Kate Hinds

Top stories on TN:
NYC Council Speaker Not Saying If She’ll Back Traffic Crash Investigation Reform (link)
Here’s What a Revamped D.C. Union Station Would Look Like (link)
Truckers Start Campaign Against I-95 Tolls (link)
Which Grows Faster, Suburbs, Exurbs, or Cities? (link)
NY MTA: 60 Smaller Bollards to Replace Atlantic Terminal “Coffins” (link)

Turnstiles at the World Trade Center's PATH train station

Jets stuck in softened asphalt, train tracks experiencing "heat kinks," highways cracking -- the rise in weather extremes is threatening the U.S. infrastructure. (New York Times)
(Note: for more, read TN's story on how climate change could cost transit agencies billions of dollars.)

The opposition to Atlanta's sales-tax-for-transportation vote has made for some strange bedfellows. "You’ve got the folks that want no growth, the Sierra Club saying there isn’t enough transit, the suburban Republicans saying there’s too much transit,” said one supporter of the measure. “If it weren’t so serious, it would be funny.” (Bloomberg)

New York's MTA has completed underground tunnel boring work for three megaprojects -- East Side Access, Second Avenue Subway and the 7 train extension. (DNA Info)

The PATH train system that connects New Jersey and Manhattan is on pace to break an all-time ridership record this year, Port Authority officials say. (The Record)

Meanwhile, analysts say the Port Authority must carry out toll increases for bridges and tunnels it owns in the New York City area or risk hurting its finances. (Reuters)

Pedestrian fatalities in San Francisco are on pace to surpass last year's numbers -- despite the city's attempt to implement safety measures. (The Bay Citizen)

Denver transit planners now are becoming more flexible when it comes to how much parking they require near rail stops and where they put it. (Wall Street Journal)

And some Minneapolis politicians are seeking to redevelop parts of that city's downtown, which one calls "a sea of parking lots." (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

The relative lack of traffic jams in Salt Lake City is boosting speed -- and traffic fatalities. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Because of a legislative snafu, Boston police can't dole out monetary fines to bicyclists who break rules. (Boston Herald)

Check out a list of the 20 "transit-friendliest" Chicago suburbs. (Chicago Tribune)

There's another new website for the Tappan Zee Bridge project, plus a hotline. (link)

To cut down on the company's use of petroleum, Goodyear is experimenting with making tires out of soybean oil. (Marketplace)

The Bradley Wiggins effect: following a British win in the Tour de France, bike sales are up across the U.K. (Guardian)

And they said it would be impossible: someone built a fully-functional cardboard bicycle for $9. (Ubergizmo; video below)

The NY MTA will replace the 15 huge granite blocks that protected its Atlantic Terminal with 60 smaller bollards.

According to the agency:

“The MTA and the Long Island Rail Road listened to concerns from local elected officials and community leaders who felt the stone bollards were intrusive and out-of-scale at their current size. As part of the original design, there were 15 granite bollards surrounding the new $108 million Atlantic Terminal Pavillion when it opened in January 2010. In consultation with the MTA Police and NYPD, we decided to replace the granite bollards with 60 smaller steel bollards that still meet the security requirements spelled out by the NYPD for public buildings of this kind. The new bollards will be 36 inches in height and approximately 12 inches wide. They will be placed around the perimeter of Atlantic Terminal approximately 4 feet apart. The removal of the old bollards and the installation of the new bollards is part of [a] comprehensive perimeter security project being undertaken by MTA Capital Construction through a grant from the federal government. On April 12, a contract for the project was awarded to Adtec Enterprises of Mt. Vernon, N.Y., after the company submitted the winning low bid of $3.486 million. The overall project will take one year to complete, but most of the bollards have already been removed and installation of the steel replacements is expected to get underway soon.”

TN reported Tuesday that workers were outside Atlantic Terminal, excavating the granite bollards. (Click here to see pictures.) According to the MTA, the largest granite block was nine feet long by three feet wide by three-and-a-half feet high -- and weighed between 14,000 and 16,000 lbs.

