Alex Goldmark

Victor Velasquez was ticketed for not riding in an available bike lane.

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) Have you been ticketed while riding your bike? Know someone who has, or even just seen someone getting a ticket on their bike? We want to hear about it.

Cyclists have to obey motor vehicle laws in New York City. There are more cyclists on the streets—just see this chart. Now, we'd like to map how many more violations are being issued.

We've reported on tickets for speeding, running red lights in Central Park, for not riding in the bike lane on Lafayette street, and riding on the sidewalk in Brooklyn, but we know there are other pockets of increased enforcement out there as well.

Mapping the Bike Tickets of 2011

We're looking to map where, and for what the recent increased enforcement of violations by cyclists.  Please spread the word to all the cyclists you know.

Send them this link:  http://bit.ly/biketicketsNYC

Or have them come to this post and answer the short questions below.

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Capital Bikeshare bikes at White House rally. (Photo: Stephen Miller)

(David Schultz, WAMU, Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) D.C. bikeshare trips spiked more than five-fold last night as residents converged on the White House to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden. Bikeshare helped swell the crowd size.

From 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., riders took 558 trips on Capital Bikeshare. During a similar time period last week, they took only 105 trips.

John Lisle of the District Department Of Transportation tells Transportation Nation that, as of 1 p.m., fewer than a dozen bikes remained unreturned. Nothing to be alarmed or worried about, he says. Bikeshare members have up to 24 hours to return a bike before it is considered stolen.

Greater Greater Washington posted links to a few bike tracking apps that let you see from where the bikes were checked out and when.

Hat tip to Stephen Miller for the photo.

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(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) Ahead of the busy summer travel season, inter-city bus ridership continues to climb despite the trio of recent crashes in the Northeast.

Robert Schwarz, Executive Vice President of Peter Phe said, “it's definitely increasing and we’re very optimistic for where it’s going to go this summer.” He added of rising gas prices, “it’s very good for the intercity bus industry” because travel is a discretionary item and habits can change with relative costs.

With gas over $4 a gallon, filling up the tank to go to Washington, D.C. can cost $60. You can get three bus tickets for that.

MegaBus has been expanding fast in the past few years, so it's hard to tell how gas prices might affect growth. Dale Moser, COO of MegaBus, said, that comparing ridership to this time last year on the same routes, the growth is "significantly greater" than projected, adding some of that "has to be somewhat related to gas." He cautioned, they do not ask riders to give the reason they choose the bus over driving when the buy a ticket.

Maureen Richmond of Bolt Bus had a slightly different report. For over a year, her company has been operating at above 95 percent capacity on weekends. So growth in ridership is difficult to identify, she says. But for weekday service, there's been a "slight uptick in passenger travel" in recent months. Bolt Bus is jointly owned by Greyhound and Peter Pan.

Overall, buses, particularly curbside pickup buses, are the fastest growing mode of intercity transportation. Professor Joseph Schwieterman of DePaul University studies the industry. He says, "the evidence suggests that ridership is up at least 33 percent now versus a year ago with all the new service as well as heightened fuel prices, but exact numbers are elusive." Pittsburgh recently added a bus hub that he says also contributed to new ridership numbers overall.

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Ahead of the busy summer travel season, inter-city bus ridership continues to climb despite the trio of recent crashes in the Northeast.

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) In a "final agency determination," the Federal Transit Administration today told  New Jersey the state has to pay back the full $271 million NJ spent of federal money digging out the beginning of  the ARC transit tunnel  under the Hudson River.  NJ Gov. Chris Christie canceled the project in October, halting the boring, and filling in the hole -- after which US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood demanded the money back.

NJ filed paperwork contesting the bill in January and has hired a well known Washington law firm to fight it as well.   As of March, the Newark Star-Ledger reported, NJ Transit had already paid a third of a million dollars  in legal bills.

It had seemed possible that New Jersey would only be asked to pay half the $271 million in late January.

But now, LaHood is sticking to his guns, telling Christie he has to pay back all the money.  Christie is expected to continue to resist paying for the ARC tunnel.

