Kate Hinds

Top stories on TN:
NASA’s Moon Mining Robot (link)
Maryland to Raise Speed Limit on New Highway (link)
Sandy Aid Funds for Transit Start to Flow (link)
Virginia to Crack Down on Texting While Driving (link)

My other car is a cat bus: a school van in Japan (photo by Chrissam42 via flickr)

Boeing has formally filed a request with the FAA to allow the company to resume test flights of 787 Dreamliners. (CNBC)

Federal and state oversight of gas drilling is still thin. "The ratio of wells to inspectors remains extremely high, and the volume of waste being pumped underground has ballooned, driven in large part to the boom in drilling made possible by fracking." (Pro Publica)

Why homelessness is a transportation issue: "public agencies better equipped to run trains or pave highways must often act as the first responders to homelessness." (Atlantic Cities)

Mexico's president wants to re-energize passenger rail in his country. (Washington Post)

New Jersey has begun addressing how it will pay to maintain its roads and bridges if residents begin to switch at a more rapid pace to alternative-fuel vehicles. But don’t expect any answers anytime soon. (NJ Spotlight)

Naming a NYC subway station after the late mayor Ed Koch is a non-starter, says the MTA. (New York Post)

Traffic will shift to a newly built Tappan Zee span in 2016. (Journal News)

As bicycle-pedestrian crashes increase in Tokyo, the government has announced criminal charges will be pressed against cyclists who repeatedly ignore red lights. (Japan Times)

The incoming CEO of a rail company told British politicians that investor confidence in the UK rail industry “couldn’t get much worse." (Telegraph)

New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission is starting a one-year pilot program February 15 that will bring the hailing apps to Manhattan for the first time. (WNYC)

The company linked to a tour bus involved in a deadly crash in Southern California failed more than a third of federal vehicle safety inspections in the last two years. (CBS)

A new idea for redeveloping Penn Station involves making a community college an anchor tenant nearby. (New York Times)

Two Missouri state senators are proposing a 1-cent sales tax for 10 years to pay for transportation needs. (AP via KSDK)

Tonight: Manhattan's Community Board 7 votes yea or nay to extend the Columbus Avenue bike lane. (Link)

Data viz: how people get to work in England and Wales. (Guardian)

We salute you, whimsical school buses of Japan. (Jalopnik)

Invention of the day: a bike that doubles as an air filtration system. "Using an IKEA perforated garbage can, moped helmet, fighter-pilot breathing mask, wheel-powered generator, and home air filtration system, the entire contraption uses human energy to clear the air." (Inhabitat; video)

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Top stories on TN:
Ed Koch, Staunch Supporter of Transit, Inadvertent Boon for Biking, Dies at 88 (link)
To Replace One Station After Sandy, A Cost of $600 Million (link)
VIDEO: The Secrets of Grand Central Terminal (link)
And: check out pictures of Grand Central's 100th anniversary celebration on Tumblr.

Could this station be renamed for former NYC Mayor Ed Koch? (photo by jpellgen via flickr)

A group of NYC officials want to name a subway station after mayor Ed Koch. (New York Post)

The batteries for Boeing's Dreamliner are now allowed to fly only if they're not attached to a Dreamliner. (AP via Houston Chronicle)

At least eight people were killed in a tour bus crash in Southern California. (CBS)

Republican lawmakers want to give Texas utility companies "extraordinary protection" from lawsuits over hiking and biking trail injuries. (State Impact Texas)

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is proposing to spend as much as $400 million to purchase homes wrecked by Hurricane Sandy, have them demolished and then preserve the flood-prone land permanently, as undeveloped coastline. (New York Times)

DOT watch: the head of the NTSB is being mentioned as a possible replacement for Ray LaHood. (Wall Street Journal)
And Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says to take his name off the list. (The Hill)

The operators of LAX have virtually ignored legal requirements to reduce effects on the environment by dispersing growth in commercial flights to other airports in the region, says a new report. (Los Angeles Times)

New Jersey's state senate transportation committee will discuss banning jughandles -- aka the "Jersey Left." (Star Ledger)

Lawmakers in Utah want to greatly expand where 80 mph speed limits may be allowed on the state’s freeways. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Confirmed: that skeleton found in a Leicester parking lot is King Richard III. He was killed in battle in 1485. (BBC)

Why your NYC subway could have been late last week: cable theft, conductor abuse, water main break, stupid behavior. (NY Daily News)

Gas prices are beginning their seasonal slide upward. (Marketplace)

Ann Arbor is planning a bike share program. (AnnArbor.com)

How transit agencies are using Pinterest. (Transit Wire)

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Top stories on TN:
How Grand Central Terminal Survived the Wrecking Ball – And Lived to 100 (link)
VIDEO + PICS: As Grand Central Bustles, A New Station Is Clawed From The Rock Below (link)
Basketball Arena Spurs LIRR Ridership Spike (link)

(photo by Kate Hinds)

Grand Central Terminal's 100th anniversary celebration is today. (MTA)

