Kate Hinds

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)

Transportation Nation is a reader-supported public radio reporting project. Make a donation here.

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."

Top stories on TN:
Virginia Governor Proposes Eliminating State Gasoline Tax (link)
Self-driving Cars Debut at Consumer Electronic Show (link)
Some 24/7 PATH Train Service To Resume (link)
Photos and Videos: Eye Candy Celebrating the London’s Underground’s 150 Anniversary (link)
NY Gov Plans for Flood-Proof Subways, Open Transpo Data, Coastal Barriers (link)
Dozens Injured in Lower Manhattan Ferry Crash (link)

Boston's transit system is reminding riders to wash their hands & cover their mouth when they sneeze. (Photo courtesy of MBTA GM via twitter)ey sneeze

Boston's transit system is taking extra precautions during the flu outbreak, including special cleaning regulations and PSAs. (BostInno)

The FAA is warning flight attendants that the prepackaged coffee filters many airlines use are susceptible to pressure buildup and can explode. (CNN)

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is not among the group of Cabinet officials the White House says will be staying on the job in President Obama's second term. (The Hill)

Jersey City's Pulaski Skyway -- a major feeder to the Holland Tunnel -- will close for two years. (NBC)

The privacy of personal Clipper card travel data may soon be better protected: the Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission is “exploring options” to reduce the length of time it holds onto personal data to three years. (Bay Citizen)

A new study from the Texas Transportation Institute says if a driver tends to speed, their personality probably has a lot to do with it. (KUHF)

Automaker BMW AG says its worldwide sales rose nearly 11% to a new record last year, helped by strong demand in China and the U.S. for its luxury cars. (Detroit Free Press)

Maryland gas station owners worry that if Virginia's effort to ditch the gas tax works, it would create an incentive for drivers to leave the state to fill up. (Baltimore Sun)

There's a nearly 40 percent increase in fare evasion citations issued in Boston. (Boston Globe)

Harvard University employees will get tax incentives to commute to work by bike. (Harvard Gazette)

There will be no velodrome in Brooklyn Bridge Park. (New York Magazine)

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(photo by Kate Hinds)

For the first time in the 70-plus days since Hurricane Sandy, some PATH lines are resuming partial around-the-clock operations.

Governors Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo say starting Wednesday, trains will run 24-7, from Newark to 33rd Street, via Hoboken.

PATH has operated on a 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. schedule – with the exception of New Year’s Eve – since the storm.  The system suffered catastrophic damage from an estimated 10 million gallons of water that flooded the tunnels.

PATH trains will still run from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. during the week on the Hoboken to 33rd Street, Journal Square to 33rd Street and Newark to World Trade Center lines.

Port Authority officials say it could be late February before they receive a shipment of replacement parts necessary to restoring service on the line between Hoboken and the World Trade Center, which is still not operational.

On January 9, 2013, the world's first underground journey took place in London.

A lithograph of Baker Street Station on Metropolitan Railway (Image courtesy of London Transport Museum)

According to the London Transport Museum:

The original Underground line was built and financed by the Metropolitan Railway, a private company which had been formed in 1854 to undertake the project to link the mainline stations at Paddington, Euston and King’s Cross with the City centre business district to the east.

Travelling on the new railway was a novelty that thousands of Londoners were eager to experience and on the first day of public service – long queues formed at every station. The line was a huge success with 26,000 passengers using the railway each day in the first six months.

A view of the platform at the Victoria station (Image courtesy of London Transport Museum)

In 1969, Queen Elizabeth opened a section of the Victoria Line and actually took the controls. According to press reports, it was her second time riding the Tube.

(Image courtesy of London Transport Museum)

But she didn't just ride. The queen apparently also took the controls.

Carriage 353 was a  four-wheeled first class carriage built in 1892.  Amazingly, it had been "relegated to use as a garden shed." Check out a video of its history -- and restoration process -- below.

Metropolitan Carriage 353, pausing between test runs at Quorn Station (image courtesy of London Transport Museum)

Here's what the interior of a 1938 car looked like:

 (Image courtesy of London's Transport Museum)

To celebrate the 150th anniversary, Google UK blessed its site with an Underground-themed Doodle.

Google Doodle

Today, Transport for London estimates around 3.5 million journeys are made on the network each day, across 11 lines serving 270 stations.