We now know the scale of the new bollards, so we created a model out of two giant post-it notes. Here's a view of our (admittedly unimposing) paper one, which stands waist-high next to a TN reporter:

(photo by Andrea Bernstein)

Here's another comparative view: our model bollard next to a completely unfolded MTA subway map (which is roughly 23" by 32.5"):

(photo by Kate Hinds)

We've asked the MTA whether the new bollards will look like the ones ringing Grand Central Terminal (image below). We'll update when we know more.

(image from Google Street View)

 

Top stories on TN:
Ray LaHood: If You Want Federal Transportation Money to Go to Biking and Walking, Start Agitating Locally (link)
NYC Council Could Force NYPD To Investigate More Traffic Crashes (link)
Abandoned Bikes in DC Removed but Not Recycled (link)
Controversial Atlantic Avenue “Coffins” Now Being Removed in Brooklyn (link)

Rendering of an interim walkway at the Western Rail Yards of the High Line. (image courtesy of the Friends of the High Line)

U.S. traffic fatalities are up an estimated 13.5 percent in the first quarter of this year. (CNN)

And: if that estimate holds true, it would be the second largest year-to-year quarterly increase since the government began recording traffic fatalities in 1975. (AP via Sacramento Bee)

A new air traffic control center that will serve the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia metropolitan areas will be built somewhere in New York, although a decision on an exact location is still likely many months away. (AP via Washington Post)

The mayor of DC is bemoaning the transit system's escalator repair time. “[In Beijing] they built a convention center equivalent to ours in nine months, and it took us nine months to get the escalators fixed in the Metro system,” Vincent Gray said. (Foreign Policy)

...leading one reporter to tweet: Something about interviewing with @ForeignPolicy magazine apparently makes politicians unfavorably compare U.S. infrastructure to China.

Researchers from M.I.T. have identified what they say are the top 37 airports likely to influence the spread of disease in the first few days of an epidemic. Enjoy that next flight to JFK! (Atlantic Cities)

Virginia's Arlington County voted in favor of a $249 million plan to bring streetcars to the Columbia Pike. (WJLA)

Chattanooga's bike share system -- which uses the same vendor and equipment New York's will have -- went live this week. (Wall Street Journal)

Governor Christie says all of New Jersey’s red-light cameras have been certified, so towns may soon be able to resume issuing tickets for the devices. (Star Ledger)

Thieves in the NYC subway aren't just stealing smartphones, they've begun breaking into MTA storage areas to grab thousands of dollars worth of power tools. (DNA Info)

In 2011, airlines worldwide collected $22.6 billion in “ancillary fees." (Time)

New York City has acquired the last segment of the High Line from CSX, clearing the way for design and construction on the final stretch of the park. (WNYC)

Ford is producing a small, three-cylinder EcoBoost engine, which has been introduced in Europe and is set to hit the U.S. market next year. (NPR)

A transportation revolution is brewing over bus service in two New Jersey towns, where commuters are unhappy with Community Coach. (Star Ledger)

WTOP takes on the question: who has the right of way in a traffic circle?

New South Wales (Australia) has opened up the data on Sydney train, bus and ferry timetables to Google and other third party developers -- but real-time data is nowhere to be seen. (ZDNET)

(UPDATED)  New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is remaining mum on whether she'll back legislation to reform the way the NYPD investigates traffic crashes.

"As with all legislation on the day that it's introduced," said Quinn, "it will be referred to committee, I will review it, and it'll make its way through the legislative process."

Several New York City Council members have introduced a package of legislation that would broaden the number of crashes the New York Police Department investigates.

Current NYPD policy is to investigate traffic crashes only if the victim is dead or has suffered a life-threatening injury. And only members of the 19-member Accident Investigation Squad can conduct those inquiries.

Some 243 people were killed in traffic crashes in 2011. A TN investigation found that in "all cases where a driver kills someone — pedestrian, cyclist, other motorists, themselves — forty percent of the time, there’s not even a traffic ticket."

Council Member Brad Lander, who's co-sponsoring 'The Crash Investigation Reform Act,' says too few officers are dedicated to crash investigation. "We can train a lot more people to do that investigation work who are patrol officers or regular precinct cops," Lander said.

