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Translating Road Engineer-Speak Into Honest English

Scott White at Velo Paso in the great state of Texas has been developing these "snarky pseudo infographics" based on some of his observations of the traffic engineering world. He's been Tweeting them under the hashtag #TransPedia, a satirical take on the language of road widening and car-centric street design.

Scott White at Velo Paso in the great state of Texas has been developing these “snarky pseudo infographics” based on some of his observations of the traffic engineering world. He’s been Tweeting them under the hashtag #TransPedia, a satirical take on the language of road widening and car-centric street design.

Image by Andy Boenau. Words by Scott White.
Graphic: Scott White/Andy Boenau

The images, White says, were inspired by some of his experiences at public meetings in El Paso and in part by graphics produced by Andy Boenau, who also makes the Urbanism Speakeasy podcast. “It kind of turns out, these faux definitions are just a little too true,” White said.

Here are some samples of what he and others have come up with.

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Graphic: Scott White/Kostelec Plans
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Graphic by Andy Boenau
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Graphic by Andy Boenau
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Photo of 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.

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