Top stories on TN:
Draft Report: To Withstand Storms, Build a Bigger Bus System (link)
Fairfax Board To Vote On Tysons Tax Hike (link)
While Detroit Gains Ground, Japanese Automakers Stumble in China (link)

On January 9, 1863, the world’s first underground train pulled out of Paddington station. (Image courtesy of Transport for London)

London's Underground turns 150 years old today. (TFL) Celebrate with 150 facts about the Tube -- such as: "There is only one Tube station which does not have any letters of the word 'mackerel' in it: St John's Wood." (Telegraph)

A series of mishaps is spurring concerns about safety for Boeing's Dreamliners... (New York Times)
...which is triggering some financial challengers for the company. (Wall Street Journal)

How to save Detroit: rejigger density, make it more expensive to hold vacant land and buildings, add more transit options, and promote development of a network of greenways for walking and bicycling. (Detroit Free Press)

New York Governor Cuomo delivers his State of the State address today. (WNYC)

When Georgia's legislature comes into session later this month, hopes aren't exactly high that Atlanta's transit will be a priority. "The most lawmakers might do for metro transportation is to stave off collapse of the Xpress commuter bus service." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Meanwhile, expect a flurry of speed camera legislation in Annapolis as Maryland lawmakers try to tighten rules. (Baltimore Sun)

To increase winter cycling, the Dutch are heating bike paths and using glow-in-the-dark road markings. (BBC)

A Kansas City-based architectural and engineering firm will oversee construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge. (Journal News)

Southwest Airlines has the power to ruin fare hikes for the other U.S. based carriers. (Marketplace)

The Boy Scouts have revived their Railroading Merit Badge. (Eno Center for Transportation)

Where did all those Capital Bikeshare bikes go in the third quarter of 2012? Check out a data visualization of those trips here. (H/T Washington City Paper)

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, has 18 million people and no map of its complex bus system. So a new project is sending riders on them with GPS devices in the hopes of making the city’s first transit map. (FastCoExist; video)

It's time-lapse map day: check out rates of travel in this map estimating how long it took to get from place to place in the U.S. in 1800 -- and then again in 1930. (Flowing Data)

And: this Boston commuter rail map details exactly how long it takes to travel between stations. (BostInno)

Time-scale map of MBTA's commuter rail system (image courtesy of StoneBrown design)

Top stories on TN:
NYC Unclutters Parking Signs (link)
U.S. DOT Gives Sacramento $135 Million for Light Rail (link)
This Man Keeps Fond NYC Subway Memories Alive with Impressive Model Train Hobby (link)

The Bay Bridge (photo by Daniel Ramirez via Flickr)

Electric cars, which have soundless engines, would need to make noises to let pedestrians know they’re near, under a U.S. proposed rule released yesterday. (Bloomberg/Business Week)

An oil tanker collided with the Bay Bridge. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Baltimore is scrapping all 83 of the city's automated speed cameras and "methodically" replacing them with newer models, after a Baltimore Sun investigation found errors with the system. (Baltimore Sun)

Chemicals from 50 years of oil sands production are showing up in increasing amounts in lakes in northern Alberta. And the effects are being felt much farther away than previously thought. (CBC)

Houston issued a parking ticket to a fake Mini Cooper parked on a wall as part of an ad campaign. (Jalopnik)

For the first time in 65 years San Francisco drivers must now feed the meter on Sundays. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Automakers began introducing heavy artillery in the infotainment war, as the Ford Motor Company and General Motors introduced open platform software kits that would enable developers to create applications for use in vehicles. (New York Times)

Los Angeles property owners would pay more on their tax bills for road repairs under a bond proposal that will be considered by the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday. (KPCC)

NJ Transit has plans for a "flyover" track and a new train station in North Brunswick. (Star-Ledger)

Queens is considering turning an abandoned rail line into a High Line-inspired park -- or possibly reviving it as a rail line. (New York Times)

It's legal in California to engage in hands-free texting while driving. (Times Herald)

A fire broke out on a Japan Airlines Boeing Dreamliner plane after it landed in Boston. (Marketplace)

Thousands of cars are sitting on a runway in eastern Long Island, potentially leaking lubricants into the water supply. (WNYC)