The bills and resolutions introduced into City Council would also require the NYPD to investigate serious -- not just deadly -- crashes; create a task force analyzing how crashes are investigated; broaden the NYPD's crash statistic reporting; and require the NYPD to collect insurance and ID information from drivers who injure cyclists.

These proposed reforms come five months after a bruising City Council hearing where NYPD brass defended the department's procedures.

"A broad set of people came out of that hearing feeling really troubled," said Lander. He said that he, Peter Vallone, and Jimmy Vacca -- three council members who haven't always agreed on transportation issues -- see eye on eye on this one.

The NYPD did not return a request for comment.

 

 

Top stories on TN:
In Federal Bus Funding, NJ Tops List, Old Buses Get Booted Nationwide (link)
Tix On NY Commuter Trains Will Be Valid Longer…But A Refund Will Still Cost $10 (link)
Ray LaHood: If You Want Federal Transportation Money to Go to Biking and Walking, Start Agitating Locally (link)
MAP: 255 Transit Projects Get $787 Million (link)

The Atlantic Road, Norway (photo via Green Renaissance's FB page)

The DOT's inspector general criticized an FAA program that encourages controllers to report errors in exchange for amnesty from punishment. (AP via WRAL)

The NYPD has been putting a uniformed officer on every overnight train in the Bronx and two lines in Queens to fight rising subway crime. (New York Daily News)

Black workers might have experienced discrimination on a Seattle Sound Transit job site, and black workers in general were disproportionately dropped from work crews. (Seattle Times)

A former television news anchor is now a “special advisor” for New York State's $5 billion Tappan Zee Bridge project. (Albany Times Union)

Fort Worth will launch a bike share program next spring. (Star-Telegram)

Some rule-breaking NYC bicyclists are sentenced to cyclist's education classes. (New York Times)

Rail passengers en route to Olympic Park will find some trains aren't stopping at Stratford today because the weather is too hot for the old station's overhead cables. (Guardian)

Cities are growing faster than suburbs, but exurbs are growing faster than everything. Wait, what? (Grist)

A multimillion dollar search to find the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane has come up empty. (The Takeaway)

A man dived headfirst off Tower Bridge during a protest by London taxi drivers against their ban from using Olympics Games Lanes. (BBC)

Newark's Bike Exchange -- where locals can buy low-cost used bikes -- opened for its second season. (NJ.com)

Illinois drivers who illegally use handicap parking plates and decals soon will face stricter fines and penalties. (Chicago Tribune)

Lady Gaga delighted her fans by giving them a preview of one of her new songs via car stereo. (MTV)

The House of Lords is backing a ban on smoking in cars when children are present, but the plan doesn't have support from key members of the British government. (BBC)

Still looking for summer vacation ideas? Might we suggest driving Norway's Atlantic Road. (Visit Norway)

Op-Art editorial as envisioned by a "MetroCard-carrying subway rider and graphic designer" who offers "a couple of ads that both natives and tourists might actually find useful." (New York Times)

New Yorkers: "Transforming Transportation" -- a look at transportation issues in the region -- airs this week. (Preview below)

Top stories on TN:
Another Study Finds Fewer Young People Getting Driver’s Licenses (link)
Advocates: Thanks, NY MTA, For Restoring Some Bus / Train / Subway Cuts. Now Where’s The Rest? (link)
Interactive Map: NJ Traffic Fatalities Up in 2011 (link)

(image courtesy of Delhi Traffic Police's Facebook page)

Facebook as traffic camera: The Delhi Traffic Police are encouraging locals to upload pictures to Facebook to report traffic offenses, and it's netted 22,000 violations so far. (India Today)

If San Francisco doesn't come up with $650 million in toll hikes and new city taxes to connect a terminal, the state's high-speed-rail line from Los Angeles will dead-end several blocks from downtown proper. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Businesses and individuals will soon be able to buy naming rights to Virginia highways -- and "the company's name will also pop up in front of potential customers on smartphone directional apps and Internet maps." (Washington Examiner)

On this morning's Brian Lehrer Show, the founder of Rivendell Bicycle Works and author of Just Ride: A Radically Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike, offers up biking advice. (WNYC)

Some bicyclists are using helmet cameras as "black boxes." (New York Times)

The Atlanta region's historic transit tax vote is a little over a week away, and the city's mayor is trying to rally support for it (Atlanta Journal-Constitution). Meanwhile, opponents of the sales tax are also pounding the pavement. (WSBTV.com)

Countdown to Olympics: an artist turned a traditional London double-decker bus into a mechanical sculpture of an athlete doing push-ups. Pictures at Daily Mail; video at Sky News.

