Kate Hinds

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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If you read this post (or our daily email) each day, you value Transportation Nation.

Throughout this eventful year, Transportation Nation (and our parent station WNYC) has kept you informed about transportation and infrastructure, from real-time updates on Sandy damage with our Transit Tracker, to monitoring the future of high-speed rail, and deep looks at the track records of presidential candidates. Please include Transportation Nation in your year-end giving plans and help pay for another year of independent journalism. Your financial contribution will strengthen TN and WNYC in 2013. It keeps us going. Visit TransportationNation.org/support to make your tax deductible gift now.

For a $5/month contribution you can get our new TN-branded mug. There’s even a fun video about it already so you can tastefully urge your friends to give. (Link) We know times are tough right now, but every little bit helps. Thank you for your support. (Link)

Back to our regularly scheduled programming!

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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(photo by AgentAkit via flickr)

Hoboken residents -- who endured seven-plus weeks of no PATH train service, post-Sandy -- are getting a month's worth of free rides.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Wednesday it will provide 30 free days of PATH service to Hoboken residents who have registered 30-day SmartLink cards.

In a press release, the Port Authority said the free service was a way to show appreciation for the hardship that Hoboken residents experienced.

"We truly understand the extreme difficulties that closure of the Hoboken station put on our loyal resident riders,’’ said Stephen Kingsberry, PATH’s acting director and general manager. “We hope these residents understand the extraordinary efforts PATH workers and contractors made to reopen the station and will accept this free month as a sign of our appreciation for your patience.”

The PATH system was hobbled by Hurricane Sandy, and the Hoboken station experienced some of the area's worst flooding. The station was closed from October 29 until December 19, when service to 33rd Street resumed.

These sandbags weren't enough to prevent flooding in the elevator shafts during storm Sandy. (Photo by Alec Perkins via flickr)

While the entire Northeast experienced massive transit disruption during Sandy, the PATH outage has been especially trying for Hoboken: it has one of the highest percentages of transit ridership in the nation. Bus service between Manhattan and Hoboken has been overcrowded and strained since Sandy, and ferry service -- which costs $9 one way -- is four times as costly as the PATH.

The Wall Street Journal reported cab rides between New York City and Hoboken have doubled since the storm, and the AP says the PATH disruption is causing some residents to leave Hoboken altogether.

There is still no PATH service between Hoboken and the World Trade Center.

Top stories on TN:
Year in Review Bay Area: High Speed Rail Narrowly Passes, Apps Push Into Bay Area (link)
Year in Review Florida: Rail Blooms, Shuttles Retire, Mica Moves on (link)

A bullet train in Beijing (photo by Mark 75 via flickr)

China has begun service on the world’s longest high-speed rail line, covering a distance in eight hours that is about equal to that from New York to Key West, Florida. (New York Times)

NJ Transit was warned about flooding in its northern New Jersey rail yards months before Superstorm Sandy struck. (Record, AP)

Male pedestrians who are struck by cars are more than twice as likely to die from their injuries as their female counterparts. (Wired)

New York City is facing a possible school bus strike. (Staten Island Advance)

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Taxi trips from New York City to Jersey City and Hoboken have shot up since superstorm Sandy crippled the train service that connects the two New Jersey cities to Manhattan. (Wall Street Journal)

To compensate for the lack of gas taxes they pay, electric vehicle owners in Washington state will soon have to pay a $100 a year fee. (AP via Oregon Live)

All aboard: Rio's Samba train puts different local musicians in rail cars during December to celebrate the country's musical heritage. (BBC)

It turns out that LeBron James riding his bike to work was just the tip of the iceberg: now other Miami Heat team members are biking as well. (Atlantic Cities)

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Top stories on TN:
Vignelli, Designer of Famous Subway Map, Defends His Version Over These Others (link)
Year in Review Bay Area: Narrow Votes, New Apps and a Neighborhood Bus Ride (link)
Carmakers Developing Hi-Tech Biometric Sensors for Drivers (link)
Northern Virginia Road Expansion: Betting on Dulles Airport as Freight Hub (link)
Alexandria Street To Be Equal Opportunity For Cars, Bikes And Pedestrian (link)