Catch up on our past coverage of the money fight here.

Here's the response to the decision-posted below-from Kevin Robert, a spokesman for Governor Christie:

"We disagree with the FTA’s conclusion and its continued efforts to bill New Jersey taxpayers for completed work that will be of substantial value to future transportation projects not just in New Jersey, but in the Northeast corridor. Furthermore, New Jersey was unable to move forward with the ARC project for reasons beyond the State’s control -- billions of dollars in unaccounted for cost-overruns and re-estimates of project costs late in the process only continued to increase New Jersey’s already heavy financial burden. For now, we will review the decision before determining next steps moving forward."

Here's the full 52 page final decision of the Federal Transit Administration on the debt collection action, New Jersey Transit Corporation, Access to the Region's Core Project (ARC). (PDF)

And the two page letter from Transportation Secretary to NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg, (Dem.), a supporter of the ARC project.

Dot Arc Repayment

Lautenberg also released this statement.

SENATORS LAUTENBERG AND MENENDEZ STATEMENT ON ARC REPAYMENT DECISION

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) released a statement today following the U.S. Department of Transportation decision that the State of New Jersey must repay the full $271 million in federal funding spent on the cancelled Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) tunnel.

“This is an unfortunate situation.  We worked hard to get the parties to negotiate a fair resolution of this conflict.  However the state's outside lawyers pursued an all or nothing approach, which brings substantial risk to New Jersey taxpayers.  Given the high stakes involved in this matter, we hope the state's approach is ultimately successful,” the Senators said.

Following Governor Christie’s decision to cancel the trans-Hudson tunnel project, Senators Lautenberg and Menendez called on Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to ease the financial impact on the State.  In response to the Senators’ efforts, Secretary LaHood agreed that if the state repaid $271 million, the federal government would return nearly half the money by placing $128 million in New Jersey’s Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) account for mass transit and emission reductions projects. However, the Governor’s legal team pursued a different course.

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(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) The Federal Aviation Administration is shaking up the management of the nation's air traffic control system, according to the AP. This comes after a series of increasingly embarrassing incidents of controllers falling asleep on the job, watching a DVD on duty, and making an error that forced the first lady's plane to abort a landing.

The AP reports that the FAA "has appointed new managers to oversee the operation of airport towers and regional radar centers that handle planes flying at high altitudes as well as approaches and departures. The previous managers are being reassigned."

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Photo: CC by Flickr user Vincent van der Pas

(New York -- Kathleen Horan, WNYC) New York's mayor is facing considerable opposition in his plan to change the city's taxi rules to allow residents to hail livery cabs in the outer boroughs.

Currently, only the city's registered iconic yellow cabs can pick up passengers who hail them from the street. Those cabs operate primarily in Manhattan. Livery cabs by contrast rely on passengers who call the city's many car services then dispatch the cars by radio, and operate primarily in the outer boroughs.

When Mayor Bloomberg announced his plan in the State Of The City address earlier this year, he said he would create a whole new class of taxi--a livery car that works essentially like a yellow cab in places most regular taxis are hard to find.

Now, the Bloomberg administration's plan to allow New Yorkers to hail livery cabs in the outer boroughs has hit major roadblocks. Stakeholders say the lack of outreach in advance of the mayor's announcement hurt the proposal from the start.

The yellow taxi industry and fleet owners who own multiple medallions in particular, say the Mayor's plan would have upended their whole business model since they have the exclusive right to pick up street hails.

The city says only about 3 percent of taxi hails are in the outer boroughs, so little would be lost if yellow cabs shared street hail rights. Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna says it's not surprising that fleet owners who benefit from the 'status quo' are resisting change but says they have undo influence, especially with city council members who must approve changes to the law that govern taxis.

City officials say the mayor set out to provide the same level of taxi service to all five boroughs and that will still happen, no matter the plan.

Taxi stakeholders say that's possible as long as what New Yorkers are hailing remains yellow.

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Tensions are high in Spain during El Clásico, a football match between the country's top teams, from Madrid and Barcelona. The teams will play each other in Madrid this evening, for the third time in just a few days. Sarah Rainsford, the BBC's Madrid correspondent, talks with us about why the rivalry between the two teams is so intense. 