Traffic crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists have risen since 2005 in Charlotte due to distracted drivers, jaywalkers and miles of busy city roads without crosswalks and sidewalks. (Charlotte Observer)

Staten Islanders want to revisit a plan for the long-stalled South Shore ferry, which could shave almost an hour over the commuting time to Manhattan. "The road's already built," said a state senator. "It's called the Raritan Bay." (Staten Island Advance)

New York's MTA unveiled new digital art at the Bleecker Street 6 station. (NY1)

Bob Yaro op-ed in Crain's New York: Amtrak's $151 million proposal to modernize the Northeast Corridor is good for our region's economic growth.

Top stories on TN:
US DOT Head Ray LaHood to Transportation Nation Readers: Transpo Bill is “Highway Centric” (link)
NYC Transit Says G Train Expansion Permanent, Adds New Bus Routes (link)
No Launch Date For NYC Bike Share (link)
Space Shuttle Enterprise Makes Public Debut in NYC (link)

The George Washington Bridge at night during a holiday (photo by wallyg via flickr)

The Government Accountability Office is investigating the practices of tolling agencies -- including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “Recent toll hikes on some bridges have raised questions about whether transportation authorities are remaining accountable to their congressionally approved compact," said a GAO spokesperson. (Star Ledger, The Record)

After falling for three years in a row, the number of automobile fatalities in New Jersey rose in 2011. (NJ Spotlight)

Detroit's bus rapid transit system could be operational in two years, say advocates. (Detroit Free Press)

Biking boom: there are 450 bike share programs worldwide. And: "about 133 million (bicycles) were produced last year, a nearly 600% increase from 1960 and more than twice the number of cars manufactured in 2011." (Fortune/CNN/Money)

A social design firm in Chicago is trying to raise money for "the mother of all transit apps." Such as "everything from information on stroller and wheel chair-friendly routes, to knowing the exact weather conditions at the point of departure, to accumulated financial savings from ditching the car, to suggested coffee pit stops along the morning commute." (Good)

The US DOT hasn't decided yet where to build a new air traffic control center that will serve the busy New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia metro areas. (AP via Washington Post)

The French government is criticizing automaker Peugeot over layoffs, leading Peugeot to say the government is undermining investor confidence. (BBC)

New York Daily News opinion: tearing down the Sheridan Expressway would prioritize people over traffic.

Tampa and Charlotte won't get a temporary bike share program during the political conventions because the cities lack bike paths and bike lanes. Instead, they'll get a "supply of 20 peculiar-looking vehicles that seat up to eight passengers who pedal while a driver steers them through an approved route of downtown streets." (Tampa Bay Times)

NYC is shopping around for new Staten Island ferries. (Crain's New York)

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is altering its free speech-related policy after discovering that a private school and church in West Oakland used unaccompanied children to solicit funds at stations after school and at night. (Bay Citizen)

New York City subway riders captured video of various parts of the system flooding during Wednesday's extreme thunderstorms. Click the link for videos of "a geyser spewing cigarette butts" in Grand Central Terminal, and a subway stair-turned-water park. (Gothamist)

 

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city’s long awaited bike share program won’t launch in July for technical reasons: "Until we get it working perfectly, have these private companies d...

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg (photo by Colby Hamilton/WNYC)

New York City won't commit to a new launch date for its vaunted bike share, the largest planned for North America.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered the first explanation Thursday for why the city’s bike share program won’t launch in July: technical reasons.

At a ribbon cutting ceremony in Harlem's Sugar Hill, the mayor was asked when the program was going to be up and running — and what the problems were.

He replied: “Well, its software isn’t working yet. And just rest assured we’re not going to put out any program here that doesn’t work.”

