Kate Hinds

Select Bus Service on Manhattan's East Side (photo by Kate Hinds)

Bus rapid transit systems are on the rise, but not everyone is a fan. (Wall Street Journal, Globe and Mail)

Amtrak is seeking private investors for its Northeast Corridor high-speed rail line. (The Hill)

California's high-speed rail authority is disputing bills from Caltrain that are worth more than $108,000. (San Francisco Examiner)

Rep. John Mica's opinion piece in today's Politico: "Congress must act now" on transportation reauthorization legislation.

San Francisco's cabbies want their fares in cash instead of credit cards (Bay Citizen via New York Times). Meanwhile, NYC livery cab owners are fighting the city's outer-borough medallion plan (WNYC).

New York City Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson, a supporter of the city's bike lanes, gives a reporter a taste of his two-wheeled commute. (New York Times)

Maryland's governor signed a bill forbidding a French government-operated company from competing to run that state's commuter trains, because of the company's activities during the Holocaust. (Washington Post)

The NY Daily News blames Mayor Bloomberg for not doing enough for the city's transit.

Boston unveils three electric car charging stations today. (Boston Herald)

Riders at two Brooklyn F and G train stations have their stations back -- for now. (WNYC)

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation:

-- the Yankees' parking garage is losing money, plus it displaced a public park (link)

-- cab sharing on tap for this year's US Open (link)

-- bike commuting in Houston? You betcha. (link)

-- carpooling in Houston? Yep, especially as gas prices fluctuate (link)

Bike to Work Day, 2010 (photo by greenperalta/Flickr)

Today is Bike to Work Day.

Atlanta's suburbs may finally be ready to embrace mass transit. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

China halted work on a high-speed rail line due to environmental concerns.  (Wall Street Journal)

The Guardian has an enormous amount of data about Britain's train stations. (The Guardian)

GM will increase Volt production, and plans to close a plant for a month to prepare. (AutoBlog)

Hear TN's Andrea Bernstein talk about how gasoline prices are affecting driving behavior on The Takeaway (and don't forget to participate in our survey on how gas prices affect YOU.)

Toronto's mayor is set to unveil his bike lane plan. (The Star)

New York City approved an increase in fines for cab drivers who break a wide range of rules — from being caught using a cell phone while driving to refusing to accept a credit card. (WNYC)

Food trucks -- so popular on the coasts -- are hitting legal roadblocks in the Midwest. (Changing Gears)

The DDOT won't be available to fill potholes after Saturday's 'Rapture.' (Fox News)

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation:

-- The Yankees paved paradise and put up a parking lot -- with public money (link)

-- it's not gas prices you have to worry about in Montana, it's snow...even in May (link)

-- NYC's dollar van program, meant to replace cut bus lines, is a total bust (link)

-- SF wants to make its taxis more efficient (link)

-- public transportation: it's good for you (link)

(Kate Hinds, Transportation Nation) If New Yorkers took fuller advantage of the city's public transit system, bike lanes, and sidewalks, they'd be healthier. That's the message behind a report released today by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Health Benefits of Active Transportation in New York City states that "one in eight deaths annually among New Yorkers aged 30 and over could be prevented with more physical activity." While the report covers the personal health benefits of "active transportation" (defined as "self-propelled" methods like walking, bicycling, jogging, and in-line skating), it also underscores the importance of public transportation. Some highlights:

• On average, people who walk or bike to work get more than an hour of active transportation time daily.
• New Yorkers who walk or bike to work get more than 40 minutes more combined transportation and recreation physical activity per day than those who use a personal car or taxi.
• New Yorkers who take public transportation for most of their commute get almost half an hour more daily combined transportation and recreation physical activity than those who use a personal car or taxi.

Thomas Farley, the commissioner of the city's Department of Health, said how you commute can make a big difference. "If you simply walk to work, run errands 20 to 30 minutes a day," he said, "you can reduce your diabetes risk by 30%, and reduce your risk of premature death by 20%."

You can read the report highlights here (pdf), or see the full report below.

