Transportation Nation

(Washington, D.C. - David Schultz, WAMU) Just a few moments ago, Gabe Klein, the director of Washington D.C.'s Transportation Department and a strong advocate of transit and pedestrian-oriented policies, announced his resignation.

Klein was appointed to the post two years ago by Mayor Adrian Fenty, who, earlier this year, was resoundingly defeated in his reelection bid by City Council Chairman Vincent Gray. Klein and Gray had clashed earlier this year over funding for the city's urban streetcar program, so Klein's departure just a few months before the new mayor takes office is not a huge surprise.

Still, Klein enjoyed a fair amount of support for his agenda, which, along with the streetcar project, included the installation of more bike lanes on roads, beefing up the city's local short-trip bus service and, perhaps most successfully, launching a city-wide bike sharing service.

Vehicle sharing seems to be Klein's M.O. Before joining the local government in D.C., Klein was a regional vice president of Zipcar, the pioneering car-sharing company that has taken off in many urban areas.

For more on Klein's resignation, check back in with WAMU throughout the day.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell

(Washington, D.C. -- David Schultz, WAMU) We told you earlier about Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell's discovery of $1.5 billion dollars in unspent transportation funding. McDonnell, a Republican, found the money through a comprehensive audit of the state's Department of Transportation that he ordered immediately after succeeding Virginia's previous governor, Democrat Tim Kaine.

Now, the Governor is delivering on his pledge to get that $1.5 billion out the door as quickly as possible. Earlier today, he announced that almost three quarters of that newly-discovered funding would be advertised immediately -- meaning contractors can start bidding on it today. Excerpts from McDonnell's announcement are posted below.

But first -- in the interest of balance -- a caveat about that funding: Virginia Democrats say McDonnell didn't really discover any new funding and, in actuality, is drawing down the Transportation Department's cash reserves, which will make the state less able to respond to a natural disaster in the future.

Anyway, here's that announcement:

Governor Bob McDonnell today announced that the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will advertise an estimated $1.1 billion in construction and maintenance projects during the first six months of Fiscal Year 2011. The estimated economic impact of this work is 33,900 jobs created or supported, as well as $2.83 billion in economic activity and $282.5 million in taxes that come back to the Commonwealth.

...

According to studies published by the Federal Highway Administration and the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials, every $100 million spent on highway construction and maintenance projects adds 3,000 jobs created or supported, $250 million in economic activity and $25 million in taxes that go back to Virginia coffers.

McDonnell directed VDOT to more quickly initiate transportation improvements. A recent independent audit of the agency criticized its ability to move projects through the pipeline. VDOT and members of the McDonnell administration have been developing new business practices that speed the investment of transportation funding.

A prototype of D.C.'s new streetcar

(Washington, D.C. -- David Schultz, WAMU) The D.C. City Council, convening in a lame duck session next week, will cast a crucial vote on funding for an urban street car project.

The project was the darling of outgoing Mayor Adrian Fenty and his Director of Transportation Gabe Klein. Building a streetcar as a supplement to the city's already-existing bus and subway service was a huge part of their overall goal to make D.C. more walkable and to spur economic development in blighted neighborhoods.

D.C.'s Mayor-elect, Vincent Gray

But the project's costs have been climbing steadily upward, and there are still questions about how the streetcars will be powered (i.e. whether there will be overhead wires blocking D.C.'s monumental views).

Then, after a campaign that focused heavily on D.C.'s longstanding race and class inequalities, Fenty lost his reelection campaign. Badly.

His soon-to-be successor, current Council Chairman Vincent Gray, has been much more cool to the streetcar. In a late night budget session earlier this year, Gray eliminated funding for the streetcar project — only to reinstate it later that day after an outcry from the local transit backers.

Gray later blamed the elimination of streetcar funding on a "staff error," and said he is a full supporter of the project. But the upcoming vote, which could be one of his last on the City Council, will be a true test of that support.