A subway token booth, tricked out for the holidays (photo by Kate Hinds)

Wealthy Chinese are buying bikes that cost more than the average citizen makes in three years, motivated by nostalgia for the days when two wheels were the primary means of transport. "It's like the Rolls-Royce of bicycles. Very classical, purely hand-made," says one owner of his $16,000 bike. (Reuters)

NORAD is tracking Santa. (Link)

On some roads in Texas, bikes are banned, raising questions about just where bikers have the right to ride. “Banning bicycles from the roadway with no alternative, that’s a fight like the Alamo," says one advocate. "We can’t lose our freedom of movement." (State Impact Texas)

A subway train derailed in Manhattan on Saturday. (New York Times)

America's "Merriest Cities," as calculated by the "Grinch Conversion Index." Holla, Trenton! (Atlantic Cities)

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So, you want to be a flight attendant? Get in line. Delta Air Lines says 22,000 have applied for the 400 openings it expects to hire early next year.  (Marketplace)

The looming prospect of a longshoremen's strike at 15 ports from Boston to Houston as early as Dec. 30 has shippers and retailers pleading with the union and cargo carriers to avert a major trade disruption. (Wall Street Journal)

Pedestrian railroad accidents typically receive little attention, despite being the leading cause of death on the rails. (AP via SFGate)

Idaho Senator Mike Crapo was arrested and charged with drunk driving. (Politico)

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Dashing through the...Central Park West. (photo by Kate Hinds)

Traffic fatalities on the nation’s roads have spiked dramatically this year, ending six years of steady decline. (Washington Post)

L.A. is getting a 4,000-bike, 400-station bike share program in April. (Los Angeles Times)

Democrats in the House of Representatives have appointed 10 new members of their caucus to the chamber’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. (The Hill)

Car companies are developing biometric monitors, but the results can be confusing, especially when the coffee icon keeps popping up on the dashboard. "At first we didn't know if it was telling us to go to the nearest Starbucks, or what it really meant," said one test driver. (Marketplace)

Check out this list of 2012's biggest transportation success stories. The topper? NYC's transit recovery, post-Sandy. (Atlantic Cities)
Meanwhile: Full service has been restored on NYC's R train. (MTA tweet)

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What's next for the founder of Zipcar? Peer-to-peer car sharing -- and putting wireless devices in cars to turn them into mobile cell phone towers. (WBUR)

Houston's Metro chose an interim CEO. (KUHF)

Fort Collins's Bike Library has raised enough money to keep operating for two more years. (The Coloradoan)

LISTEN: For 35 years, one contest in New York City celebrated the everyday working girl. Starting in 1941 and lasting until 1976, the young woman chosen to be that month's Miss Subways gazed down on transit riders. (NPR)

If you read this post (or our daily email) each day, you value Transportation Nation.

Throughout this eventful year, Transportation Nation (and our parent station WNYC) has kept you informed about transportation and infrastructure, from real-time updates on Sandy damage with our Transit Tracker, to monitoring the future of high-speed rail, and deep looks at the track records of presidential candidates. Please include Transportation Nation in your year-end giving plans and help pay for another year of independent journalism. Your financial contribution will strengthen TN and WNYC in 2013. It keeps us going. Visit TransportationNation.org/support to make your tax deductible gift now.

For a $5/month contribution you can get our hip new TN-branded mug. There's even a fun video about it already so you can tastefully urge your friends to give. (Link)

We know times are tough right now, but every little bit helps. Thanks for your support. (Link)

Back to our regularly scheduled programming!