Pr 009- 11 Active Transportation

Oil Rigs near Huntington Beach (Aaron Logan)

The Senate rejected Republican-backed legislation intended to speed up and expand offshore oil and gas drilling. (The Hill)

One card to rule them all: Clipper card users can now refill their cards at BART ticket vending machines. (San Jose Mercury News)

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said plans for high-speed rail systems were moving ahead and that he was confident of their long-term prospects. (Wall Street Journal)

Counterpoint: a Washington Post editorial says that California's high-speed rail is going off the rails.

Pennsylvania's environmental regulator has told natural gas drillers not to dump waste into rivers used for drinking water. (Marketplace)

Internal Affairs will be monitoring NYC's traffic courts for evidence of ticket fixing by police. (New York Times)

Wealthy Chinese are stealthily -- and illegally -- flying helicopters. (NY Times)

Chennai (India) eyes bus rapid transit. (The Hindu)

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation:

-- The Takeaway wants to know: how are higher gas prices affecting you? (link)

-- Florida lawmakers take on gas price gouging (link)

-- DDOT makes Terry Bellamy official (link)

-- proceedings start in Brooklyn bike lane lawsuit (link)

-- a new report says transit only works if it takes you to work (link)

Terry Bellamy, the new director of the District Department of Transportation

(Kate Hinds, Transportation Nation) DC mayor Vincent Gray today officially appointed Terry Bellamy the director of the District Department of Transportation. Bellamy, who has been with the agency since 2008, had been acting as DDOT's interim director since Gabe Klein departed the office a few months ago.   WAMU's David Shultz reports that Bellamy says his priorities will be roughly the same as his predecessor's.  "Many of the programs and activities that we've been doing have been planned for over 20 years and we'll continue to carry that forward," Bellamy says.

From the mayor's official press release (which also covers another mayoral appointment):

From the docket taped outside the Brooklyn courtroom (Kate Hinds)

(Kate Hinds, Transportation Nation) Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes/Seniors for Safety, a group that's brought suit against the city over Brooklyn's Prospect Park West bike lane, had their first appearance in court today.  Among the plaintiffs who showed up for the largely procedural hearing were former Deputy Mayor (nder David Dinkins) Norman Steisel, who's now a private consultant living near the bike lane.

But after huddling for a few minutes before the judge, the only resolution was that both sides are scheduled to meet again in court in a little over a month.

The parties spoke before the judge but out of earshot.  Jim Walden, the attorney for the plaintiffs, explained outside the courtroom that he was asking for a ruling on a motion for expedited discovery -- he wants the city Department of Transportation to provide more information on the bike lane, including safety data and internal emails.  The attorney for the city, Mark Muschenheim,  responded  "we've already provided much of what they wanted through FOIL."

When the case was called, both sides huddled before Justice Bert Bunyan, who questioned them for a few minutes -- and then adjourned the case until June 22.

The New York City Law Department released the following statement:

(Andrea Bernstein and Kate Hinds, Transportation Nation) We were swamped last week, and didn't have a chance to dig into the heroic Brookings Institution report "Missed Opportunity: Transit and Jobs in Metro America."

(The head of Brookings said doing the report meant looking at  "literally billions of daily trips in the United States, 500 gigabytes of data, 100 metropolitan areas, 371 transit agencies, two staff hospitalized").

The top line -- some 70 percent of Americans have access to transit, but only 30 percent can reach their jobs within 90 minutes.   There are several reasons for this, Brookings says, beginning with the fact that  America's transit systems were primarily laid out on the spoke-and-hub model.  Think about New York City.  It's relatively easy to get to your job in Manhattan on the subway  if you live in Park Slope in Brooklyn, Elmhurst, in Queens, or Mott Haven, in the Bronx.  But what if you live in Bushwick and work in Queens, an increasingly common pattern in New York City? (This phenomenon was also documented in a recent Center for an Urban Future report.)

In the Bay Area, you can get to downtown SF more or less easily on BART or the Cal Train, but if you live in Oakland and work in Redwood City across the bay, you're not so lucky -- even where there's express bus it may be so difficult to get from your house to the bus, and then from the bus to your job, that it feels not worth it.