(Washington, DC -- David Schultz, WAMU) I know, I know -- the makeup of a local transit authority's board of directors is not exactly the sexiest topic, especially not at a time when most people are thinking of turkey, football or some weird combination of the two.

But while this may seem like something only a wonk could love, there's actually a sneaky political power play in the works here that could shift the balance of influence in the D.C. region and fundamentally alter the way Metro operates.

(Washington, DC — David Schultz, WAMU) You can sue your boss, you can sue your spouse, you can sue your best friend - you can even sue yourself!

But you can't sue the government.

Photo courtesy: flickr user kristinashan

If the government enacts a law or a policy that injures you in some way - either physically or financially - you can't sue it for damages. That's because of a legal clause known as "sovereign immunity."

The clause has roots dating back to monarchical times. It's designed to give legislative bodies the freedom to make laws in the public good without fear of crippling legal payouts that would deplete their treasuries.

Of course, if you or your loved one has had your lives upended by, say, a horrific subway train crash, you're not a huge fan of sovereign immunity.

(Washington, DC — David Schultz, WAMU) Some cities use letters or numbers to name their train lines; here in D.C., we use colors. Depending on where you're going, you take the Red Line, Blue Line, Green Line, Orange Line or Yellow Line. The iconic D.C. Metro map is an artful study in the use of these five primary colors.

But for years, there's been talk of a new color - the Purple Line. Until recently, the Purple Line has been more myth than reality - in part due to the light rail project's nearly $1.7 billion price tag. In the past four years, however, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley (D) made it a priority and has begun seeking federal funds for the Purple Line.

O'Malley is up for election this year and Bob Ehrlich, his Republican opponent and his predecessor as Governor, is not a Purple Line supporter. And that may end up costing him the election.

Infrastructure geeks, don't miss these gorgeous and moving photos by our colleague, Stephen Nessen.

Stephen's been up in the Freedom Tower as recently as last week.

WNYC began visiting the World Trade Center site in April 2010 and continues to document the construction of One World Trade Center, the 9/11 Memorial, the transportation hub and the people working on the site.

Check here to see the latest photos from the work site.

(Washington, DC — David Schultz, WAMU) "Fare media" is the transit industry term for the stuff you use to pay for a ride on a bus or a train. It used to be tokens, then slips of paper with magnetic strips. Now many cities use a rectangular piece of plastic that riders can put money on, much like a debit card.

D.C.'s version of this is called the SmarTrip card. (Note the photo at the right of my SmarTrip card. And of my hand.)

Metro, the transit agency here, would like as many people as possible to use SmarTrip cards. Unlike paper fare cards, they're reusable and, thus, cost much less to produce. So, earlier this year, Metro's Board of Directors cut the price of a SmarTrip card in half - from $5 to $2.50 - as an incentive to get more Washingtonians to use them.

And that's where the trouble began...

(Washington, DC -- David Schultz, WAMU) Hurricane season is well underway, and that means a mega-rain storm can strike the East Coast or the Gulf Coast at any time. Just this week, D.C. and New York City were hammered by Tropical Storm Nicole.

Driving in the midst of one of these storms can be perilous to say the least. Earlier this week, I covered the aftermath of a flash flood in Northeast D.C. Several cars had gotten stuck in quickly rising water under an overpass. One woman said the water rose so fast, she couldn't get out of her car. She said the water rose up to her neck before she was rescued.

So, a reminder: take caution when driving during a storm. Never try to drive through standing water. Instead, obey the new highway safety catchphrase: turn around, don't drown.

IMAGE by Flickr user ChefMattRock (not of Washington D.C)

(Washington, DC -- David Schultz, WAMU) It may sound hard to believe, but the state of Virginia just found $1.5 billion in transportation funding it didn't know it had.

The money appeared after an audit of Virginia's Department of Transportation (VDOT) initiated by Governor Bob McDonnell (R). The audit found what McDonnell described as a windfall of unused and underutilized cash.

Among its findings:

*Amid a severe recession - in which the state laid off more than 1,000 VDOT employees, and in which the state controversially closed dozens of highway rest stops because it couldn't find $9 million to keep them open - VDOT was sitting on a cash reserve fund totaling $200 million. McDonnell proposes drawing down this reserve fund by more than half.