He went on to acidly comment that New Yorkers’ attitudes towards bike share seemed to be evolving. “What’s fascinating is there was a lot of screaming that ‘we don’t want bikes’ and now everybody’s screaming ‘we want ‘em now.’ We’re just not going to do it until it works. There’s no government money involved whatsoever here, the only thing about a delay — if it turns out there is one — is that people won’t be able to use something that we think is phenomenally popular. But until we get it working perfectly, have these private companies do it to our satisfaction, we’re just not going to put it out.”

Calls to Alta Bicycle Share (the company operating the system), as well to the New York City Department of Transportation, weren’t immediately returned. A spokesperson for the City Hall wouldn’t provide further information beyond confirming the Mayor’s comments.

Previous speculation about the delay focused on money and timing. New York City’s bike share program is unique among its peers in that it’s entirely privately funded. Citibank, the program’s main sponsor, wasn’t formally on board until the end of April. Until the sponsorship money was firmly in hand, the city couldn’t begin production. Which meant New York had only a couple of months to turn around 7,000 bikes, 420 stations, and a functional payment system. Some sources TN spoke to wondered if that timeline wasn’t too ambitious.

Caroline Samponaro, the director of bicycle advocacy for the nonprofit Transportation Alternatives said, “no one in any other city in the world remembers the start date.”

 

You can listen to the audio from the mayor's remarks below.

For his latest "On the Go" video Q&A, the U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary fielded questions from Transportation Nation readers, who grilled him about the new transportation bill (MAP 21) and high-speed rail.

"We think that the MAP 21...is probably a little highway centric," says LaHood, but "I think we're on the right track" when it comes to bike and pedestrian improvements.

In response to a question about the prospects of high-speed rail in the Northeast, LaHood said that the federal government is investing $3 billion in rail upgrades along the corridor. "Amtrak is doing well," he said, pointing out that ridership is  booming. While not talking specific timing for fast trains along the Boston-to-DC route, he said "the future is very bright" for rail in the Northeast.

Enough of transportation. What will the secretary be watching at the summer Olympics? It turns out he's a swimming aficionado ("people have to train very, very hard") as well as a basketball fan -- but he deftly sidestepped the current debate over whether the 2012 U.S. basketball team is the equal of the "dream team."

 

Top stories on TN:
Front of NYC’s MetroCard Now Prime Ad Space (link)
Port Authority Says Bayonne Bridge Will Be Raised In Time For Super Ships (link)
California Governor Signs Bullet Train Bill (link)

Roads signs in the Massachusetts Berkshires (photo by Dougtone via flickr)

California's newly signed high-speed rail bill will bring transit upgrades to the Bay Area -- but it's going to take a while. (Wall Street Journal)

The city councils of Oakland and San Leandro, California, approved a BRT route linking the two cities. (Mercury News)

New York City is mulling sweeping changes to how street food is prepared and sold. (WNYC)

Ocean County (NJ) officials have approved $600,000 to plan and build the next segment of its popular bike/pedestrian rail trail. (Asbury Park Press)

Anaheim is about to launch California's first bike share system. (KCET)

One Rockland County legislature wants New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to commit to studying a future mass transit system for the Tappan Zee Bridge. (Journal News)

Boston Herald: Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick paved some roads in the Berkshires so Michelle Obama could avoid potholes. (Link)

Is American Airlines dragging its heels on a merger with US Airways? (NPR)

New York transpo roundtable: quick conversations with Charles Fuschillo, Joe Lhota, James Vacca and Janette Sadik-Khan. (City & State)

Eight city slogans -- from the obvious to the less so -- and what they might mean. (This Big City)

Republicans want to privatize some air traffic control towers. (The Hill)

Train drivers in East Midlands, England, plan to strike for three days during the Olympics. (BBC)

A new report says Delhi's BRT system is a failure and it should be scrapped. (Times of India)

 

The look of NYC’s iconic subway MetroCard could dramatically change — for a price.

Your Ad Here (photo by Kate Hinds)

The New York MTA is hoping the MetroCard could dramatically change -- for a price.