Victor Velasquez showing his ticket for not riding in the Lafayette St bike lane (Photo: Alex Goldmark)

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) I witnessed two cyclists ticketed in succession today on Lafayette Street in Manhattan for not riding in the bike lane. (See below for a close up of one ticket, which reads "not in bike lane" under the description of offense.)

"I was riding my bicycle ... on the wrong side of the street," said Victor Velasquez, "and they gave me a ticket."

Many cyclists understand when it comes to traffic law, they're treated like cars. But there's confusion about whether it's okay to ride outside of a bike lane if one is provided. And the short section of bike lane on Lafayette going north seems to add to riders' confusion (keep reading for photos of the street.)

New York City DOT's website says "you have the right to ride in the center of travel lanes when necessary for your safety." But state  law seems to indicate that if there's a bike lane, you need to use it "Whenever a usable path or lane for bicycles has been provided, bicycle riders shall use such path or lane only except under any of the following situations" (Full text towards the end of the post.)

Here's what the street looks like for a better visual:

Lafayette is a one-way avenue, northbound at this point, with the bike lane on the left hand side of the street. The lane begins just two blocks south. Cyclists riding north on Centre Street must merge onto Lafayette and end up on the right-hand side of Lafayette. They then have to cross two lanes of traffic to reach the bike lane. Many do not, especially if they plan to make a right turn at Houston St or another nearby street.

"The law is the law and lawbreakers should be ticketed but the unusual focus on cyclist behavior seems out of step with the realities of the road," emailed Transportation Alternatives in a written statement. " Hundreds of New Yorkers are killed or injured by cars every year--we need enforcement that will protect New Yorkers from the real dangers on our streets."

The police were parked in a van on the left side of the street, just north of Prince St. At one point they had pulled over two cyclists at the same time. This comes just a day after the NY Post ran a story about cyclists flouting traffic laws at exactly this intersection, noting that of the 7,182 cyclists they watched ride by, at least 24 percent violated a traffic law. The Post did not count the number of cars or pedestrians that violated laws or obstructed the bike lane.

Here's how Velasquez, who was the second cyclist I saw pulled over, described his interaction with police. "When he pulled me over, I said 'why you pulling me over?' He [the police officer] said, 'I'm pulling you over because you are not riding your bicycle in the line bicycle [points to bike lane], you are on the other side.' I said, 'I never heard of that.' He said, 'we're doing that now.'"

Here's the ticket:

The NYPD has not responded to a request for a clarification on the law. We'll update you when they do. The DOT response is below.

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Here's what we have found on the law so far.

The DOT did not offer a definitive answer, but forwarded relevant sections of DOT's Traffic Rules and State Vehicle and Traffic Law: (Full text here):

(1) Bicycle riders to use bicycle lanes. Whenever a usable path or lane for bicycles has been provided, bicycle riders shall use such path or lane only except under any of the following situations:

(i) When preparing for a turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.

(ii) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians,pushcarts, animals, surface hazards) that make it unsafe to continue within such bicycle path or lane.

Vehicle and Traffic Law:
§ 1231. Traffic laws apply to persons riding bicycles or skating or gliding on in-line skates. Every person riding a bicycle or skating or gliding on in-line skates upon a roadway shall be granted all of the rights and shall be subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle by this title, except as to special regulations in this article and except as to those provisions of this title which by their nature can have no application.

It gets even more confusing, Section 1234 of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law, which has also been cited as outlawing riding outside an available bike lane. This, however, is superceded by City law, above, and below. One section, sent in by commenter Steve, seems to contradict the ride in the bike lane mandate. We believe it is still a violation to not ride in an available bike lane, but we're trying to confirm that with the DOT and the NYPD. In the meantime, here's the rest of the law.