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing a traffic light algorithm inspired by insects -- how ants, termites, and bees communicate right of way in busy colonies and hives. (New Scientist)

Ford has sold most of its giant Wixom (Michigan) Assembly plant property to an industrial site redeveloper and may sell most of the rest to home improvement retailer Menards. (Detroit Free Press)

A crowded "up" escalator inexplicably reversed direction at a Jersey City PATH station on Monday, leading to injuries. (Gothamist; video below)

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Top stories on TN:
INTERVIEW: Author Jeff Speck Explains What Makes a City Walkable (link)
NYC Adds Bus Service, in First Transit Expansion in Years (link)
Threatened Tortoises Make Way for Central Florida Toll Road (link)

L.A. Metro's Hollywood/Western Station (image courtesy L.A. Metro)

Operator exhaustion has become part of the culture at Portland transit agency. "TriMet says the average shift for a bus driver is 9.2 hours. However...The Oregonian found that many drivers spend 18, 19, 20 hours or more on the job in 24 hours." (The Oregonian)

Cash for clunkers was not an environmental success story. "For each ton of metal recovered by a shredding facility, roughly 500 pounds of shredder residue are produced, meaning about 3 to 4.5 million tons of shredder residue is sent to landfills every year." (E Magazine)

A New York state commission will recommend the installation of solid roll-down gates at subway station entrances to prevent Hurricane Sandy-style flooding. (Daily News)

New York City -- the largest school system in the country -- is facing a school bus strike. (SchoolBook/WNYC)

How D.C. launched the best bike share program in the country. (Slate)

Raleigh state workers said goodbye to their bus pass benefit. (News Observer)

Chicago's transit riders long for a chance at a seat. "Why does the CTA operate four-car trains when passenger demand would seem to call for at least six-car trains?" (Chicago Tribune)

The Tappan Zee Bridge's transit task force has begun meeting -- and is setting goals. (Journal News)

L.A. is folding art into its Metro stations. (Los Angeles Times)

How the gift of a $40 bike began changing a Cambodian village. (FastCoExist)

Fort Worth is planning a pedestrian plaza. (Star-Telegram)

Philadelphia will mount a pedestrian safety campaign next month. As in signs that read: "Thank you for not running pedestrians over. It's road safety, not rocket science." (NorthJersey.com)

How maps change our view of the world. (NPR)

If Jose Canseco's twitter feed is any indication, the former baseball player could be interested in running for mayor of Toronto. (Atlantic Cities)

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Top stories on TN:
Christie on NJ Transit Storm Decisions: “Not A Hanging Offense” (link)
YEAR IN REVIEW Connecticut (link)

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (Governor's Office/Tim Larsen)

NJ Governor Christie is offering a full-throated defense of NJ Transit chief James Weinstein's decision to store rail trains in yards that flooded during Sandy -- a misstep that cost the agency $100 million.

"Well, you know, if they knew for sure it was going to flood, believe me, [executive director] Jim Weinstein would have moved the trains," Christie said, in response to a reporter's questions. "This is a guy with decades of experience in government, with extraordinary competence, who made the best decision he could make at the time. Sometimes, people make wrong decisions. It happens. It's not a hanging offense."

Speaking Tuesday at a press conference, the governor reserved most of his ire for House Republican leadership, which failed to vote on a $60 billion Sandy aid package. But when questioned about his support of Weinstein, Christie said:

A transcript follows.

Reporter: in light of the report last week that NJ Transit had been warned months ahead of time that  rail yards in Kearny would likely flood in the event of a storm like Sandy, do you still support the leadership?

Christie's full response:

"I absolutely support the leadership -- and I don't believe that that's what the report said. I mean, I think you've gilded that report up pretty well in the lead up to your question. I don't think that's what the report said. I think these guys made the best judgement they could under the circumstances. And all of you are geniuses after. Once you see that the Kearny yards flooded, you could say 'well, geez, they should have moved the trains.’ Well, you know, if they knew for sure it was going to flood, believe me, [executive director] Jim Weinstein would have moved the trains. This is a guy with decades of experience in government, with extraordinary competence, who made the best decision he could make at the time. Sometimes, people make wrong decisions. It happens. It's not a hanging offense."