The transit agency is now soliciting ads for the front of the cards, which, barring a color switch from blue to yellow, have been more or less unchanged since their 1993 introduction. Previously, ad space had only been for sale on the back.

The agency has been trying to increase ad revenue for some time. It's wrapped subway cars in ads. It runs commercials on digital panels positioned outside subway stations (see below). It's exploring selling ad space in subway tunnels. It runs ads on its website.

Example of a "digital urban panel" ad at a subway station (photo by Kate Hinds)

According to the MTA's rate sheet, it costs anywhere from 18 to 51 cents per card to advertise on the back of MetroCards, with a minimum order of 50,000 cards. An agency spokesman said that while rates for the front are unpublished right now, they'd command a "premium." But once companies buy in, they have free rein to redesign the MetroCards any way they see fit.

Paul Fleuranges, the MTA's senior director of corporate and internal communications, said "the only (design) constraint is the big black band on the bottom." In other words: the front no longer would have to say MTA -- or even MetroCard. And it sure doesn't have to be yellow. Just leave the magnetic strip alone.

(Fleuranges did say that the "insert this way/this side facing you" text below the black strip would likely remain on the card.)

"It's valuable real estate if you're an advertiser," said Fleuranges, who said that no deals had been inked, but that a few companies had made inquiries.

To sweeten the deal for potential advertisers, he said, the MTA can target where the cards are sold. "We can microplace your card in up to ten stations," said Fleuranges. So if advertisers wanted their cards sold only at stations along the Lexington Avenue line between 14th and 86th Streets in Manhattan, they'll be accommodated.

In an email that accompanied the press release, MTA chairman Joseph J. Lhota said: “Millions of New Yorkers carry MetroCards with them everywhere they go, and use them multiple times a day. For those with a message and a desire to reach millions of people in a novel, attention-getting way, there is no better way to advertise.”

 

It's been a busy summer of new transportation initiatives, from the (delayed) bike share program to new rules about bicycle delivery, East River ferry service, speed limit "slow zones", and more. Kate Hinds, producer/reporter with Transportation Nation, discusses the latest transit news.

Top stories on TN:
DC’s Silver Line Reaches Construction Milestone (link)
Duane Reade Moves To Electrify Some of its Fleet (link)
Westchester: You’re Throwing Us a Three-Mile Transit Bone on the Tappan Zee Bridge; Give Us Nine More, Please (link)

Copenhagen bike riders signal for a turn. (Photo CC by Flickr user Mikael Colville-Andersen)

Denmark's biking superhighway -- an 11-mile-long path between Copenhagen and Albertslund-- is now open for business. And: city employees armed with chocolates are handing them out to cyclists who adhere to the rules of cycling. (New York Times)

Construction is underway on San Francisco's Central Subway -- even though the city's MTA doesn't know if the federal government will award it almost $1 billion in funding. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Chicago's transit authority wants to spend $205 million to upgrade its bus and rail repair facilities. (Chicago Tribune)

Boston is doubling the number of security cameras it has on its transit system. (AP via WBUR)

San Francisco's Muni paid thousands of dollars in bonuses to top executives for meeting or exceeding on-time performance goals, even as the agency inflated its on-time rates by as much as 18 percent. (Bay Citizen)

The Ohio governor's plan to privatize the Ohio Turnpike was overwhelmingly panned in its first public hearing. (Plain Dealer)

Following a heat-related derailment, Metro officials have revised their criteria for determining when to slow train speeds during periods of extreme heat. (Washington Post)

Dozens of traffic signs have been destroyed in one Auckland neighborhood because "prostitutes use these street sign poles as dancing poles...The poles are part of their soliciting equipment and they often snap them." (Telegraph)

The U.S. is sending TSA agents to Britain to provide additional security for U.K. airports during the Olympics. (New York Daily News)

DC's cabbies, riding a wave of new taxi regulations, "now waver between outrage and despair." (Washington Post)

A parking-garage employee drove a sport-utility vehicle into an open elevator shaft, injuring two workers and wedging an automobile inside the Upper East Side facility. (Wall Street Journal)

Over 200 London cabbies blocked traffic in Parliament Square for two hours Tuesday to protest the controversial Olympic Route Network along the city's roadways. (Atlantic Cities)

If local New York politicians are working through the five stages of grief over the lack of a comprehensive mass transit system for the new Tappan Zee Bridge, they might be moving closer to acceptance.