According to NYPD data, 155 pedestrians and bicyclists were killed in NYC traffic last year. (Streetsblog)

America's carbon dioxide emissions last year fell to their lowest levels since 1994, according to a new report. (Guardian)

It will now be May at the earliest before D.C. taxis will be required to accept credit cards. (Washington Post)

The curse of the NYC taxi medallion. (Capital NY)

Sales of Chrysler’s cars and trucks increased for the 34th consecutive month in January as sales increased 16%. (Detroit Free Press)

Trespassing on Alabama's school buses has happened nearly 24 times in two years. (Alabama.com)

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New York City will begin enforcing bike delivery rules in April. (Crain's NY)

The team designing the new Tappan Zee Bridge will meet the public next week. (Journal News)

New Jersey has set up a consumer protection website so potential buyers of used cars can check to see if a vehicle was damaged during Sandy. (Star Ledger)

Seattle has issued an RFP for bike share vendors. (Curbed)

During one Brooklyn Nets game this week, a neighborhood group found 77 parking and/or idling violations. (Atlantic Yards Watch)

Woolworth's has introduced "bus-stop shopping" at bus stops in Australia. (Yahoo)

Prince Charles rode the London Underground for the first time in 33 years. (Telegraph; video)

Top stories on TN:
How Grand Central Terminal Transformed America (link)
Pittsburgh Not Enforcing Tow Truck Licensing Rules (link)
DC Bike Share Visualizer Shows How Neighborhoods Use CaBi Differently (link)
Va. Gov’s Plan to End Gas Tax Goes Before Committee (link)

Crater of Luz by Oscar Tusquet Blanca, Toledo Metro Station (photo by By 0ne, Two, Three CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said fixing Muni is now on his to-do list. But does this mean his office will stop raiding the transit agency for funds? (Bay Citizen)

To curb its smog problem, Beijing is shutting down more than 100 factories and ordering one-third of government vehicles off the streets. (New York Times)

Slideshow: take a tour of some incredible art in subway stations around the world. (Condé Nast Traveler)

The TSA is training airport security screeners in Newark to be more empathetic and speak less condescendingly. (Star Ledger)

Just over a month after putting the brakes on a plan to raise tolls, officials with the New York State Thruway Authority confirmed that they will be laying off almost 8 percent of its workforce. (Times Union)

Congress members from the Houston area checked out security at the Port of Houston. (KUHF)

NYC school bus strike update: the union wants Mayor Bloomberg to reconsider what it calls a “cooling off” period so drivers and escorts can go back to work while stakeholders search for cost savings in the expensive school bus contracts. (SchoolBook)

Volkswagen has installed a huge photovoltaic array at the company’s compound in Chattanooga. (Wired)

China's largest auto parts maker has won government approval to buy A123 Systems, an American manufacturer of electric car batteries. The result might be a huge loss of potential jobs in America. (Marketplace)

Thousands of DC Metro riders were stranded after a tunnel fire -- and some of them "self-evacuated." (Washington Post)

Enough about who will take over for Transportation head Ray LaHood. What will he do when he leaves the DOT? (Washington Post)

Three months after Sandy, Hoboken is slowly getting back to normal. (WNYC)

Aiming to “reclaim jihad from Muslim and anti-Muslim extremists alike," a group of Muslims is funding a "My Jihad" ad campaign in the DC Metro. (Washington Post)

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Grand Central Depot, completed in 1871

New York's Grand Central Terminal turns 100 this year. But when it opened, "it was neither grand nor central," said writer Sam Roberts, the author of Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America. He talked about the origins of the iconic transit hub on Wednesday's Leonard Lopate Show -- and how it wound up transforming Midtown, spurring the growth of the suburbs, and even contributing to westward expansion.

But its origins were rooted in Cornelius Vanderbilt's competitive streak, said Roberts. The man known as "The Commodore" had taken control of the New York Central Railroad ("ruthlessly," said Roberts, "in the way robber-barons did in that day").  Meanwhile, Penn Station was being built on the other side of town by the rival Pennsylvania Railroad company, and the Vanderbilts "wanted to say 'we have the best and biggest railroad terminal in the world,'" said Roberts.

"They didn't own the land, but they did own the New York State Legislature," he added, "which made it a lot easier."

Grand Central (photo by Charlie Herman/WNYC)

Top stories on TN:
BREAKING: U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood: I’m Out (link)
PATH Service Restored Between Hoboken-World Trade Center (link)
A Pay-Per-Mile Road Tax Could Target Transpo Funding — But It’s Years Away (link)

The new Loyola Avenue streetcar line in the New Orleans Central Business District. (Photo by Infrogmation of New Orleans via flickr)

Presumably one of Ray LaHood's last official acts: opening the new streetcar line in New Orleans. (Times-Picayune)

Boeing knew there were problems with the Dreamliner's lithium-ion batteries even before this month's fires. (New York Times)

It's not easy being a transit advocate in Atlanta. "Even if we change hearts and minds all over Atlanta and Georgia...we’re never going to be in a situation where we’re going to start recreating a massive subway-heavy infrastructure like New York." (Atlantic Cities)