And those are the cities with the good transit systems.  There are other problems, the report says -- more people live and work in the suburbs, which were built only with automobile transport in mind,  and as poverty continues to move out to the suburbs, poor people find themselves increasingly reliant on cars, or on shrinking bus systems.

"You can have lots of transit, and still fail to reach a lot of regional jobs within a reasonable amount of time," writes Alan  Berube, senior fellow and research director of Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Program. "Conversely, you can have modest, unsexy transit and deliver workers from their homes to a majority of regional job centers efficiently."

The report is a sobering bucket of icy water at a time when the rising price of gas is causing people to look for transit options -- at the same time many localities have cut transit entirely because of budget constraints.  And as Monday's Urban Land Institute report showed, budgetary pressure mean more of these cuts are in store.

It also comes as the federal government is expressing an anti-spending mood.

One note on the Brookings methodology -- the institution famously considers metro areas, as defined by the U.S. Census.  So New York includes a number of suburban counties with little transit (Rockland, Orange, parts of NJ, even eastern Pennsylvania).   Ergo New York ranks 13th in connecting people to jobs via transit -- while Honolulu ranks first

The report calls for making job access a key factor in transportation decision making -- as well as integrating land use, housing, and infrastructure decisions. Coinciding with the release of the report, Brookings brought together some key stakeholders -- including  Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan -- to discuss these issues. (See the video, below). And you can download a pdf of the full report here.

Senate Democrats want the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the oil industry is fixing gas prices. (Marketplace). Meanwhile, their proposal to strip oil companies of tax breaks failed in the Senate yesterday (New York Times).

Politico writes: "Republicans have a messaging problem on gas prices. More Americans actually believe in UFOs and ghosts than blame President Barack Obama for causing their pain at the pump."

Montreal's Bixi bike share program, losing money and in debt, needs financial backing from the city. (The Globe and Mail)

Auditions for NYC's "Music Under New York" program were held yesterday; WNYC stopped by to take pictures -- and audio -- of the would-be subway performers. Take a listen!

CNN Money profiles the president of Alta Bike Share, the company behind the bike share programs in Boston and DC.

Workers move closer to their jobs, take transit, buy less, as a result of gas prices:  (New York Times)

Loudoun County officials are exploring what would happen if they withdrew funding for the Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport. (Washington Post)

The Congressional Budget Office floated a mileage tax at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on “Financing 21st Century Infrastructure.” (The Hill)

Meanwhile, at the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing for the Federal Railroad Administration's budget request, Amtrak president Joseph Boardman said the Gateway Tunnel is "critical" to high-speed rail service. He added:  "I think we're out of capacity in the Northeast Corridor...we have no place to put the New Jersey Transit trains that come into Penn Station." (Video below via Senator Lautenberg, YouTube)

The Freedom Rides turn 50 this year, and two original freedom riders talk will about that activism on today's Brian Lehrer Show. (WNYC)

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation:

-- high fuel prices squeeze Montana agencies (link)

-- DC wants to impose fees on intercity bus industry (link)

-- DC's mayor will announce new DDOT head today (link)

Overturned construction carts outside of a construction site on West 83rd Street where two workers died on February 8 after falling down the elevator shaft from the fifth floor of a church while installing steel.

(Washington, DC -- David Schultz, WAMU) DC's Department of Transportation has not had a permanent director since Gabe Klein resigned five months ago.  (Klein is now Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's Director of Transportation.) And as we reported last week, other top officials have also recently left the agency. But a change may be on the horizon: the mayor's spokesperson, Doxie McCoy,  says in an email that Mayor Vincent Gray will announce a new director for the DDOT tomorrow. Stay tuned!

City Limits takes a long look at Iris Weinshall, former NYC transportation commissioner, bike lane opponent, and wife of Senator Schumer.

Amtrak posted its biggest April ridership numbers in its history. (AltTransport)

San Francisco may raise taxi cab rates "to heights unseen in any other part of the nation." (AP via Sacramento Bee)

Some scientists are casting doubt on the radiation dose delivered by the TSA's body scanners. (ProPublica)

Ray LaHood attended Rahm Emanuel's inauguration; says Chicago's new mayor is sending a team to DC to talk transportation priorities. (AP via Chicago Tribune)

The Hill reports that the Senate is set to vote today on the Democrats' bill that would cut the tax breaks received by the big five oil companies.