*VDOT has been regularly allocating funds to inactive local construction projects. These projects were only partially funded so they weren't under construction, but the funding they did have sat idle.

*After the recession began, VDOT became very hesitant to commit funds to new projects. For example, in fiscal 2009, almost $1.6 billion was available to VDOT for maintenance projects. But it only spent three quarters of that, carrying the rest over to the following fiscal year.

McDonnell called these fiscal practices "unacceptable," and blamed his predecessor, Tim Kaine, currently the head of the Democratic National Committee.

But Democrats are taking what could be a damning indictment and trying to turn it into a badge of honor. Kaine said in a statement that the audit shows his "tight-fisted" polices helped VDOT weather the financial crisis. And State Senator Dave Marsden, a Democrat from Northern Virginia, questioned why McDonnell would want to reduce VDOT's reserve fund when that money gets used for emergencies like blizzards, hurricanes, etc.

So, to recap: McDonnell, a Republican, wants to spend money faster and is criticizing Democrats for being too fiscally timid. Democrats, meanwhile, are criticizing McDonnell for being a spendthrift. Got it?

(Washington, DC -- David Schultz, WAMU) In the 70s and 80s, highway safety advocates waged fierce public awareness campaings to convince drivers that not wearing a seat belt is dangerous. In the 80s and 90s, their cause shifted to the dangers of drunk driving.

Now, it appears that cause has shifted once again.

This week, dozens of people involved in the transportation field - from industry execs to federal regulators to non-profiteers - convened in Washington D.C. for the second annual Distracted Driving Summit. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood gave the opening address, calling on more states to pass bans on texting while driving and announcing nationwide texting bans for train operators and commercial bus and truck drivers.

But LaHood also said this problem can't simply be legislated away. Each individual driver needs to be aware of how dangerous distracted driving is, he said, just as they're already aware of the dangers of drunk driving and the importance of wearing seat belts.

For more, check out this story from WAMU.

Eric Schultz for Transportation Nation

(Washington, DC - Todd Zwillich, Transportation Nation) The world's premier ultra-efficient vehicle has a gas engine.

It's the Edison 2 Very Light Car, and it just won the $5 million Automotive X Prize for highly-efficient, production-ready vehicles. The Edison 2 gets 102.5 miles per gallon and it does it without plug-in capability, hybrid technology, or solar power.

The prize, put up by Progressive Automitive was awarded Thursday in Washington DC at an even attended by members of Congress, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Oliver Kuttner, founder of Edison 2, said his company was motivated to build the car entirely by the prospect of winning the X Automotive Prize

(Washington, DC -- Todd Zwillich, Transportation Nation)  Lawmakers in Washington are moving to withhold federal highway funds to states that don't crack down on distracted driving.

A new bill introduced today would dock 25% of annual federal aid from states that don't enact or enforce distracted driving laws. The bill goes by the catchy handle, "The Avoiding Life-Endangering and Reckless Texting by Drivers Act", or ALERT Act.

The bill orders the Department of Transportation to withhold the money from any state that doesn't prohibit an operator of a motor vehicle from writing, sending, or reading a text message or using a hand-held mobile telephone except in an emergency. It excludes vehicle-integrated, voice-activated devices that can be operated hands-free. States would also have to require the imposition of certain minimum penalties for distracted driving rule-breakers.

"There is no reason for any life to be lost due to distracted driving. We are a smart nation and the technology is available, we just need to put it to work to save lives,” Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), the bill's chief sponsor, said in a release.

Thirty-one states currently ban texting while driving, according to AAA. Thirty-two outlaw teens from using cell phones while driving, while far fewer ban all hand-held cell phone use.

The bill comes just days before DOT is set to convene its second "Distracted Driving Summit" next Tuesday. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood has made distracted driving a top priority, saying all states should move to curb it. Several months ago LaHood publicly embarrassed a pair of lobbying firms when they tried to rally cell service carriers and other companies in a campaign to undermine distracted driving awareness campaigns at DOT.