A new survey shows Chicago transit riders want to know exactly when their next ride is—and be more comfortable while they wait. (WBEZ)

New York State is building a new Kosciuszko Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens. (New York Daily News)

Reading the transpo-political tea leaves: what does it mean that NJ Transit is hiring a deputy executive director? (The Record)

New Jersey's Turnpike Authority is borrowing $1.4 billion to widen the Turnpike and get rid of traffic lights on the Garden State Parkway. (Star Ledger)

Ford's unhappy European surprise: the automaker stands to lose close to $4 billion in Europe in two years’ time. (Forbes)

Ever wonder what the U.S. would look like if every region in the country had unlimited funding for all of its public transit dreams? Welcome to the transit fantasy map. (Fast CoExist)

Designer Massimo Vignelli -- who created two versions of the NYC subway map -- does not like American Airlines' new livery. (Creative Review)

Larry Hanley, the head of the Amalgamated Transit Union, talks about NYC's school bus strike on today's Brian Lehrer Show. (WNYC)

Check out a photo of Harlem in 1949 labeled "parking congestion." (Hemmings)

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Hoboken's PATH station (photo by Sean Marshall via flickr)

For the first time since Sandy struck the Northeast 13 weeks ago, PATH trains will roll once again between Hoboken and the World Trade Center.

Governors Christie and Cuomo announced service between the two hubs will be restored in time for the Wednesday morning commute.

This marks the first time PATH service will return to its normal weekday schedule since Sandy. The PATH system suffered $700 million worth of damage during the storm (PDF), and the Hoboken station was particularly hard hit. It took seven weeks just to open the station, and partial overnight service was restored on January 9th. Meanwhile, NJ Transit just reopened the Hoboken Terminal waiting room Monday.

Top stories on TN:
NJ Transit Hoboken Terminal Reopens Post-Sandy, Sort Of (link)
NY MTA Outlines How It Will And Won’t Act To Prevent Subway Deaths (link)
NJ Rail Services Return Days Shy of Sandy’s Three Month Anniversary (link)
Bus Rapid Transit Looks Set for Growth in Oregon (link)
SFO Airport Now Has City’s Most Valuable Art Collection Outside Museums (link)

Sign on corner of Central Park West and 81st Street (photo by Kate Hinds)

The $50.5 billion dollar Sandy Relief package has passed the US Senate and will now head to President Obama's desk for his signature. Included in the bill: $10.9 billion for transportation projects. (WNYC)

Chicago planners are moving forward with a major BRT line. (WBEZ)

And: transit ridership increased in Chicago last year. (CTA Tattler)

Barack Obama's new chief of staff -- a dedicated bike commuter --  won't be allowed to bike to work anymore because of security concerns. (HuffPo)

Twenty-four Boston commuter rail conductors, banned by federal and MBTA rules from ­using or even carrying phones, are now armed with 'Conductor Companions:' specially programmed iPhone 4s that cannot send texts or e-mails, download applications, browse the ­Internet, or make calls, except to 911. (Boston Globe)

Diesel and some hybrid cars will now have to pay London's congestion pricing charge, prompting accusations of moving the 'green goalposts.’ (Daily Mail)

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Airbus warned the airline industry of risks related to lithium batteries almost a year before two safety incidents grounded 787 Dreamliners built by its chief rival Boeing. (Reuters via Chicago Tribune)

Meanwhile: just how much money will the Dreamliner debacle cost Boeing? (The Takeaway)

Daimler has signed a three-way agreement with Ford and the Renault-Nissan Alliance to jointly develop future hydrogen fuel-cell technology. (Washington Post)

Singapore is doubling the size of its rail network in order to put 80% of households within a 10 min walk of a station. (Railway Gazette)

NYC is taking down the "Don't Honk" signs. (NYT)

IBM Is harvesting location data from millions of cell phone users because that "rich geospatial information in real time ... reveals how people move through the city." Meaning: better bus lines. (Motherboard)

Officials at the Port Authority, which controls the 16-acre World Trade Center site, are planning to tear up a 4-year-old deal to allow the NYPD to run security at Ground Zero. (New York Post)

Although the Tappan Zee Bridge is not going to fall down, "it routinely sheds chunks of concrete, like so much dandruff, into the river below." (New York Magazine)

Striking public transportation workers in Athens have defied a court order to return to work. (AP via NYT)

One architect's portrayal of Minnesota's transit future looks kind of ... alarming: A viewer's choice finalist for this year's videotect awards takes a stab at a dystopian future in which "several autonomous robotic creatures work tirelessly to maintain our sprawling vehicular highway system." (Tyler Short; video)

Videotect 2: Drift from Architecture Minnesota on Vimeo.

