Kate Hinds

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

Listen to the audio from Thursday's press conference:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Metro station (photo by Kate Hinds)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Port of Houston has new leadership. (KUHF)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(with reporting from Martin DiCaro)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

American Airlines unveiled its new paint scheme. (Marketplace)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(photo by Rich Brooks via flickr)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Houston is getting direct flights to Beijing. (KUHF)

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

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

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

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

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

DC license plate (photo by Mike Smail via Flickr)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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."