A Manhattan community board gets behind the idea of a car-free Central Park. (DNA Info)

Two towns that protested the effects of the widening of the New Jersey Turnpike have begun spending the millions awarded them for the loss of forested land. (The Times of Trenton)

Ottawa's bike share program begins this week. (Ottawa Citizen)

Pedicabs in New York must now obey motor vehicle law. (Wall Street Journal)

A move is afoot to get London to adopt a cycle map based on the iconic Tube map. (Fast Company)

Simon Parker's London cycle map

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation:

-- Fernando Ferrer named to NY MTA board (link)

-- baby born on Verrazano Bridge (link)

-- a new report says essential urban infrastructure is disintegrating rapidly (link)

NJ Governor Christie's approach to transportation has led to higher tolls and more expensive transit.  (NY Times)

Automakers are trying to convince the Chinese to drive electric vehicles -- not an easy sell. "In addition to general suspicions of new technology and logistics of where to plug the cars in, there is also a huge problem with Chinese government oversight and regulation." (NPR)

NY's MTA is testing out buses which apparently have low ceilings and cramped legroom. (NY Post)

The U.S. natural gas boom is paving the way for another kind of all-American boom: litigation. (Marketplace)

The NY Times has a photo essay about old subway cars used as reefs -- a practice which is ending.  (Can't help but note that WNYC had this story a year ago, almost to the day. )

Ray LaHood returned to his alma mater to deliver the commencement address; video below. (FastLane)

According to a Detroit Free Press editorial, transportation in Grand Rapids is one of the reasons why that city is in better shape than Detroit.

British author Robert Penn already owned six bicycles -- but none of them was the perfect one. NPR interviewed him about his quest to build the perfect bike.

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In case you  missed it on Transportation Nation:

-- DC's DOT is losing key staff, and the mayor has yet to appoint a head (link)

-- Boston says 1/3 of transit riders are using transit apps (link)

-- the AAA says 630 bicyclists were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2009 (link)

-- does driving make you fat? Could be. (link)

The LAPD is experimenting with electric bicycles. (Los Angeles Times)

Ray LaHood wants to help resolve differences in the Dulles Airport Metrorail project. (Washington Post)

DC's Metro has given Google Transit access to its data. (Washington Post)

New York City's bike lanes: a new poll says that support for them is stable, even if people think the lanes are unused. (Wall Street Journal)

NJ Senator Robert Menendez talked about oil company tax breaks -- and the senate finance committee hearing on the issue -- on the Brian Lehrer Show. (WNYC/IAFC)

AC Transit will be raising fares, and service cuts may also be coming within a year. (Contra Costa Times)

More on the osprey nest that's foiling DDOT construction from Marketplace.

The New York Post profiles the man who spent his life savings on the Doomsday ads now running in the subway. Bonus fact: he's a former MTA employee.

Who wants to see Estonians simulate bicycle riding on an airport people mover? You do! (video below:)

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation:

-- light rail could be pushing west in NJ (link)

-- speed in NYC, and you might see skeletons (link)

-- the world's most dangerous roads (link)

-- a new Brookings report came out, ranking access to transit (link)

Just how vulnerable are America's railroads to a terrorist attack? The Wall Street Journal reports that "for every $50 the Transportation Security Administration spends on aviation security, the agency budgets $1 to protect surface transportation."