Top stories on TN:
Why One San Francisco Bike Lane Design Is Upsetting Drivers and Cyclists (link)
99% Invisible Explores Design for Airports (link)
Video Mapping Bike Paths of the World: See What a Ride Looks Like from Handle Bar POV (link)
Cruise ships: A Luxury for the Rest of Us (link)

Cape May, NJ (photo by Sugar Pond via flickr)

About half of all kids hit by cars in Chicago are within a block of a school. (Chicago Tribune; graphic)

Mayors and state officials are encouraging the elderly to move to cities for both the infrastructure and the social interaction. (Politico)

New Jersey Transit is turning 30. (Star Ledger)
And: the transit agency will reopen the Sandy-ravaged Hoboken Terminal tomorrow. (The Record)

San Francisco is proposing $200 million worth of changes to its cycling network in the next five years. "Building 12 new miles of bike lanes, upgrading 50 miles of existing paths and installing more than 20,000 new racks are all part of the plan." (San Francisco Examiner)

Fresh off a legal victory that allows him to remain in office, Toronto mayor Rob Ford is vowing to investigate a subway newsstand contract. (Globe and Mail)

Rebuild or retreat: a look at the Jersey shore, post-Sandy. (WNYC)

Construction of California's high-speed rail network is supposed to start in just six months, but the state hasn't acquired a single acre along the route. (Los Angeles Times)

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The biggest carbon sin: air travel. "One round-trip flight from New York to Europe or to San Francisco creates about 2 or 3 tons of carbon dioxide per person." (New York Times)

Two oil barges hit a railroad bridge, spilling crude oil into the Mississippi River. (Reuters)

Lawyers for TransCanada -- the company building the Keystone XL pipeline -- obtained a permanent injunction against groups protesting the project. (AP via Houston Chronicle)

Former President George W. Bush sold the pickup truck he used on his ranch in Crawford, Texas, for $300,000. (The Hill)

Japanese car maker Toyota has reclaimed its position as the world's No. 1 car maker by sales. (Wall Street Journal)

The Middle East region needs to spend $100 billion per year on infrastructure. (Al Arabiya)

Boston's transit system is expanding digital advertising throughout its stations. (BostInno)

Polar fleece, wool, and the occasional coyote: some bike commuters from NYC's bedroom communities log 600 miles a month, and don't stop riding until it's colder than 10 degrees. (New York Times)

Meet the rabbi who comforts NYC transit workers after traumatic subway events. (New York Daily News)

Subaru -- already popular in states that have sketchy weather -- is moving beyond Portlandia and targeting Texas and Tennessee. (NPR) No, you go!

Top stories on TN:
Metro’s Expansion Plans Include New Tunnels (link)
NY City Council: DOT is Flouting Law on Safety Stats (link)
Alexandria To Consider Registration For Bicycles (link)

Times Square (photo by Michael McDonough via flickr)

NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg wants to create Super Bowl Boulevard: for the four days preceding next year's Super Bowl at the Meadowlands, ten blocks of Broadway would be closed to traffic to make way for a free, open-air football-entertainment extravaganza. (Capital New York)

The future of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline is now in the hands of the State Department. (NPR)

The NTSB is nowhere near finishing an investigation into a battery fire on Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, raising the prospect of a prolonged grounding for the aircraft. (Reuters)

Why is it taking so long for the PATH train system to recover from Sandy? Massive flooding damage and ruined equipment that's not easily replaceable. (Wall Street Journal)

The president of the Maryland state senate is considering a bill that would raise $300 million for new transportation projects by raising the state's gas tax. (WAMU)

Meanwhile, Virginia is trying to figure out how to raise $1.5 billion to repair and replace the state's worst structurally deficient bridges. (WAMU)

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As the NYC school bus strike enters its second week, livery cab drivers are picking up more fares. (New York Times)

Boston's transit system might extend T service past 1am on a "limited basis." (Metro Boston)

Toyota and BMW are working together on next-generation batteries for green vehicles called lithium-air. (AP via Detroit Free Press)

The Port Authority is replacing all 3,336 fluorescent lamps inside the Holland Tunnel with high-efficiency LED lights. (Jersey Journal)

A Rhode Island lawmaker wants to pass a law to stop motorists from driving with dogs in their laps. (Providence Journal)

Remember that old Nike commercial, where the woman runs out of a NYC subway car to buy a pretzel from a street vendor, then sprints to catch up to it at the next station? A man conducted a similar exercise, sans pretzel, on the Paris Metro.

New York City Council members James Vacca and Jessica Lappin with Transportation Alternatives' Juan Martinez (photo by Kate Hinds)

Listen to the audio from Thursday's press conference:

"In 2011, I authored a law called TrafficStat," said Jessica Lappin, who represents the Upper East Side. "The goal was to shine a light on the most dangerous intersections in the city." She and Bronx council member Jimmy Vacca recently sent a letter to DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. It reads, in part: "Although the DOT has been legally required to provide the information noted above to Council Members and Community Boards since June 2011, to our understanding it has yet to do so. The Council has requested copies of traffic safety reports in recent months without success."

The law requires the DOT to identify the city's twenty highest crash locations and then come up with a plan to make them safer. In addition, it requires the DOT to inspect the locations where fatal traffic crashes occur within ninety days.

