Ben Wear has a nice entry on his Statesmen pseudo-blog about the myth that gas taxes fully pay for highway construction, indicating that in the past, the legislature directly contributed to highway construction from the general fund. Didn't we just pass a five billion dollar general obligation bond for TXDOT? Highways don't pay for themselves, even if you only compare gas tax revenues to construction and maintenance costs. Gas taxes generally pay for less than half of the construction and maintenance costs of any new highway. If you take costs associated with congestion, sprawl and global warming into account, highways look like an even bigger waste....

The first two of six new commuter rail trains arrived in Austin this week. The diesel-electric trains trains, the last of which should arrive by late spring, were purchased from Swiss manufacturer Stadler Bussnang AG ("We Track Clever Solutions" -- get it?) for $34 million. Cap Metro plans to start testing these cars next month along the rail line from Howard Lane and Mopac down to 47th Street and Airport Boulevard—each will be run......

Ben Wear has an informative article in today's Statesman, providing more details (and lots of purty pictures) on TxDOT's plan to expand MoPac. This picture is our favorite, as it shows that the new lane isn't getting added between the current lanes and the train track - it is replacing the existing shoulder (between the highway and the houses). TxDOT has promised a "noise wall," but we'll believe that when we see hear it.......

So much urban development is happening in Austin, we barely have time to hit the highlights. We'd love to offer more fulsome coverage, but we need help. If you are interested in writing urban development posts for Austinist.com, email urban(@)austinist.com (remove the parenthesis) with a few sample posts and some information about yourself and why you want to write for Austinist.com. Villa Muse Development: Villa Muse (shown right) is a proposed 681-acre mixed-used development......

-The death toll in Pakistan and surrounding countries has exceeded 20,000, with countless more bodies yet to be recovered in what was the most devastating earthquake to hit South Asia in the last century. Aid agencies estimate that over 120,000 people are in "urgent need of shelter." The magnitude-7.6 quake struck on Saturday near the northeastern border of Kashmir and Pakistan. Austinist asks that you leave links to donation sites in the comments section. -Boy......