Top links on TN:
MTA Approves Fare Hike — and Lhota Officially to Resign This Month (link)
Montana Ranchers Worry Proposed New Rail Line Route Will Expedite Export of Coal to Asia (link)
How to Build a Better Bike Lock — U.K. Foundation Offers Prize (link)
As NY MTA Chair, Lhota Exhorted: Be A Man! (link)
As PATH Resumes after Sandy, Questions Remain about Agency, Flood Plans (link)
Northern Virginia Planning Big ‘Outer Beltway’ Road Expansion (link)
New MARTA GM: First We Economize, Then We Ask the State for Money (link)
TSA to Commission Independent Study of X-Ray Body Scanners (link)
Washington Governor Proposes New Fuel Tax For Education (link)

Today's stories:
On today's Brian Lehrer Show: TN reporters talk MTA fare hikes, Columbus Avenue bike lanes, and Lhota for mayor. (WNYC)

Canadian auto workers are furious over G.M.'s decision to move Camaro production south of the border (to Lansing). (Windsor Star)

How loud is the horn of Amtrak's Downeaster train? According to locals, "it's absolutely, positively horrible." (Bangor Daily News)

It's baa-aack: the lawsuit over Brooklyn's Prospect Park West bike lane will be back in court. (NY Observer)

Signing ceremony: Hawaii's rail project received a long-awaited $1.55 billion check from the U.S. Department of Transportation. (Honolulu Star Advertiser)

List: the 12 best things to happen to L.A. pedestrians this year. (Los Angeles Walks)

How will Cuomo pay for the Tappan Zee Bridge? "Expect the financial engineering on the bridge to be far more complicated than the actual engineering." (New York Post)

Michigan's governor signed into law a bill creating a regional transit authority for Detroit. (Detroit Free Press)

Drought alert: efforts are underway to blast away rock in some parts of Mississippi River in an attempt to make it deeper. (Marketplace)
Meanwhile: despite low water levels, it's business as usual at the Port of New Orleans. (WWNO)

Let my people e-read: as the holiday travel season approaches, the Federal Aviation Administration is under pressure to allow more widespread use of e-readers on commercial flights. (NPR)

Showdown: Santa tracker controversy as NORAD dumps Google maps for Bing. (Fast Company)

Vincent Urban's envy-inducing video traces a journey through Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay and Southern Brazil. "Watch it full screen and you'll be itching to look up flights to South America." (Atlantic Cities)

Top stories on TN:
NY MTA Chief To Step Down And Run For Mayor (link)
VIDEO: Transportation Nation’s Mug. It Can Be Yours. (link)
DC’s Capital Bikeshare Expanding by 30 Percent (link)
PATH Service To Hoboken To Resume Wednesday (link)
Shale Drillers Eager to Move Wastewater on Barges (link)
D.C. Airports Board Spent $1.5 Million Defending Former Board Member (link)

The other Mars Curiosity rover, made of gingerbread and on display on the Caltech campus. (Brian Bell/courtesy California Institute of Technology)

The Treasury Department said it planned to sell off its entire stake in General Motors within 15 months. (New York Times)

The threat of a longshoremen's strike this year once again looms over ports from Maine to Texas, after contract talks that had already been extended 90 days broke down once again. (The Star-Ledger)

Traffic deaths are on the rise in California, and in 2011, it had more traffic fatalities than any state except Texas. (Los Angeles Times)

Meanwhile: Los Angeles city officials launched an effort to give 53 intersections a makeover to combat higher-than-average rates of traffic accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists -- but are they focused on the right spots? (KPCC)

New York's MTA is getting ready to ditch the bright flashing blue lights on top of the city's Select Bus Service vehicles, to prevent drivers from mistaking them for emergency vehicles. (DNA Info)

Early plans for what could be the Twin Cities' fourth light-rail transit spoke are moving ahead: Golden Valley -- once the lone rail holdout -- has approved the Bottineau route. (Minnesota Public Radio)

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JFK Airport security workers nixed plans to strike during Christmas. (New York Post)

The private company behind the proposed All Aboard Florida rail service got the green light to move forward on its passenger rail plans between Orlando and Miami. (WMFE)