A clearly frustrated Lappin said it wasn't clear whether the DOT is inspecting the locations of fatal crashes. "How would we know?" she said "They haven't told us that they have. If they have, they should tell us."

A representative for the DOT, reached after the press conference, took issue with the council member's characterization. Spokesman Seth Solomonow said when it comes to traffic safety, "the last five years have been the safest in city history."

The press conference comes a day after the NYPD posted data on traffic crashes online, but then acknowledged that data was raw and contained "overcounts."

Lappin said the council has been asking for the  information for five months. "And they keep saying 'oh, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming,' and we're just sick of waiting."

She said given the DOT's emphasis on safety, she was surprised by the agency's lack of compliance. "This is an administration that we know takes safety very seriously, so I don't understand why they are not complying with this law. We have been asking for months now for them to release this information, and they keep telling us it's on the way.  But we don't want to wait when there are lives on the line."

"I don't care how cold it is," said Vacca. (Reporter's note: the temperature at 10am was 14 degrees.) "I think that we in the city of New York have been in the deep freeze too damn long at the Department of Transportation."

It wasn't clear exactly how the council planned for force the DOT's hand. Lappin said, "we're going to keep pushing them." A member of Vacca's staff said that the councilman would explore the possibility of an oversight hearing if DOT doesn’t comply "soon."

In his statement, the DOT's Solomonow said: "From the landmark pedestrian safety report to annual traffic fatality numbers to street-specific studies, there’s never been more safety data available for New Yorkers. This particular law requires not simply reporting statistics but then identifying locations and taking steps to make each even safer. In practice, this report goes above and beyond the law, documenting the engineering, designing, community outreach, scheduling and implementation efforts that have already brought community-supported safety redesigns to these locations. DOT continues to work overtime on safety, and not a single project has been delayed by this report, which we expect to be complete in a matter of weeks."

Top stories on TN:
Former DC Airports VP Sues For Defamation (link)
Mica Gets Transportation Subcommittee Posts (link)
Manhattan Borough President Calls for Probe in Subway Safety (link)

A Metro station (photo by Kate Hinds)

DC's Metro wants to build two new rail tunnels -- and it wants $26 billion over the next three decades to pay for those and other improvements. (Washington Post)

Trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles are starting to appear with electric motors. (Scientific American)

Four red light cameras installed in Arlington (VA) have proven to do what proponents of the cameras have long said they would: save lives. (Washington Post)

Want to see which states are vying for federal TIFIA loans for infrastructure projects? Check out this list. (FHWA)

Twin Cities area officials are reviewing Gov. Dayton's proposal for a new quarter-cent sales tax for the seven-county metro area. The money would go toward transit. (Minnesota Public Radio)

Two state senators have filed a bill to stop the Maryland Transit Administration from recording passenger conversations on buses. (Baltimore Sun; h/t Transit Wire)

New York's MTA held a hearing about an increase in service in the Bronx. (New York Times)

What can Londoners expect from new Thames tunnel? Lethal pollution. (Guardian)

Beijing is adopting EU-level fuel standards to fix its toxic smog stew. (Quartz)

A bill designed to prevent the dooring of cyclists has passed the Virginia Senate's transportation committee. (Washington Post)

The terrorist attack on a natural gas facility in Algeria doesn't seem to be slowing down oil companies' interest in North Africa. (NPR)

A record number of people rode Amtrak trains in Michigan last year. (AP via Detroit Free Press)

A plan to build a 143-kilometre bike and pedestrian path across the Montreal region came a step closer to reality when three levels of government said they will invest the $60 million needed to create it by 2018. (Montreal Gazette)

The Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission is looking for more funding from bridge tolls for its controversial headquarters relocation project, which is estimated to cost $215 million. (SF Examiner)

Baby on board: Nearly two-thirds of moms with children under two say they've turned around to deal with their baby in the back seat while driving. (USA Today)

The Bay Area is preparing for rising sea levels. (SF Chronicle; video below)

Top stories on TN:
Why New York City School Busing is So Expensive (link)
Governor Cuomo’s Budget: $6 Billion for Sandy Recovery to MTA, Port Authority (link)
Montana Legislators Want Drivers to Give School Buses More Room (link)
An Oral History of San Francisco's Bay Bridge (link)
D.C.’s Pennsylvania Avenue Bike Lane Gets Presidential (link)

Waiting for the light to change in Chicago (photo by one2c900d via flickr)

Ray LaHood watch: the transportation secretary says he'll be "sticking around for a while." (Bloomberg)

Pedestrian fatalities in Chicago climbed in 2012 after three years of steady numbers. (Chicagoist)

Amtrak is shifting costs for some of its shorter passenger-train routes to the states, forcing them to decide between paying more or cutting back on rail services that many have been trying to expand. (Wall Street Journal)

Nebraska's governor has approved the new Keystone pipeline route through his state. (AP via Washington Post)

Remember the recently restored transit tax benefit? Turns out it will increase slightly ($5 a month, to $245) in 2013. (Washington Post)