The head of NJ Transit, Jim Weinstein, told a state panel last month the agency relied on past experience -- and the understanding that it had up to 20 more years to prepare for climate change -- when it came where to store its rolling stock during the storm.

Top stories on TN:
Fiscal Cliff Legislation Equalizes Transit Tax Benefit (link)
Virginia Governor Calls Transportation, Education Top Priorities for 2013 (link)

A wooden subway car on Subte Linea A in Buenos Aires (photo by Thomas Hobbs via flickr)

Governor Christie is defending the head of NJ Transit for leaving trains in rail yards that flooded during Sandy. "It's not a hanging offense...Sometimes, people make wrong decisions. It happens.” (Star Ledger)

Salt Lake City will launch its bike share program in April. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Climate-proofing cities is also a social process. "Strategies of resilience will involve more than changes to our physical infrastructure." (New Yorker; subscription required)

One in eight bridges in the United States has been categorized as structurally deficient -- and many more are reaching the end of their lives. (The Takeaway)

California's millions of unlicensed drivers are nearly three times as likely to cause a fatal traffic crash as those who are driving legally, a new Department of Motor Vehicles study concludes. (Sacramento Bee)

Six eco-car predictions for 2013. Goodbye, CD players; hello, cheap EVs. (Forbes)

We know New York City's abandoned bikes, but this one from Washington raises the bar. Yes, that's a bike embedded in a tree. (ABC)

A city in the Indonesian province of Aceh has ordered female passengers not to straddle motorbikes behind male drivers. "When you see a woman straddle, she looks like a man. But if she sits side-saddle, she looks like a woman," the city's mayor said. (BBC)

Public transit is now free in Estonia's capital city. (Estonian Public Broadcasting)

Tips aren't keeping pace with NYC taxi fare increases. (New York Times)

The key component behind the 'safest bike in the world:' its visibility. (Fast CoExist)

San Francisco scam: people pretending to be parking lot attendants, collecting money from gullible drivers. (SF Gate)

Tweet of the day, from Michael Kimmelman: Unconscionable, anti-democratic Republican House delay on Sandy funds for NY+NJ actually targets preventive measures. Can policy be worse?

Buenos Aires is retiring its wooden subway cars -- the oldest in the world -- after almost 100 years of service. The city's mayor says the 95 La Brugeoise carriages are costly to maintain — parts must be custom made — and are unsafe. (USA Today)

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LIRR commuters (photo by @MSG via flickr)

After a year of lobbying, transit advocates finally won.

As part of legislation passed Tuesday, pre-tax benefits for transit are now on par with parking benefits. Individuals who get commuter benefits from their employers can now look forward to (about) $240 a month. The measure is particularly meaningful to suburban commuters, who can easily spend more than that amount on transit.

Note section 203.

The back story: on December 31, 2011, legislation equalizing transit benefits expired. So for 2012, transit riders received a $125 monthly benefit, although parking remained at $240--a thorn in the side for politicians from transit-dependent states. Last March, New York Senator Charles Schumer authored legislation to re-equalize the benefit, but it wasn't acted on until the fiscal cliff negotiations.

Transit advocates hailed the legislation. "We've been pushing for transit equity for months," said Rob Healy, vice president of the American Public Transportation Association. "From our perspective, we felt it was very, very important that the federal tax code not bias one mode versus another." He added: "You shouldn’t be making your choices based on a tax code which treats parking better than it does transit."

Veronica Vanterpool, the head of the Tri State Transportation Campaign, which advocates for transit riders in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, said  when the benefit expired, "it was a de-facto tax increase for transit commuters. It's ludicrous that Congress would incentivize driving over public transportation. So we are particularly pleased that this was restored...we know a lot of our region's senators have really pushed for that."

Vanterpool said about 700,000 people in the tri-state region take advantage of the benefit. And: it's retroactive to January 1, 2012, although the mechanism for calculating those past benefits hasn't yet been determined.

But the current benefit also expires at the end of 2013 -- meaning transit advocates must begin spooling up again.

“It is our hope that in the new Congress, legislation will pass to make the public transit commuter benefit parity permanent,” said APTA president Michael Melaniphy. Vanterpool echoed that sentiment. "Moving forward," she said, "we need to make sure this is a permanent restoration and that we're not dealing with this battle every year."