Florida voters have selected their next license plate -- and yes, there's an orange. (Miami Herald)

New Jersey Senate panel has advanced a bill that would increase penalties for drivers who cause the death of a pedestrian by failing to yield at a crosswalk. (Jersey Journal)

NY Gov. Cuomo plans to make Department of Motor Vehicles offices friendlier places, complete with customer-service reps to greet and assist motorists and self-serve kiosks. (New York Post)

Next month Las Vegas will unveil a bike-share program targeting Zappos employees who work downtown. (Las Vegas Sun)

The head chef at Caltech made a gingerbread replica of the Mars Rover. "There's Yoda, Darth Vader, Buzz Lightyear and a three-eyed Martian nearby. At least I think it's a Martian. We'll have to wait for one of NASA's rovers to take a picture of a Martian to be sure." (NPR)

If it's Christmas, it must be time for Tony Lepore, Providence's dancing traffic cop, to bust a move.  (AP video)

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Top stories on TN:
Post-Sandy Gaps In The NYC Subway Map Remain Stubbornly Unrepaired (link)
NY Thruway Cancels 45% Toll Hike (link)
New York Chooses Builder for $3.1 Billion Tappan Zee Bridge Replacement (link)
Orlando MagLev Plan Gets Tentative Approval (link)

(photo by Kate Hinds)

Goldman Sachs has quietly loaned $41 million to help finance the start of New York City’s much anticipated, and long-delayed, bike-sharing program. "While Citigroup is paying $41m over five years to sponsor the project and has thousands of rental bicycles branded with its name, Goldman’s role in the programme has until now remained behind the scenes. The bank’s $41m loan is being used as the seed financing needed to get the project off the ground." (Financial Times; sub. req.)

On the agenda for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee next year: rail legislation, Amtrak privatization, and -- oh yeah -- how to fund transportation. (Politico)

The CEO of Houston's Metro resigned abruptly. (KUHF)

Study: transit apps make us happier commuters. (FastCoDesign)

Never before have annual car sales surpassed 80 million vehicles around the world, but they're on track to reach that milepost by year's end. (Marketplace)

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Plans to build a light rail connection to Los Angeles International Airport are advancing with the unveiling of four potential station sites that would link to a people mover serving passenger terminals. (Los Angeles Times)

Oakland's year-old pilot permit program for mobile food trucks comes under review today as city council considers renewing the policy. (KQED)

The federal government fined Toyota over $17 million for failing to report safety defects to regulators in a timely fashion. (Wall Street Journal)

Want Siri to use Google maps instead of Apple's program? The magic word is "transit." (Lifehacker)

Poland is one of Europe's most dangerous places to drive. How to make it better? Better roads -- and stronger legislation. (video from BBC)

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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (R), with advisor Brian Conybeare, standing in front of a model of the new design. (Image courtesy of @NYGovCuomo)

UPDATE: It's official: New York has awarded the contract to construct the new Tappan Zee Bridge.

In a press release, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said, “the Thruway Board has selected the Tappan Zee Constructors’ plan which offers New York toll payers the biggest bang for their buck – with the best price, shortest construction time, minimal dredging, and can accommodate mass transit in the future. This is a major milestone for a bridge project that was a metaphor for the dysfunction of government and is now a national model for progress.”

Earlier Monday, Tom Madison, the executive director of the New York State Thruway Authority, said he was supporting a $3.1 billion plan to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge.

The (presumptive) new Tappan Zee Bridge. (New York Thruway Authority)

The board unanimously approved the contract at its meeting on Monday.

The wining design was recommended by a selection committee earlier this month.  At $3.1 billion, it's the least expensive of the three design finalists; Madison pointed out that with a construction time of five years, 2.5 months, it's also the fastest to build. It's one of the largest contracts ever executed in New York -- and it will be the first project constructed under the state's new design-build legislation.