More than a dozen Long Island Rail Road workers are facing criminal charges after a probe into the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of copper from the MTA. (NY Daily News)

Everyone in Maryland and Virginia agrees that transportation needs more funding, but no one wants to pay for it. (Washington Post)

A rural county in Ireland wants to make it okay to drive after having "two or three drinks." (Guardian)

Opinion: NYC's school bus strike is painful, but the mayor must hold his ground to bring runaway costs under control. (New York Times)

West Virginia expects to save at least $600,000 a year by switching to flat license plates that are digitally printed rather than embossed. (Charleston Gazette)

When it comes to London's unpaid congestion pricing fees, United States diplomats are the worst offenders. (Telegraph)

A truck carrying a load of goat cheese caught fire in a tunnel in Norway, leading to damage -- and a teaching moment. "I didn't know that brown cheese burns so well," said one road official. (BBC)

The Port of Houston has new leadership. (KUHF)

A San Francisco official wants to rename the city’s airport after slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk. (ABC)

Feline transportation update: an indoor house cat who got lost on a family excursion managed -- after two months and about 200 miles -- to return to her hometown in Florida. (New York Times)

WATCH: Researchers at Newcastle University carried out controlled explosions on Metro cars as part of a project to develop more blast-resistant trains. (Railway Gazette; video)

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Inauguration Day 2013 (image courtesy of the First Lady's twitter account)

Monday's inauguration went off without any serious hitches. Sure, there's some Tuesday morning quarterbacking. It turned out that Beyoncé lip-synched the national anthem. Michelle Obama might have directed a sarcastic look at John Boehner during the post-inauguration luncheon. That could be a Supreme Court justice nodding off during the proceedings.

But the District's Department of Transportation (DDOT) couldn't have been happier.

"See that?! See that?! NO, not that great coat, the bike lanes!!!" the agency tweeted, referring to a photo of the First Couple walking on the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes.

The photo, which was circulated by the First Lady's Twitter account, quickly made waves among bike advocates.

"Obama Becomes First Prez to Walk Down a Bike Lane on Inauguration Day," read a Streetsfilms headline. One wishful bike blog took it a step further:

"One of the things that we were most proud about was that the inaugural parade was the chance to show off our bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue," said DDOT spokesman John Lisle. The lane, which was installed in 2010, did not exist during the last inauguration.

Lisle added that about 600 bikes were parked in the DDOT's bike corrals and bike parking lots as well -- a lower number than the 1,000 bikes parked during the 2009 presidential inauguration -- but then again, Capital Bikeshare didn't yet exist.

A DDOT bike corral on 17th and K (photo by Eric Gilliland via flickr)

As it turned out, fewer people rode Capital Bikeshare than expected. According to Lisle, there were 4,572 total trips on Inauguration Day -- but 5,772 the day before.

Meanwhile: D.C.'s Metrorail recorded 779,787 trips during the 2013 inauguration. That's about 70% of the ridership reached during the 2009 inauguration.

The transit agency chalked up the lower crowds to Monday's federal holiday, which cut down on work commuters.

Cowds outside of L'Enfant Plaza Monday afternoon after the temporary closure of the gates (photo by Jonathan Wilson/WAMU)

(with reporting from Martin DiCaro)

Top stories on TN:
In Second Inaugural Address, President Obama Says Building Infrastructure, Combating Climate Change Part of “Obligation” (Link)
“I was right!” Combatants Clash Over Subway Trivia At NY Transit Museum (Link)
To Avoid “Confusing” Drivers, MTA Turns Off SBS Bus Lights (Link)
“It’s Like Costco”: Why Calif. High-Speed Rail is Teaming Up with Amtrak (Link)

Stacked, by Ai Weiwei (photo courtesy of Galleria Continua)

The Obama administration has taken the next step to end its ownership of General Motors, initiating a plan to sell its remaining 300.1 million shares of the automaker. (Detroit Free Press)

DC Metro carried nearly 780,000 passengers during yesterday's inauguration -- good numbers but no record. (The Hill)

U.S. airlines are making money by offering fewer -- but fuller -- flights. (Marketplace)

The co-founder of Google test-drove Google Glass on the New York City subway. (Mashable)

Los Angeles County transportation officials have released the final version of their analysis of how to close the so-called 710 freeway gap. (Los Angeles Times)

In a controversial change of plans, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s administration is doing an about-face on how to finance $325 million in rural road improvements. (Advocate)

The Port Authority’s police union will endorse Gov. Chris Christie today. (Star Ledger)

The birth of Grand Central Terminal, 100 years ago. (New York Times)

Federal authorities have given a green light to Chicago to press ahead with plans to privatize Midway International Airport. (AP via WBEZ)

An Indiana legislator is proposing a bill that would let motorcyclists treat red lights like stop signs. (Courier-Journal)

A map of America at night reveals a surprising clump of lights in North Dakota. Behold: the Bakken oil fields. (NPR)

Ai Weiwei's latest art installation, "Stacked," is composed of 760 bicycles. “Ai Weiwei uses the bicycle as an iconic object: the principal means of transport in China...it represents the lives of millions of Chinese citizens; what’s more, with its chain and sprocket mechanism, it somehow depicts the matrix of the labour force: the people." (Fast Co.Exist; Galleria Continua)

Welcome to your post-inauguration DC airport security line, via NY1's Errol Louis.