(Washington, DC - Todd Zwillich, Transportation Nation) Chronic delays, elevator outages, comically dysfunctional escalators. So many things give Washington DC's Metro system a bad rap. So much so, apparently, that Metro's badness actually has... a rap.

Local musical lampooner Remy Munasifi has just hit Metro with a new rap video,

(Washington, DC -- David Schultz, WAMU) Data released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation shows a new rule designed to prevent airlines from delaying their passengers on airport tarmacs may be working.

Only three flights in July of this year experienced a tarmac delay of three hours or more, the DOT says. That's compared with 161 flights with three hour tarmac delays in July of 2009.

DOT enacted its new tarmac delay rule in April. The rule was designed to combat the growing trend of passengers stranded on grounded planes for hours. Under the new rule, airlines are prohibited from keeping passengers on a grounded plane for more than three hours, unless there are mitigating safety or security factors.

Some airline industry analysts had worried this rule would prompt the airlines to simply cancel flights if they felt they couldn't make that three hour window. But, according to DOT data, that hasn't happened.

Large airline carriers only cancelled 1.4 percent of their domestic flights in July, the DOT says, only slightly up from the same time last year - and slightly down from the month before.

For more info, see this report.

More children killed on roads in poorest nations than by AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria (Guardian)

100 tons of diesel spill into Nile as barge sinks (CNN)

First hot lanes to open on I-680 in Bay Area (SF Chronicle)

"Stylish, female riders leading the charge" for biking in cities (Daily Beast)

(Washington, DC - David Schultz, WAMU News) This week on WAMU, we aired a story about the closure of Reagan National Airport after the 9/11 attacks.

Some background: all U.S. airports shut down the day of the attacks. All but one reopened a few days later. That one was Washington D.C.'s Reagan National, which stayed closed for three more weeks.

In the terrifying days and weeks following 9/11, it didn't require much of a leap to imagine Reagan National - located just a few miles from the Capitol and the White House - being used as a launching pad for terrorism. So the Bush Administration, acting at the behest of the Secret Service, shut it down indefinitely.

For the details on what happened next,

Fans of the Washington Redskins already know they're stuck with one of the worst teams in the NFL. But the worst traffic?  Afraid so, at least according to a report out by TomTom, a portable GPS and car navigation company.

The survey says that traffic on the roads around FedEx field, where the Redskins play in Landover, Md., slows down an average of 57% on game days compared to the rest of the week. That's the worst game-day congestion of anywhere in the National Football League. The next worst traffic is a 55% percent slowdown at the New England Patriots' Foxboro Stadium and the Buffalo Bills' Ralph Wilson Stadium.

USAToday first reported on the survey in its Huddle blog.  In case you're wondering, Superbowl champions the New Orleans Saints rank 12th worst in the traffic rankings with a an average 29% slowdown on game day. And the best in the league? Oakland, Calif., where traffic on game day is actually 10% faster than during the rest of the week. -- Todd Zwillich, Transportation Nation

FAA will propose new rules on how long pilots can fly without rest (Dallas Morning News)

Secret tape has NYPD pressing parking ticket quotas (NY Times)

Houston federal transit funding problems become issue in the governor's race (Houston Chronicle)

Former employee from Golden Gate Bridge, arrested on suspicion of embezzling about $98,000 (SF Chronicle)

Highway deaths fall to lowest level since 1950.  Economy (and less traffic) may have played a role. (AP)

LaHood again pushing for U.S.-built trains on visit to Seattle (Seattle Times)

California agency approves $20 million in state funds for embattled BART link to Oakland Airport (SF Chronicle)

Plan to privatize liquor sales in order to pay for transit facing questions in Virginia (Washington Post)

U.S. DOT likely to reject joint venture between Delta and Virgin for flights to Australia and New Zealand (AP)

Upper Manhattan state senator candidates voice support for congestion pricing, not tolls (Streetsblog)