The winning bidder is Tappan Zee Constructors -- a consortium led by Fluor Enterprises, Inc.. One of the team members is American Bridge -- the company which constructed the original Tappan Zee back in 1955.

No financing plan is yet in place to construct the bridge. Cuomo reiterated Monday "the tolls on the Tappan Zee will be one of the main funding sources for that bridge." The state is also waiting to see if the federal government will approve its request for a $2.9 billion TIFIA loan.

New York's comptroller has to sign off on the contract.

Top stories on TN:
Bike Share Coming to Portland — When Alta Finds a Sponsor (link)
D.C. to Start Testing Streetcars Next Spring (link)

PATH train (photo by Kate Hinds)

The New York State Thruway will pick a Tappan Zee Bridge design at a meeting today. (Newsday)

The lack of PATH train service is really starting to grate upon Hoboken's financial nerves. (New York Times, Marketplace)

As Greeks reel from the financial crisis, they're leaving the cars at home and rediscovering transit. "Rail traffic between Greece's two biggest cities - Athens and Thessaloniki - surged by 33 percent in the first 11 months of 2012." (Reuters)

Go inside the lab where D.C.'s Metro troubleshoots its plentiful escalator problems. (Washington Post)

Bus ridership is surging in St. Louis. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Auto makers are adding features for older drivers -- and they go way beyond push-button ignition switches. "The Ford Focus Park Assist can basically park itself. New Infinitis can alert drivers to vehicles located in the blind spot area. And Mercedes-Benz's Lane Keeping Assist technology sends a warning before drivers drift out of their lane." (NPR)

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The MTA's FASTRACK program will expand to the outer boroughs next year. (New York Daily News)

India's love affair with public-private partnerships is facing a test: Chennai’s new airport terminal is due to open in 2013. Work started in 2008. (Economist)

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced a bill that would require the Treasury Department to study the viability of raising new federal highway funds by taxing cars for each mile they drive. (The Hill)

How pedestrians navigate crowded sidewalks: 1. Avoid bumping into people. 2. Follow the person in front of you. 3. Keep up with those next to you. (New York Times)
But if you must enter Midtown during the holiday season, none of the above will protect you from Fifth Avenue. (DNA Info)

Could a train based on a theme park ride solve Japan's post-tsunami transpo problems? (New Scientist)

Sri Lanka is color-coding passenger transport vehicles. "Private passenger transport buses will be painted light blue- Pantone colour code 2707C while public passenger transport buses of the Sri Lanka Transport Board will be painted red- Pantone colour code 185C." (Sri Lanka Daily News)

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Top stories on TN:
NY MTA Head Formally Backs Fare Hike (link)
Taking Uber for a Test Drive in San Francisco (link)
LOOK: Gold Line Rail Bridge is California History “With Some Artistry” (link)
Taxi E-Hail App Approved in NYC (link)
How Sandy Might Tweak Today’s High-Speed Rail Privatization Hearing (link)

The Acela (photo by Gary Pancavage, Amtrak)

New York's MTA fired its D.C. lobbyists earlier this year as part of cost-cutting efforts -- and now it has to win $5 billion in federal aid without them. (Bloomberg)

Without rain, water levels on the Mississippi are projected to reach historic lows this month -- which could bring shipping along the waterway to a halt. (Guardian)

Amtrak is buying an entirely new set of Acela cars; the railroad hopes to have the first new trains within five to seven years.  (CNN Money)

Democrats are hammering Congressman John Mica for his "unhealthy obsession with privatizing" Amtrak. (The Hill)

New York City's comptroller may try to block the city's contract for "the taxi of tomorrow." (Capital NY). Mayor Bloomberg's response: "It isn't worth spending a lot of time trying to decipher why some of these things are done." (tweet via @DanaRubinstein)

Google maps returns to iPhones --but the map wars are far from over. (Marketplace)

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Los Angeles is allocating almost $7 million for safety improvements along its busy Blue Line light rail, which has seen eight deaths so far this year. (Los Angeles Times)