Section 1234: (Which does not apply in NYC)

"Upon all roadways,  any  bicycle or in-line skate shall be driven either on a usable bicycle or in-line skate lane or, if a usable bicycle or in-line skate lane has not been provided, near the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway or upon a usable right-hand  shoulder in such a manner as to prevent undue interference  with the flow of traffic except when preparing for a left turn or when reasonably necessary to avoid conditions that would make it unsafe to continue along near the right-hand curb or edge."

Here's the law that specifically supersedes the above, 34 RCNY 4-02 (e) as sent in by commenter Steve.

You’re forgetting two important part of the VTL as it applies to bike lanes and roads:

RCNY § 4-12 (p) Bicyclists may ride on either side of one-way roadways that are at least 40 feet wide.

RCNY § 4-12 (p) Bicyclists should ride in usable bike lanes, unless they are blocked or unsafe for any reason.

Lafayette is surely more than 40 feet wide.

Cyclists are SUPPOSED to use bike lanes, but can use their discretion to bike elsewhere in the road for their safety or if the lane is obstructed. If there’s a pothole, a puddle, glass, or something you wouldn’t want to run over or that could cause harm, the rider does not have to use the lane. You could even argue that some bike lanes are so close to the door zone that you saw someone exiting a vehicle and left the bike lane to avoid getting hit.

It’s a fuzzy area of the law – “should” means that officers can also look at a rider and decide that it was perfectly safe.

Drivers, start your vehicles: the New York Auto Show opens today. (NY Auto Show Schedule)

The auto show is not known for restraint. Just ask the Demon, the Spaceman, the Catman and the Starchild, whose faces adorn a quartet of Mini Coopers. (NY Times)

The Shanghai Auto Show has the usual "bikini-clad women stretched out on concept cars." Plus, a guy who'll sell you the contact info of everyone there for three bucks. (Marketplace)

Thinking of leaving the auto show as the proud owner of a candy red Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 (below)? Remember: you'll have to pay a national average of nearly $4 for a gallon of regular gas. One analyst blames "sloppy drunk" speculators in the global commodities market. (NPR)

You know you want it.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker says it costs the city $3.5 million a year to tow all the broke-down jalopies from its freeways. That's why she's proposing to charge vehicle owners $50 per tow. (KUHF)

Minnesota state legislature's proposed cuts to Twin Cities transit gets a "blistering" reception from, among others, Gov. Mark Drayton. (StarTribune)

Washington, DC transit riders are wondering how carrying a grand jury charge of negligent homicide for allegedly plowing down a pedestrian in 2008 qualifies a bus driver to be rehired in 2010. (WAMU)

The New York City MTA is out with a sustainability report that claims the agency has a negative carbon footprint because of all the car exhaust it prevents. It also says, "Thanks in large part to the MTA, the energy consumption and CO2 output of New Yorkers is approximately a quarter of the national average." Read it here.

Then feel free to geek out to this MTA video about switching the necklace lights on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge--which connects the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan--from mercury vapor to LED bulbs.

This slideshow offers whimsical illustrations of pop culture icons on bikes. Chewbaca, ever the hipster, rocks a fixie. (Slate)

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In case you missed it:

- Casey Miner hopped in her car and drove to downtown San Francisco to check out it's new "dynamic parking" scheme. She pretty much likes what she found. (Link)

- Remember that national average of nearly $4 per gallon of gas? Alex Goldmark reports on early data showing Chevy Volt drivers go more than 1,000 miles between fill-ups. (Link)

Steve Wojtanek in the driveway next to his Chevrolet Volt in Boca Raton, Florida. Wojtanek says he averages 122 miles per gallon, and visits the gas station about once a month. (Photo: Chevrolet News)

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) Chevy announced today that the company's tracking of early Volt owners shows they consistently go more than 1,000 miles between gas fill-ups.

Chevy also released testimonials of drivers who were especially fuel efficient in their driving habits. “On April 11, I had to buy gas for the first time since filling up on Jan. 9,^” said Volt owner Gary Davis of Greenville, S.C. “In my Volt I’ve driven 4,600 miles on 8.4 gallons of gas. That’s an impressive 547 mpg that I am achieving with my Volt.”

