alix Gould-Werth of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, and Alex Murphy, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan, talk about their transportation security index.