Bike-share in the Bay Area will now arrive no sooner than the summer of 2013, roughly a year and a half after the original launch date. (SF Streetsblog)

Commuters got their chance to tell NJ Transit's board how they felt about its post-Sandy customer relations. (Star-Ledger)

The air traffic controllers union is warning of layoffs unless the "fiscal cliff" is avoided. (Washington Post)

BEEEEEEEEEP! This bike horn sounds like a car horn. (Atlantic Cities)

Opening today: two-way protected bike lanes -- outfitted with bike signals -- in the heart of Chicago's business district. (Chicago Tribune)

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As expected, the head of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority is recommending the agency raise the base fare for subways and buses by 25 cents, and increase the cost of a 30-day MetroCard from $104 to $112.

Joe Lhota outlined his recommendation in a memo sent to MTA board members Thursday. The board is expected to approve the fare hike at its meeting next week. It would go into effect in March 2013.

Lhota says in his memo that the increase in fares and tolls will raise an additional $450 million annually for the agency.

To learn more, read the memo below, or download a pdf of it here.

Top stories on TN:
CHARTS: Whites Ride Transit Less Often Than Everyone Else (link)
Manhattan Community Board Rejects Bike Lane Extension, But “We’re Not Done With This” (link)
Report: National Weather Service Says NJ Transit Didn’t Ask About Flooding (link)

A giant rubber duck floating down the Thames (photo by worldoflard via flickr)

United, Delta, and American Airlines are within weeks of having their first international flights with Internet service. (AP via Seattle Times)

New York's post-Sandy decision: how to spend limited funds to defend themselves from what climate experts call "the new normal." (NPR)

Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) has named 10 new Republican members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.  (The Hill)

A Houston nonprofit is providing free bikes and helmets to children from low-income communities who earned them by doing well in school. (KUHF)

New Jersey confirmed that jet fuel was accidentally sold at gas stations across the state...(The Trentonian)
...which, by the way, makes cars stall -- not explode or fly. (Gizmodo)

New Hampshire politicians want to establish a commuter rail system for the state. (Nashua Telegraph)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg hit the brakes Wednesday on a proposal to keep tourist-toting pedicabs from charging confusing, sometimes exorbitant rates. (AP via Crain's New York)

And Politifact's "Lie of the Year" goes to...a Mitt Romney campaign ad that claimed Barack Obama "sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China."(Link)

State officials overseeing construction of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge agreed this year to pay a public relations company nearly $10 million for services the Brown administration says it knew nothing about, including hundreds of thousands of dollars to conduct tours and to produce a video and commemorative book. Yes, the contract has been rescinded. (Sacramento Bee)

San Francisco's Muni turned 100. Listen to a conversation about the city's transit history -- and future -- at KQED.

Phoenix transit riders will likely face fare hikes in March, service changes in January and may have to navigate a light-rail strike as early as New Year's Day. (Arizona Republic)

A Houston neighborhood is getting parking regulations designed to help the bustling corridor's bars, restaurants and residential streets mix better. (Houston Chronicle)

A cardboard-lined bike helmet -- inspired by the corrugated cartilage of woodpeckers -- will go on sale in the U.S. next year. (NPR)

German bicycle designer Didi Senft, known during the Tour de France as "El Diabolo", created a Santa bicycle. (Click the Boston Globe link for a photo.)

A marketing campaign floated a giant rubber duck down the Thames River in London. (Laughing Squid)

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(photo by Kate Hinds)

Over 100 people turned out Tuesday night for a marathon community board hearing to discuss extending the Upper West Side's only on-street protected bike lane. The city wants to extend the Columbus Avenue lane from its current terminus at 77th Street down to 59th Street, where it would connect to a bike lane on Ninth Avenue, giving Upper West Side bikers a protected ride to Midtown Manhattan.  The city would also lengthen the Columbus Avenue bike lane up to 110th Street.