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Top stories on TN:
South Ferry Station Closed for Forseeable Future (link)
Your Guide to Taking the Metro to the Inauguration (link)

American's new look (image courtesy of American Airlines)

New Jersey Transit is preparing for the next superstorm: it wants to use an old GM assembly plant as a storage facility. (Star-Ledger)

And: NJ Transit officials say the decision to store trains in yards that flooded during Sandy wasn't wrong -- it was the agency's only choice. (The Record)

Amtrak and California's high-speed rail project are teaming up to buy rail cars. (KPCC)

New York's comptroller will be scrutinizing the $3.1 billion Tappan Zee Bridge contract. (Newsday)

Attendance rose slightly on day two of the NYC school bus strike -- but attendance for disabled kids was still below 50%. (SchoolBook)

Detroit will be getting federal funding for a light rail system between the city's downtown and the cultural, medical and educational center a few miles north. (Detroit Free Press)

Detroit's auto insurance rates are the highest in the nation -- and a provision in the city's new charter aims to fix that. (HuffPo)

American Airlines unveiled its new paint scheme. (Marketplace)

A report on pedestrian crashes in Quincy debunks the theory that distracted walking was to blame: only three such accidents of the 94 studied cited headphones or texting as a possible cause. (Patriot-Ledger)

Want to get from Williamsburg to Union Square? That'll take about 15 minutes on the L train. But in a wheelchair, your best option -- the ferry -- will take one hour and 43 minutes. (New York Times op-doc)

D.C.'s Pennsylvania Avenue bike lane is about to get its 15 minutes of fame. (Washington Post)

Montana now has a statewide advocacy group focusing on cyclists and pedestrians. (Great Falls Tribune)

A research group found dozens of problems with Texas roads. (KUHF)

A bill that could make dooring a cyclist in Virginia an offense punishable by up to a $100 fine made it through a state senate committee. (DCist)

The Elf - a solar-powered 'velomobile' -- wants to be the future of transit. (FastCoExist)

From the WNYC archives: listen to one of the final runs of the Third Avenue El, the last elevated train line in Manhattan. It was torn down in 1955. (WNYC)

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Top stories on TN:
Death On The Tracks: Its Human Cost & The Labor Fight It Has Provoked (link)
Sec. LaHood Says Loan for Silver Line “Looking Good” (link)
Your Guide to Biking to the Inauguration (link)

(photo by Rich Brooks via flickr)

The FAA is grounding all U.S.-operated Boeing 787 Dreamliners, citing a potential battery fire risk. (NPR)

(Tweet about said grounding, by @nicolegelinas "Well, there is always the Queen Mary, which makes up for its lack of speed with a lack of lithium- ion batteries.")

Attendance for most disabled school students was less than 50% on the first day of the New York City school bus strike. (WNYC)

The new chair of the House panel overseeing railroads is Jeff Denham (R-CA), an opponent of California's high-speed rail project. (Fresno Bee)

Developers of transit apps say Washington's Metro unnecessarily limits their data. (Washington Post)

"That is unacceptable:" traffic fatalities increased on Tennessee roads last year. (The Tennessean)

Arizona’s vehicle-safety laws continue to be among the worst in the nation. (AZ Capitol Times)

The new rail cars ordered for Metro's Silver Line face even more delays and won't arrive until months after the new line's scheduled opening date. (Examiner)

Houston is getting direct flights to Beijing. (KUHF)

The North American International Anti-Auto Show is also rolling into Detroit. “It’s about the environmental consequences of the automobile and the things that come from a heavy car culture.” (New York Times)

Want to attract young people to your city? Build protected bike lanes. (USA Today)

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder called for $1.2 billon in higher gas taxes and vehicle registration fees to help repair the state's crumbling road infrastructure. (Detroit Free Press)

Will gamesters vote to save Monopoly's car token? (Hasbro)

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Top stories on TN:
A “Last Forest” Fights Off a Suburban Highway (link)
NYC Subway Drivers At Odds With Management Over Reducing Train Deaths (link)
Smart Growth Collides With Transit Planning In Alexandria (link)
Meet a Student Super Commuter on the Bus for a Better Life (link)

DC license plate (photo by Mike Smail via Flickr)

Ray LaHood has “nothing to report” about the future of his tenure in the Obama Administration. (Politico)

Japan's two largest airlines are grounding their fleets of Boeing's 787 Dreamliners after an All Nippon Airways flight made an emergency landing. (New York Times)

The bids are coming in for California's high-speed rail project, but no one can see them yet. (Mercury News)

Few DC Metro riders have claimed their $3 SmarTrip rebate. (Washington Post)

Fort Worth's bike share program will open in April. (KERA)

Fort Lauderdale opened its first green bike lane. (Broward B-Cycle)