Tappan Zee Bridge (photo by waywuwei via flickr)

If local New York politicians are working through the five stages of grief over the lack of a comprehensive mass transit system for the new Tappan Zee Bridge, they might be moving closer to acceptance.

On Tuesday's Brian Lehrer Show, Westchester County executive Rob Astorino -- who has criticized Governor Andrew Cuomo's plans for Tappan Zee Bridge in the past -- today sounded a conciliatory note.

"We're basically all on the same page," said Astorino.

His remarks come after Rockland County executive Scott Vanderhoef told TN last week that he had dropped his insistence that a full bus rapid transit system be built now.

Vanderhoef said today on the Brian Lehrer Show he understood the financial realities.  "I agree with the governor's comment: ultimately, this is being paid for by our residents in some form or fashion. It's just you can't think only short term... it has to be long term."

Brian also asked if the old bridge would be retained as a bike/pedestrian bridge. "No," said Vanderhoef bluntly. "You'd have to pour an awful lot of money into that existing bridge."

Listen to the entire 16-minute interview below.

Top stories on TN:
DOT: NYC Bike Share Will Not Launch in July (link)
Commuter Nation: How America Gets to Work (link)
To Combat Counterfeiting, NJ Transit Goes For Ultraviolet Tickets (link)
D.C. Battle with ‘Arrogant’ Uber Continues: To Regulate Internet Cabs or Not? (link)
Private Ferry, Floated By Municipal $, Flourishes In New York (link)
Bike Modification Lets You Ride on Train Tracks, Probably Get Hit by Train (link)

A Olympic lane on the A12 (photo by sludgegulper via flickr)

The Brian Lehrer Show will talk about the Tappan Zee Bridge with Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef and Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino. (WNYC)

Three buses carrying athletes to London's Olympic Village lost their way and took four hours instead of 45 minutes. (New York Times)

Minneapolis and St. Paul are adding new residents by the thousands, reversing a decades-long trend of population losses to the suburbs and possibly reordering priorities for things like spending on highways and transit. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

The federal DOT now has the power to withhold grant money to urban transit systems that don't make safety improvements. "That's not a tool we want to use, but it is a tool we will use to ensure that agencies are stepping up and making the appropriate transit safety investments," FTA head Peter Rogoff said. (AP via ABC)

California state regulators ordered Expo Line officials to replace a flawed piece of track that could trigger a derailment and also fix an automated safety system that has not worked properly since the line opened in April. (Los Angeles Times)

NY's MTA said it's willing to look at integrated fares for subways and bike share as it moves towards a smart card system -- in 2015. (Gotham Gazette)

Unless Congress acts later this year, some federal transportation programs -- like the FAA, New Starts, and Amtrak -- will be subject to automatic cuts of nearly 8 percent. (Transportation Issues Daily)

News to us: the Nassau County town of Long Beach has a bike share program.

Two NJ towns have certified that the timing of their red light cameras are in compliance with state DOT regulations -- paving the way for the municipalities to soon begin issuing tickets at affected intersections again. (Gloucester County Times)

Auto dealers in Houston's 10-county metro area sold nearly 32,000 cars, trucks and SUVs in June — an increase of nearly 90% over June of last year. (KUHF)

How to get Chicago drivers to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks? Use mimes.  (WBEZ; video below)

Top stories on TN:
Crowded Midtown Manhattan Gets a New Avenue: 6 and 1/2 Ave (link)
NYC to Use Inspections to Combat Dangerous Bicycle Delivery Riding (link)
Is BRT Coming to D.C. Suburbs? (link)
DC Metro: We Need Rail That Can Handle Hotter Temperatures (link)

A bus stop in Konagai, Japan (image courtesy of Inhabitat)

The NJ DOT commissioner is enforcing a dress code after seeing employees wearing "really worn dungarees, with T-shirts and sneakers hanging out. Flip-flops. It got really bad...T-shirts with Harley-Davidson, political opinions, all kinds of stuff.”  (Star Ledger)