Many of the attendees wore stickers supporting the Columbus Avenue lane, and over the course of the meeting, dozens of people -- including the former "Ethicist" columnist for the New York Times -- spoke out in favor of a proposal to double its length. But by the time the three hour meeting was over, the transportation committee of Community Board 7 failed to pass a resolution supporting it.

Here's how it went down.

First up: the  New York City Department of Transportation presented data about the Columbus Avenue protected bike lane as it exists now.  The DOT's Hayes Lord painted a rosy picture: cycling has increased by 48 percent since the lane was installed. Vehicular speeding is down. The travel time for cars has improved. But the real benefit, Lord said, is that while total crashes have increased slightly, pedestrian injuries along the corridor have dropped by 41 percent. Moreover, he said, the bike lane is good for business: the retail occupancy rate for the Columbus Avenue BID south of 82nd Street is at 100 percent.

("I don't believe a word of it," hissed a man sitting next to me, one of the relatively few naysayers in the audience.)

Josh Benson (L) and members of Community Board 7 (photo by Kate Hinds)

In fact, said the DOT's Josh Benson, who was up next to talk about the lane's extension, the biggest problem with the lane is its "lack of connectivity" to the city's bike network.

As Benson got into the nuts and bolts of how the lane would be extended, two facts immediately stood out:  to accommodate necessary turning lanes and pedestrian islands, he said, the DOT would need to eliminate about 61 parking spaces along the east side of Columbus Avenue -- affecting 24 percent of the available parking. Also, because of the way Columbus and Broadway intersect, the bike lane south of 69th Street would not be protected. Instead, he said, it would be an "enhanced shared lane" -- meaning cars and bikes would mix together in a travel lane, with the understanding that cars won't be allowed to pass bicyclists. And south of 64th Street, ongoing long-term construction projects would hamper the installation of a permanent lane.

Crowd at CB7 meeting (photo by Kate Hinds)

When the public comment period opened, most people spoke out in favor of the extension. School children talked about commuting to school on the protected lane. The manager of the local Patagonia store said "it has been nothing but a positive for our business." The worries of a business owner -- who operates a moving company -- were assuaged by the DOT's assertion that it could create loading zones for moving trucks.  Two future City Council candidates spoke in favor of the lane. Even Randy Cohen -- the former "Ethicist" columnist for the New York Times-- said supporting it was a moral imperative.  "The improvements in safety are so fantastic," he said, "it seems like an ethical responsibility." But even that impassioned plea couldn't save the proposal.

When debate opened, it became apparent that committee members were divided. The loss of parking was a major objection. There were other, more arcane concerns: if the lane is on the left side of the street, one wondered, how would bicyclists safely make right turns? And some worried about the safety of the proposed enhanced shared lane. "Perception is everything," said board member Ken Coughlin. "If the lane is perceived as being unsafe for cyclists, it's not going to be used by cyclists." He presented a resolution in support of the lanes -- and asking the DOT to look into turning the shared lanes into protected lanes when construction of the water tunnel is done. But Coughlin made clear, "I would rather see an enhanced shared lane than nothing."

Nothing was what he got. When it came time to vote, Coughlin's resolution didn't get the majority it needed for committee support.

But Mark Diller -- the chair of Community Board 7 -- said it's not over.

"The resolution failed -- for tonight," said Diller. "But there's still potential for other resolutions, so we will continue to work on it."  Because the community board had to be out of the space by 10pm, the clock ran out. At future meetings, Diller said, "I'm sure somebody else will present another resolution, and I'm sure that will be discussed and hopefully we'll finally get to one we can approve."

Andrew Albert, co-chair of the transportation committee, said the board wanted more details about parking, loading zones, and its outreach plans for local businesses. "When DOT gives us the information we asked for," he said, "next month there will probably be a very different kind of vote."

"We're not done with this," added another board member, "by any means."

For a PDF of the DOT's presentation, click here.

Hoboken Terminal, post-Sandy (photo by NJ Transit via flickr)

The National Weather Service says New Jersey Transit didn't call.