Top stories on TN:
NY MTA Tepidly Explores Platform Barriers After Subway Track Deaths … Again (link)
YEAR IN REVIEW Washington, D.C: Silver Lines, Express Lanes, Gentrification, and Scandal (link)
Bank Robber Tries To Use Metro As Getaway Vehicle (link)
Carmakers Bet on Green Future (link)

Chicago's Lake Shore Drive (photo by Jason Mrachina via flickr)

An oil drilling rig holding more than 150,000 gallons of diesel, lubricating oil and hydraulic fluid has run aground near Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. (NPR)

Twin Cities planners are working on the cities' first BRT line. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Complaints about cab drivers are on the rise in San Francisco. (Bay Citizen)

The number of pedestrians killed on Irish roads last year fell by 40 percent, contributing to the record low in traffic deaths. (Independent)

A popular D.C. real-time bus tracking application went offline last month because of an apparent contractual issue. (Washington Examiner)

Former MTA chair Joe Lhota's "presence in the (mayoral) campaign immediately raises the level of competence in the candidate pool." (Observer)

In the retail gas industry, it's location, location, location. The practice known as "zone pricing" can lead to wild price fluctuations, even in the same city. (Los Angeles Times)

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China is building a rail link through Southeast Asia, but is it a good deal for Laos? "The price tag of the $7 billion, 260-mile rail project, which Laos will borrow from China, is nearly equal to the tiny $8 billion in annual economic activity in Laos, which lacks even a rudimentary railroad and whose rutted road system is largely a leftover from the French colonial era" (New York Times)

The number of new vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2013 is expected to exceed 15 million. (Wall Street Journal)

Avis is buying Zipcar for $500 million. (NBC)

Why can't pickups park on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive? The answer to "WBEZ’s latest trivial pursuit question.”(Curious City)

San Rafael (CA) is implementing a $10,000 program that will pay nearly 370 employees to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by getting to work any way other than driving in a car alone. (Marin Independent Journal)

Amtrak's San Joaquin line, the Valley's only passenger train service, posted record ridership in 2012, attracting more than 1.1 million passengers last year. (Fresno Bee)

A New Orleans bridge will have a dedicated tow truck during rush hour to speed removal of disabled cars. (WVUE)

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Top stories on TN:
Drought Lowers Mississippi, Holding Up Barge Traffic (link)
Some NYC Riders Can Now Use Phones For Real-Time Subway Arrival Times (link)
Year in Review New York: Sandy, Buses, Tappan Zee — and Abandoned Bikes (link)
Port Strike Averted… for 30 Days (link)
Lower Gasoline Prices Squeeze Locally-Owned Fuel Stations (link)

Sunset over lower Manhattan (photo by Kate Hinds)

New York's MTA is considering installing sliding glass doors on some subway platforms. (New York Daily News)

The FAA has no proof that electronic devices can harm a plane’s avionics, "but it still perpetuates such claims, spreading irrational fear among millions of fliers." (New York Times)

Beijing put four subway lines and extensions into operation yesterday as part of its efforts to expand its public urban transport network and ease traffic congestion. (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Curbside buses are extending routes, even through the sparsely populated Midwest and Great Plains. (Marketplace)

Can putting up street signs change how Lahore navigates? "For generations, Pakistanis have been rolling down their windows to ask for directions every couple of blocks. So Fayaz and Siddiqi plan to launch an education campaign to convince Lahore residents that street signs are better." (NPR)

Mumbai is phasing out older taxicabs like the once-ubiquitous Premier Padminis. (New York Times)

Remembering Jakarta's "Helicak" -- a now-departed form of public transportation that crossed a scooter with a taxi. Sort of. (Tulip News)

Memphis wants to make "biking part of our DNA." (New York Times)

It took less than a day for an independent developer to come out with an app making use of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s newly released train-arrival data. (Wall Street Journal)

A Metro-North work train collided with a car in Connecticut. (News Times)

A skeleton under a British parking lot could -- could -- be King Richard III, who died at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. (National Geographic)

Tweet of the day, from NPR's Sonari Glinton: "Looking at these drunk driving stats for New Years make me wanna hide under my bed."

Where airplanes go to die: the plane boneyard.  "At the world’s largest-known boneyard, 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group outside Tuscon, Arizona, you would be able to see 'just about every kind of airplane that the military has flown since WWII.'" (Messy Nessy) Below: a video of the "boneyard guillotine" in action.