With more typical driving conditions the Volt has still performed impressively on fuel and energy efficiency. Motor Trend tested the vehicle and got 127.6 miles per gallon. Those numbers don't factor in the cost of electricity for charging the battery, something the owner does have to pay for along with gas. Car and Driver computed a 74 miles per gallon equivalence when factoring in the electricity usage during its test of the Volt.

The Volt has a battery with a range of 20-50 miles, after that, a gas powered engine-generator kicks in allowing for longer trips. The typical urban car trip is less than 40 miles. Chevy tells Transportation Nation, they have sold 1,527 Volts through March 2011.

Chevy is releasing these testimonials come as fuel-efficient cars are in the spotlight at the NY Auto Show this week—where the Volt was named the World Green Car today—and following reports of a pair of electric cars catching fire while charging in Connecticut. Right now though, it appears the Volt involved was likely the victim, not the culprit of the two car blaze.

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood went on PBS Newshour last night to dispel any worries about a string of air traffic control flubs including several sleeping controllers, one who watched a movie on the job, and another who guided the First Lady's plane too close to a military cargo aircraft.

The Department of Transportation oversees the Federal Aviation Administration. LaHood said they are taking swift action and announced the firing of two air traffic controllers.

"I'm prepared to announce tonight that we have fired two controllers after completing two investigations. We're also changing procedures have having to do with the vice president and first lady's plane when they're flying in and out of Washington airspace.

Infrastructure is a campaign topic. President Obama recently invoked the Minnesota bridge collapse to criticize GOP budget. (CBS)

That doesn't mean transpo advocates are all in line. Robert Puentes of the Brookings Institution makes the case for a two-year transportation bill instead of a full six-year reauthorization. (New Republic)

CNN tries to understand why high-speed rail has become such a contentious topic. With companion piece debunking rail myths. (CNN)

Hear a trucker speak frankly about driving with an automatic tracker that monitors his hours and distance. He hated it before he got it, now he likes it. (The Takeaway)

At the NY Auto Show starting tomorrow Chevy will debut the new Malibu, calling it the "most fuel-efficient mid-sized Chevy ever" at 38 mpg. (AutoBlogGreen) Also at the show, Porshe is showing of a replica of a 1900 vehicle they're calling the first ever hybrid. (Wired) There's lots of car porn ahead of the show if you want to see the shiny new 2013 models. (Jalopnik)

For balance, some rail (station) porn. Here's an artist's rendition of the new high-speed rail station in Birmingham, England. (Birmingham Post)

First they slowed down high-speed rail for safety reasons. Now China is removing luxury seating to make bullet train travel more affordable. (Economic Times)

After six weeks of voting, TSA workers will unionize, but they haven't picked which union will represent them. It's time for a runoff election. (AP)

Rail just got cheaper in Hawaii. Estimates for a new transit plan have decreased from $5.5 billion to $5.3 billion. (Star-Advertiser)

The agency that runs the NYC subway, the MTA, is looking to sell its headquarters building and two others to make ends meet. A developer could build a skyscaper next to Grand Central Station on the site. (NY Times)

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation:

- Now you can edit Google Maps and add in bike and walking paths yourself. We did it. (Link)

- DOT issues new rules for airlines on bag fees, tarmac waits and bumped travel vouchers. (Link)

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) The New York City Department of Transportation wants cyclists to take the "bike smart pledge" to obey all the rules of the road.

This is the latest effort to ease tensions between cycling enthusiasts and bike lane opponents by getting bike riders to behave better, thus eliminating one of the complaints about the increase in city cyclists recently. The number of bike riders has doubled in NYC since 2006.

This comes amidst an NYPD crackdown on rule breaking riders that has drawn regular attention on this website and in the local press, most recently including a video of a pedestrian getting a ticket for "ridiculing" a cyclist in the process of getting a ticket for riding on the sidewalk, Robin Williams who says he was stopped for the same offense, and a prep-school exec who got a ticket for hanging her handbag on her handlebars.

Here's the pledge.

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(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) Errors on Google Maps matter. One even started a war. But now you, yes you, can fix them. And that means adding pedestrian and walking paths that are left off, or even removing a street that is impassable because of long term construction.