A software problem caused DC's Metro to experience two system-wide shutdowns this weekend. (Washington Post)

New York's MTA is looking at restoring some of the service that was cut in 2010 -- and the Bronx and Brooklyn look to be the biggest beneficiaries. (New York Daily News)

Los Angeles Times op-ed: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's ambitious transit plan is good for the city -- but it falls short of his own goals, and he's hamstrung by Congress. (Link)

And: more on Beverly Hills High School's opposition to the Subway to the Sea. (New York Times)

The New York Times takes a look at the Atlanta area's upcoming sales tax-for-transportation referendum. "Although little would be done to improve the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s beleaguered train system and less than 1 percent would go to bike and pedestrian projects, the money would bring a light-rail train for people who work near Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." (Link)

Games Lanes reserved for Olympic competitors, officials and sponsors could be suspended if London traffic is gridlocked. (Telegraph)

Is Toronto's subway suicide prevention program working? In the first year of a program that saw special phones installed on all Toronto subway platforms, crisis counselors slowed or stopped trains 17 times -- and the incidence of suicide was halved. (The Star)

Britain will invest 9.4 billion pounds ($14.6 billion) in its rail network over the next several years as the government tries to boost the ailing economy. (Bloomberg News)

Chicago-area rail commuters could be using their smartphones instead of paper tickets to ride Metra trains by next summer. (Chicago Tribune)

Talk about distracted drinking and driving: Fiat is making "the first standard-production car in the world to offer a true espresso coffee machine." (USA Today)

A Bronx car-wash owner who failed to pay his workers minimum wage will spend weekends in jail for the next four months. (New York Daily News)

Bon anniversaire, Vélib: Paris's bike share system celebrated its fifth birthday yesterday. (Le Monde)

Take a photo tour of the world's most awesome bus stops. Fruit-themed shelters in Konagai, Japan? Air-conditioned stops in Dubai? It's in there. (Seattle Post Intelligencer)

Top stories on TN:
Interstate? Close Enough (link)
PIC OF THE WEEK: What Amtrak High-Speed Rail Trains Will Look Like in 2040 (link)
NYC Approves 17% Cab Fare Hike (link)
Texting-While-Driving Tickets Quadruple in New York (link)
Trucking Key Reason Oil Service Company Moves to Small Eastern Montana Town (link)
Congressman Nadler: Families That Fly Together Should Be Seated Together (link)

A Rolls Royce jet engine made out of LEGO (photo courtesy of Gizmodo)

Sarah Palin has endorsed Sandy Adams over her primary opponent in her closely watched race against fellow GOP Congressperson (and House T&I committee chair) John Mica in Florida. (Politico)

Google Maps now has walking directions for 44 African countries. (Google's Lat Long Blog)

A Maryland county executive says building the area's BRT system could take 20 to 30 years, rejecting a recommendation by a county task force to build it in nine years. (Washington Post)

Progress on America's rail system will be incremental, say experts -- think "higher-speed rail," not "high-speed." (Philadelphia Inquirer)

A UCLA analysis of Japan's Shinkansen bullet train and its impact on the growth of cities along its route calls into question claims by state officials that California's high-speed rail project will create up to 400,000 jobs. (Los Angeles Times)

Behold: the world's first jet engine, made entirely out of LEGO bricks -- 152,455 of them, to be precise. (Gizmodo)

New signage is making Manhattan's 6 1/2 Avenue -- a string of public pedestrian plazas in midtown -- a reality. (DNA Info)

Newsday opinion: county executives' questions about the Tappan Zee Bridge are legitimate -- and delaying a key vote on the project is "the only real leverage these leaders have to get information."

A coalition of activists protesting the MBTA's recent fare hikes are organizing mass fare evasions today and calling it "Boston Fare Strike Day." (BostInno)

Rickshaw bling is all the rage in India. "Decorating my rickshaw isn't just a business investment, it's also my passion," says one driver. (NPR)

The New York City Council wants to crack down on electric bikes. (New York Daily News)

Kickstarter project of the day: A companion book to a photo exhibit finds 40 former Miss Subways and asks "whether they’ve lived up to their dreams." (link; video below)