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Top stories on TN:
Another Silicon Valley Perk — Free Shuttle Service (link)
Toyota Reaches $1 Billion Deal in Runaway Cars Case (link)

Smog in New Delhi, India (photo by Tico via flickr)

As private car ownership rises in New Delhi, so does pollution. "We have to stop this untamed motorization now,” says one environmentalist. (New York Times)
Meanwhile, protests over the Indian government's handling of a vicious gang rape led to the closure of all nine Metro stations in that city. (India Today)

Toyota may be facing a big settlement payout, but 2012 was very good to the automaker. "Toyota has had a phenomenal year,” says one analyst. "They’re up 29 percent year to date.” (KPCC)

New York City's Transit Museum is piloting a program to teach autistic middle schoolers about riding the subway. (Museum Access Consortium)

San Francisco's Muni -- "the people's road" -- turns 100. Which means it's a good time to improve service. (SF Gate editorial)
To celebrate the anniversary, the city's oldest surviving bus will return to the fleet today. (Photo at Market Street Railway)

Discuss: Should sleepy driving be prosecuted like drunken driving, or is it simply an accident? (New York Times/Room for Debate)

Rudy Giuliani has begun to reach out to Republican bigwigs to talk up MTA chair Joe Lhota’s potential run for mayor. (New York Post)

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There are so many vacant office buildings in Amsterdam that the city may begin tearing some down. "Soon we will witness the demolition of brand-new offices." (Wall Street Journal)

Straphangers waiting for F and M trains at Manhattan's Delancey Street station act as a human real-time subway arrival system. (New York Times)

Twenty-five years after opening, Silicon Valley's light rail is among nation's worst. "Today, fewer than 1 percent of the county's residents ride the trains daily." (Mercury News)

Are smaller cities doing a better job getting bike share programs off the ground than bigger cities? (Next City)

Oregon is nearing completion of its latest vehicle miles traveled pilot. "The idea is that charging motorists based on how far they drive -- as opposed to how much gas they consume -- is a more financially sustainable model." (Governing)

The new Tappan Zee Bridge will have 110,000 tons of steel in its superstructure -- and 550,000 tons of concrete. (New NY Bridge)

Not all Bay Area traffic is equal: commuters from some cities contribute more to congestion than other places. (KQED)

The East River Ferry, which chauffeurs residents from the Queens and Brooklyn waterfront to Manhattan, will keep running until at least 2019. (DNA Info)

The Chicago area’s commuter rail agency is installing defibrillators on all of its trains. (Sun Times)

The etiquette of Silicon Valley's shuttle buses: “I was once yelled at for streaming Obama's acceptance speech at the DNC,” a Google bus rider reported. “It was using too much bandwidth.” (New York Magazine)

SpaceX took its reusable rocket -- the Grasshopper -- out for a test run. Watch as it stays aloft for 29 seconds. (Slate)

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Top stories on TN:
No Free Rides? PATH Says Au Contraire, Hoboken (link)
Shippers, Dockworkers Making Last-Ditch Attempt To Avoid Massive Port Strike (link)

Crowded Boston T platform (photo by Sean Marshall via flickr)

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Despite a recent fare hike, the number of riders on Boston's transit system is continuing to increase. (AP via WBUR)

Toyota will settle 'sudden acceleration' lawsuits for more than $1 billion. (NPR)

So now the Detroit area has a regional transit authority. What's next? (Radio Michigan)

Nearly 3,000 drivers were caught breaking cell phone rules during a crackdown in 37 police jurisdictions in and around California's Sacramento County. (Sacramento Bee)

New York's MTA is battling NYC over billboard zoning restrictions. (New York Times)

Explainer: how subway de-icers work. (The Maddow Blog)

One New Hampshire lawmaker is proposing a bill that would require the state to widen shoulders and bicycle lanes, in compliance with Complete Streets guidelines. (State Impact New Hampshire)

There is much that separates Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, but on one particular goal for the coming Maryland General Assembly session, they are united: Both want more transportation funding. (Washington Post)

Video: subway activists sing 'MTA fare hike carols.' As in "God Rest Ye MTA Chairman." (Gothamist)

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