Google introduced Google Mapmaker for America yesterday. You can now add or edit roads, paths and even high-tension wires that aren't exactly accurate in your neighborhood. I tried it. It's easy.

I live in Manhattan where just about every road, sidewalk and even tree, has been mapped and re-mapped within an inch of its concrete life for more than two centuries. Still, there are a few improvements I had to suggest. In particular, there are pedestrian paths through my apartment complex that, according to Google Maps, don't exist even though I walk them every day.

Well, I fixed that.

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) The U.S. Department of Transportation announced tougher rules designed to protect airline passengers today. The new requirements deal with baggage fees, tarmac wait times and compensation for travelers bumped from flights.

Most of the rule changes announced have to do with fees and costs to passengers. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said airlines will be required to reimburse passengers for baggage fees if a bag is lost, though not if it is late."People get so upset and mad that their bag didn't make it, and then they find out that they're not even going to be reimbursed? It's ridiculous," LaHood told NPR.

Airlines will also be required to "prominently disclose all potential fees" on their websites. That includes baggage fees, but also meal costs, seat upgrade fees as well as government taxes and surcharges. Currently government fees aren't required to be included in the posted price of an airline ticket. Additionally, the compensation for passengers who are involuntarily bumped from flights is being doubled.

“Airline passengers have a right to be treated fairly,” said Secretary LaHood in a statement. “It’s just common sense that if an airline loses your bag or you get bumped from a flight because it was oversold, you should be reimbursed.

LaHood also told NPR the DOT was enshrining these policies in regulation because the industry was not doing it on their own. "Competition has not taken care of these problems. We would not be addressing them if competition had done that," LaHood said.

Another new rule annouced today expands the ban on legnthy tarmac delays. Airlines can be fined as much as $27,500 per passenger if a plane stays on the tarmac more than four hours. That 2009 rule nearly eliminated the dreaded experience of being stranded for hours trapped in a grounded plane. From May 2009 to February 2010 that happened 664 times, a year later, after the rule took effect, during the same period there were just 16 incidents.

Right now, only domestic airlines are required comply, but the new rule extends the fines to international carriers as well. The DOT says it is taking this action, in part, because of an incident at New York's JFK airport during a blizzard last winter when an international carrier held passengers for 11 hours.

Carriers must also provide water and access to working bathrooms after two hours.

Listen to the NPR report here. See the full announcement at the DOT website.

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Another day of scrutiny for the FAA yesterday. An apparent air traffic control mistake caused a scare when it forced a plane carrying the first lady to abort a landing. (Washington Post) That was just hours after another air traffic controller was suspended for watching a movie on the job. His open microphone broadcast parts of of the film. (Washington Post)

To fight drowsy driving, the DOT has proposed a rule that forces truckers to install electronic monitors that track how many hours they drive a day. Independent drivers call it an intrusion, but the big companies are for it. (NPR)

North Carolina legislators narrowly rejected a plan that could have killed high-speed rail plans there. (The Republic)

Washington, D.C. is launching a city-wide plan to let parkers pay by phone at parking meters. You'll still be able to pay with loose change. (Washington Examiner)

(Photo (cc) by Flickr user KDavidClark)

Police are hoarding Crown-Victorias before Ford discontinues the classic cop car. (Jalopnik)

An LA transit line inches closer to the sea and residents have a unique way to influence its direction. (GOOD)

Informal "dollar vans" are moving in on public bus territory in New York. (PLOG)

Guess who got a pulled over by police this time for riding on the sidewalk in NYC. Robin Williams! He said once the police recognized him, they decided to let him off with a warning. (NY Post)

Newark Liberty airport gets a new TSA chief after a year of lapses that included allowing a poorly screened passenger in a secure area, and loading a dead dog on a plane without checking it. (AP)

The Freakonomics team examines "conspicuous conservation": the act of buying something—like an electric car—that's good for the environment so all your neighbors know you care about the planet, and become your friend. (Marketplace)

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation:

- Rahm Emanuel taps Gabe Klein as Chicago transportation Chief, signaling bike- and transit-friendly polices to come. (Link)

- Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) is talking tough with Gov. Rick Scott. We may see tit for tat transportation funding. (Link)

- Get ready for SFpark, the dynamic pricing plan to solve San Francisco's parking problems, maybe. (Link)

File Photo: Gabe Klein in Washington, D.C.  (Photo: DDOT)

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) Transportation Nation has learned that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has picked his transportation chief. Gabe Klein, former head of Washington D.C.'s Department of Transportation, will become the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation in mid-May. An announcement is expected later this morning.