Will separated bike lanes come to Toronto? (NOW Toronto)

Bike parked outside of WNYC's Greene Space (photo by Kate Hinds)

The big jump in oil prices pushed the nation's trade deficit higher in March. (AP via NPR)

DC is trying out San Francisco's dynamic parking pricing. (WAMU/Kojo Nnamdi Show)

Boston cabbies and credit card companies try to reach a compromise. (WBUR/Radio Boston)

Tampa's taxpayers could be on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in shortfalls at the city's financially-strapped parking division. (Tampa Tribune)

NYC is exploring technology that would provide real-time traffic info via GPS -- as well as provide vehicle miles traveled information. (NY Daily News)

Toyota will launch a new set of sales incentives on many of its models. (Wall Street Journal)

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation:

--a new report shows how states spend their transpo dollars (link)

--Indiana bans texting (link)

--storefronts use bikes as sales draw (link)

Mississippi floodwaters are heading south to Louisiana -- home to more than 10% of the nation's oil refining capacity. (Marketplace)

NYC has extradited (from Kansas City and Miami) two former taxi drivers accused of intentionally overcharging passengers by illegally setting their meters to an out-of-town rate. (WNYC)

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution profiles Todd Long, the state’s powerful director of planning for transportation. AJC describes him as "an unelected bureaucrat (who) is the initial gatekeeper for the $8 billion referendum that many say will shape metro Atlanta’s future for decades to come."

NJ Transit unveils its first locomotive powered by an engine that can operate on both diesel and electric lines. (NJ Record)

Want to live near your office? Washington, D.C.'s Office of Planning is launching a pilot program to incentivize it. (Good)

The White House says "tough love" saved General Motors (The Hill). Meanwhile, the Big Three are hiring (Detroit Free Press) -- but Toyota's profit slipped 77% (NY Times).

Breaking: Ray LaHood doesn't know the meaning of the word 'hipster.' (The Atlantic )

Cruiser culture in Boise: "They have a blue house, they want a blue bike," says a bike shop owner. (Boise Weekly)

More on New York City's "Don't Be A Jerk" bike behavior campaign in the Wall Street Journal, the NY Post, and Streetsblog.

The NY Post says NYC's bike share program plan will "visit perpetual terror" on New Yorkers.

And bikers: is your morning commute less bumpy? One Brooklyn Bridge rider says it's smooth sailing.

From WNYC's Amy Pearl: "Nothing beats the feel of freshly laid blacktop against my bike tires. It looks like they finally repaved the approach to the Brooklyn Bridge!"

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation:

--get ready for dueling petro-bills in Congress (link)

--NYC to cyclists: don't be jerks (link)

--Chicago's mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel releases transpo report (link)

--Texas wins $15 million for high-speed rail study (link)

(Kate Hinds, Transportation Nation)  In the great tradition of leveraging public shame to correct behavior (as in this classic 1970s anti-littering commercial), the New York City Department of Transportation has rolled out an ad campaign it's calling "Don't Be A Jerk." The message: bicyclists, you need to clean up your act.

The city has called upon several celebrities (like the orange-shod chef, Mario Batali, seen below cycling against the traffic) to demonstrate bad biking behaviors.

“As our streets have become safer and as more New Yorkers take to two wheels, bike riders need to adopt a street code,” said NYC DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. “A nice way to put it is that we all simply need to look out for one another. To put it a little more bluntly, don’t be a jerk. It’s a simple, direct message with a wink for bicyclists to follow the rules and help make our streets safer for everyone on them.”

The ads are timed to coincide with Bike Month (not to mention coverage of the NYPD's ticketing of bicyclists) and will air on local television stations through the end of June.

Been ticketed while riding a bike? Let TN know.

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The future Springville Greenway, a 3.3-mile path along the eastern edge of Freshkills Park

(Kate Hinds, Transportation Nation) The New York City Parks Department announced the winner of its annual Haiku Contest. This year's guidelines: "impressions, experiences, thoughts and ideas of what Freshkills Park is and will be." The winning submission, which comes from Staten Islander Stevie D'Arbanville, marries a future bike lane to a past romance:

Somewhere underneath
The bike paths I will ride on
My old love letters

More winning haiku can be found here.

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Demand for used cars is up -- and so are the prices. (NPR)

Transportation officials are planning a number of security upgrades along Los Angeles County's network of rail lines over the next year, including a chemical-detection system and scores of new video surveillance cameras. (Los Angeles Times)

The NYPD said two episodes of subway tunnel trespassing this weekend weren't terror-related, but they warn the city's subway system is so big it's possible for intruders to enter blocked areas. (AP)

The NTSB begins a two-day forum on truck and bus crashes today; watch the live webcast here.