The Star-Ledger is reporting the agency never consulted the National Weather Service, which predicted storm surges of up to 11 feet.

But NJ Transit isn't backpedaling from its costly decision to store rail cars in yards that later flooded during storm Sandy.

NJ Transit director James Weinstein told a State Legislative panel Monday the agency relied on weather reports and past storm experience to determine where to store hundreds of rail cars and locomotives.

The transit agency's Kearny facility, which sustained almost $100 million in damage, is only ten feet above sea level.

Weinstein told lawmakers the agency's decision-making process was sound.

New Jersey Transit says it's standing by his testimony.

To see what areas flooded during Sandy, check out the map below.

Top stories on TN:
D.C. Unveils Four New Taxicab Colors (link)
Could NYC’s ‘Bike Lane to Nowhere’ Get A Boost? (link)
Confusion at the Gas Pump: Which Grade is Best? (link)
As Connecticut’s Transit Funds Shrink, the Call for Tolls Grows Louder (link)

Earth at Night 2012 (google maps)

After Hurricane Sandy, would you bury a rail yard under a neighborhood of skyscrapers? That's New York's plan for the Hudson Yards on the far west side of Manhattan. (WNYC)

NJ Transit keeps insisting it made Sandy-based decisions on the weather information it had available. But the National Weather Service says it never heard from the agency. "If they had called we would have helped them," said the region's meteorologist. "On Sunday morning, when it looks like they pulled the trigger, we would have told them it was highly likely to a near certainty that this yard was going to take on water." (Star-Ledger)

The NTSB wants every state to require convicted drunk drivers to use devices that prevent them from starting a car's engine if their breath tests positive for alcohol. (Detroit Free Press)

A Texas judge has issued a temporary restraining order to halt work on the Keystone XL pipeline. (Houston Chronicle)

NJ Transit is rolling out real-time bus arrival information for buses in the Princeton/Trenton area; the transit agency says it should be state-wide by spring. (Star-Ledger)

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Google maps now has an earth at night layer. Check it out here. (Atlantic Cities)

The much-awaited groundbreaking for the Boston region's Green Line extension took place yesterday, as the state plans to begin work renovating bridges and underpasses to bring the trolley through Somerville to Medford. (WBUR)

Security workers at JFK airport are threatening to strike next week. (Crain's New York)

Zambia is looking for partners to help run its rail network and national airline. (Bloomberg)

Opinion: California's bullet train project is headed for some kind of political collision. (Sacramento Bee)

A panel of Lackawanna County Court judges is hearing arguments on Scranton's request for a one percent commuter tax. (Times-Tribune)

Polar express: a picture of a frozen bathroom on a train in Poland has gone viral -- and serves as a reminder that some of that country's rolling stock dates back well into the communist era. (Telegraph)

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(photo by Kate Hinds)

A previously-tabled Manhattan bike lane plan will get another look at a community board meeting Tuesday night.

As Transportation Nation reported in October, the Upper West Side's Community Board 7 is taking another look at extending the neighborhood's only on-street protected bike lane.

The Columbus Avenue bike lane is occasionally referred to as a "bike lane to nowhere" because it's less than a mile long and doesn't connect to other bike lanes.

Here's some history: in 2009, the community board requested a study from the city for two bike lanes: one on Columbus Avenue lane from 110th Street to 59th Street, and a matching northbound lane on Amsterdam Avenue.

After heated debate in 2010, only the Columbus Avenue lane went in -- and only from 96th to 77th Streets. (Amsterdam was considered too narrow by the NYC DOT to accommodate a bike lane.)

On Tuesday night, the New York City Department of Transportation will make a public presentation about bike lane usage in the neighborhood -- and weigh in on the Columbus Avenue extension. TN will cover the meeting -- and, should our cell phone signal allow, live tweet.

Columbus Avenue , with a protected bike lane on right side (photo by Kate Hinds)