Klein tells Transportation Nation that he hopes to build on the innovative programs that were put in place in Washington, D.C. and transform Chicago into a world class transportation city. During his tenure, D.C. launched a bikeshare program, expanded bike lanes and installed several electric car charging stations.

As we've reported here before, Rahm Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff, is largely supportive of public transit, is a cyclist himself, and has said he wants to build 100 miles of new bike lanes during his first term.

His transportation plan when running for mayor was, in essence, a transit plan. Emanuel also impressed local transit and transportation activists with his interest in the topic and detailed knowledge of the issues including having a specific favorite bike-lane design.

Now Chicago has a pro-bike, pro-transit pair in charge of transportation policy.

UPDATE: Several other Emanuel appointments were also announced today, including the head of the Chicago Transit Authority.

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Click link below for full image.

As gas prices climb for 27th straight day, pushing it above $4 per gallon in more than six states, consider that, internationally speaking, that's not that much. (Flowing Data)

The federal government still owns a 33 percent stake in General Motors. They want to sell that off this summer or fall. (CNBC) That means the U.S. treasury wouldn't benefit from GM's five year plan to double its exports to China. (Detroit News)

Ford is expecting growth to come from the socket. It predicts electric cars will be 10-25 percent of sales by 2020 (Fox Business)

Nissan will repair more than 5,000 Leafs for an electrical problem that causes a start failure. (Reuters)

But charging technology is moving forward. BMW and Siemens are teaming up to test out wireless charging stations for electric cars ... as in, no plugging in, just park within six inches. (AutoBlogGreen)

Two wheelers want in on the game too. A new study predicts electric motorcycles will really take off, with a jump from the current 17 million on the road to 138 million by 2017. (GOOD)

WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show takes on everything airlines from sleeping controllers to why Southwest planes fell apart and how to buy cheap tickets from Europe. (WNYC)

Charleston, South Carolina rejects a plan for highway expansion in what supporters call a victory for livable streets. (Streetsblog)

Washington Nationals fans are having a tough time taking transit to the stadium. Or rather, taking it back because D.C. Metro closes too early for some longer games. (WAMU)

Transport Politic finds that suburban oriented commuter rail doesn't change transit usage all that much in most cases. (Transport Politic)

It's one year since the BP oil spill began. Seafood distributors report sales are down, and the oil is still out there. Hear it in their own words. (The Takeaway)

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In case you missed it on Transportation Nation

- Jerusalem light rail links a divided city. (Link)

- Paying for an electric car was only the beginning of the expenses for the first man in Virginia to own one (Link)

- Look how much money the NYC MTA makes on lost and unused metrocards. (Link)

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) Higher gas prices do cause higher hybrid vehicle sales, just not right away. A new study finds there's a two year lag between fuel price changes and car sales.

The study in the Journal of Economics and Economic Education Research finds that a 10 percent increase in gas price, decreases the demand for SUVs by 13.7 percent and increases the demand for Hybrid cars by 9.1 percent. The price of a gallon of unleaded has increased more than 30 percent in the past year, according to AAA.

"Gas price has a direct impact on vehicle choice... However, this impact is not immediate and there is a time lag between price changes and vehicle choice," authors Mansoureh Jeihani and Soheil Sibdari write.

The study also treats picking a new vehicle as a long term choice, not an impulse buy based on the data.

The study also verifies other research that says people won't stop driving, or drive fewer miles, when gas prices go up, but they will use more fuel efficient cars, especially if the household owns multiple vehicles.

(Via The Daily Stat)