A new report says Philadelphia has twice as many bike commuters as any other large city. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Nicole Gelinas op-ed in Sunday's Star-Ledger: Xanadu isn't infrastructure, unless you're a teenager.

NYC unveiled its "Don't Be a Jerk" bike safety campaign. Watch the video below to see the DOT chief experience what must be a moment of catharsis (her cameo is at :15).

Been wondering what Viennese bike rap looks like? Your wait is over.

The US Post Office issues "Go Green" stamps; out of each sheet of 16, five are transportation related: “Share rides,” “Choose to walk,” “Ride a bike,” “Use public transportation,” and “Maintain tire pressure.” (Alt Transport)

Oh, if only: imaginary instructions for an Ikea-made car. A Djiloriann, no less. Click the link for visual. (College Humor via Curbed)

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation:

--the Northeast reaps nearly $800 million in Florida's rejected high-speed rail funds -- but will the trains really be high speed? (link)

--NY Senator Schumer: Xanadu money should have gone to ARC tunnel (link)

--consensus has been reached on NY's Central Park bike ticketing (link)

--San Francisco will charge your electric car for free through 2013 (link)

Fifteen states and Amtrak will receive Florida's rejected high-speed rail money (AP).  The Northeast will get the biggest share; California and the Midwest also benefit (Bloomberg). Ray LaHood will be making announcements in both New York and Detroit today; stay tuned to TN for the latest.

(photo by Steven Vance/Flickr)

Meanwhile, an Amtrak derailment under New York's East River caused LIRR delays. (NY Daily News)

PATH service is back on schedule after yesterday's crash in which a train overshot the Hoboken (NJ) platform. (Star-Ledger)

Senator Schumer wants to implement a "no ride" list on Amtrak to guard against terrorist attacks. (Reuters)

An allegedly drunk tour bus driver killed a pedestrian in Manhattan this weekend. (NY Times)

The next iteration of NY's MetroCard is being unveiled this week. In the future, you could use either a credit card or the MTA's version of the E-Z Pass to ride transit. (NY Daily News)

Big week ahead on the House and Senate floors over offshore drilling and oil-and-gas industry tax breaks. (The Hill)

A Marketplace staffer talks about commuting in LA on an electric bike.

More on San Francisco's dynamic parking pricing. “If it works in San Francisco, the whole world will take notice,” says one urban planner. (NY Times)

The New York Post editorializes about the recent council hearing about the city DOT pedestrian plaza program.

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation:

--we're crowdsouring bike tickets; let us know if you were pulled over while on two wheels (link)

--rising fuel prices spur farmers to become more creative (link)

--President Obama is connecting the dots between terrorism and fuel-efficient transportation (link)

The White House walked back a proposal to tax people based on how many miles they drive. "This is not a bill supported by the administration," says a spokesperson. (The Hill)

More on San Francisco's congestion parking pricing. (Bay Citizen via New York Times)

Gas prices may fall a bit in the short term, but they will keep rising for years to come. (Planet Money/NPR)

(photo courtesy of Senator Boxer/Flickr)

The House passed a measure that would require the Interior Department to conduct four offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Virginia. (Washington Post)

California high-speed rail planners revived a long-discarded route option that could save billions of dollars and eliminate a sweeping dogleg through Los Angeles County's high desert towns. (Los Angeles Times)

Ray LaHood calls for a multi-year FAA reauthorization bill in Politico.

A Guardian reporter writes: "Finding a non-daft looking cycle helmet is the holy grail for vain cyclists." Has she found it? Yes and no.

Arizona has created a “Don’t Tread on Me” license plate to raise money for the tea party movement. (Roll Call)

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation:

--federal regulators unveiled new bus safety rules (link)

--DOT secretary Ray LaHood said an announcement about who gets Florida's high-speed rail money should come "next week" (link)

--New York City's subways are dirtier -- or are they? (link)

--a Maryland county gets closer to Bus Rapid Transit (link)