President Obama will add DC's "No Taxation Without Representation" license plate to his limousine fleet. (The Hill)

The Onion regrets to inform you that I-95 has cancer. (link)

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Top stories on TN:
Pulaski Skyway to Close for Two Years; No New Rail Tunnel on Horizon (link)
Local Restaurants Hope for Rebirth at LAX (link)
Houston to Expand Bike Share (link)
Clarifying Prices When You Hail a Cab with Uber, other Apps (link)
The FAA is ordering a comprehensive review of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. (NPR)

Barges transit the Mississippi River near St. Louis, MO (photo by US Army Corps of Engineers/USDA flickr)

Barge traffic on the drought-stricken Mississippi hasn't come to a scraping halt -- yet -- but it's affecting the grain industry. (Harvest Public Media)

The FAA is ordering a review of Boeing's troubled Dreamliner. (NPR)

Boston may cancel a $190 million contract for rail cars. “This seriously troubled procurement is at a point of crisis." (Boston Globe)

A thief who stole a Vancouver couple's tandem bike wound up returning it, with a note that read: “I bring this back 2 you, because I am truly sorry and hope you can forgive me. I am trying to do the right thing.” (The Columbian)

Ford will add 2,200 salaried jobs this year, the biggest addition of white-collar workers at the automaker in more than a decade. (CNN)

The battle over exporting natural gas: big drillers versus big buyers. (Marketplace)

NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg talked up the city's bike share program on a morning radio show. "On my keychain, a gold Citi Bike key…..It's coming along. it's just gonna be unbelievable." (@DanaRubenstein)

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Check out London's new protected bike lanes. (Fast CoExist)

A Florida state senate plan to turn Orlando's tolling agency into a regional transportation authority was panned by local lawmakers. (Orlando Sentinel)

Is there less drunk driving in the south, or is there just less data? (Atlantic Cities)

NJ Transit is restoring more rail service. (AP via WSJ)

QANTAS had its own ''snakes on a plane'' episode when a three-meter python wound up on the wing of an early morning flight to Papua New Guinea. (The Age)

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The Pulaski Skyway (photo by Paul Lowry via flickr)

The Pulaski Skyway -- an 80-year old elevated highway that carries 67,000 cars a day in New Jersey -- will partially close for two years beginning in 2014.

The highway runs between Newark and Jersey City and serves as a major feeder for cars and buses accessing the Holland Tunnel into downtown Manhattan. It will shut down to traffic after the completion of the 2014 Super Bowl, being held in the nearby Meadowlands.

The NJ Department of Transportation says it needs that time to entirely replace the existing deck, upgrade ramps, paint and seismically retrofit the Pulaski, which is in "poor condition." The work will cost $1 billion.

While deck work is ongoing, northbound lanes will be closed entirely for two years. Two southbound travel lanes will remain open.

Speaking Thursday in Newark, the state's transportation commissioner, James Simpson, said the work amounts to "basically a new bridge in place." He acknowledged the disruption closing the roadway would cause, but said "we couldn't leave it in its existing state. The only decision was to reconstruct it in place."

The Pulaski is considered "functionally obsolete" because it no longer conforms to modern design standards, and in 2011 the Texas Transportation Institute rated it the sixth least reliable road in the country. (It also ranked #8 on Jalopnik's less scientific list of "the most terrifying roads in the world.") The state says the work will extend the life of the structure by at least 75 years.

The closure of the roadway will have a ripple effect. Drivers who head north to enter the city via the Lincoln Tunnel will find not only crowds, but delays from another massive rehabilitation project -- the Port Authority's ongoing upgrade of the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel known as the helix. Meanwhile, NJ Transit has reached maximum capacity and can't run additional trains into Penn Station. The PATH system is similarly burdened.

As Jeffrey Zupan, a senior fellow with the Regional Plan Association, puts it: "The automobile options are now worse for two years, and there's no relief in site from point of view of a new rail crossing."

Zupan is referring to the ARC project, an $8.7 billion trans-Hudson tunnel that, when completed, would have boosted rail capacity between New Jersey and New York. Construction on the new tunnel began in 2009 -- only to be cancelled in 2010 by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who said the state couldn't afford it.

Christie is using the money set aside for the ARC tunnel to shore up roads and bridges in the state -- among them, the Pulaski Skyway.

Preliminary work is underway on a study for the next iteration of a new rail tunnel -- this one known as Gateway -- but shovels are nowhere near ready to turn dirt.

"You've really created a perfect storm of transportation chaos -- you haven't created a new transit option and you've made driving options worse," says Zupan.

Another view of the Pulaski, spanning the Passaic & Hackensack Rivers in Jersey City (CC via wikimedia commons)

The Skyway is named for General Casimir Pulaski, a Polish-born hero of the Revolutionary War. It's on the National Register of Historic Places. And it was also referenced in Orson Welles' 1938 radio drama War of the Worlds. "The enemy now turns east," reads a line in the script, "crossing Passaic River into the Jersey marshes. Another straddles the Pulaski Skyway."