A warning to Mr. Claus: If you are in the area tonight and plan on using your TAP card, it probably won’t work too well if it’s been scissored, put in a blender or microwaved. It will, however, survive an electric charge and puncture marks. This is according to an ingenius experiment performed by +Metro to determine exactly what a TAP card could — and could not — endure. Of course, there are people who say the TAP card doesn’t work that well as a fare card, as it’s still not possible to go online and load random amounts of money onto the card. Hmm.
As the Earth warms, the Netherlands is worried parts of the country will be overrun by the sea. And the country already has miserable traffic. What to do? Approve a plan that requires every motorist to equip their vehicles with a GPS-device that tracks how many kilometers they drive in order for the government to tax those kilometers. The pols believe raising the cost of driving will result in less people doing so, reducing traffic and the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Read the good story in Time. Conversely, there are efforts in the U.S. to lower the insurance premiums of those who can show they drive less.
It snowed like no tomorrow in Washington D.C. last weekend and the city’s Department of Transportation used its Twitter and Facebook pages to collect info from residents about areas that needed plowing, reports the Washington Post.
The rest of today’s transportation headlines, collected by the Metro library, await your perusal after the jump.
21st Century Public Transportation Tools
Plus Metro
2009: The Year Of The Bike!
CityWatch LA
Application Disables Smart Phones In Moving Cars
Los Angeles Times
Applying Analysis Tools In Planning For Operations
U.S. Department of Transportation
Auditing Long Beach Streets For Safety
Long Beach Post
The Bike Is the Star At This Café
New York Times
Can You TAP Me Now? (how durable are Metro TAP cards? Nine tests provide the answer)
Plus Metro
County Releases First Strategic Plan To Spur Jobs
Los Angeles Daily News
Los Angeles County Strategic Plan For Economic Development, 2010-2014 (16p. PDF)
CTA Expands Bus-Tracking Service To Cell Phones: Text Messages Will Detail Arrival Times
Chicago Tribune
Diesel Hybrids Deliver Big Savings To UPS (pilot study with National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
Wired
Press Release
Editorial: Study Shows California Highway’s Are A Failure
Oakland Tribune
Expo Releases Phase 2 Final EIR
Santa Monica Mirror
Holland’s Plan To Tax On Every Kilometer Driven
Time
Is Portable Technology Changing How Americans Travel?: A Survey Of The Use Of Electronic [Devices] On Intercity Buses, Trains, And Planes (18p. PDF)
DePaul University, Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development
L.A.-Area Air Pollution Could Dip From New EPA Rule On Ships
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles 2010: Is The Glass Half Empty?
CityWatch LA
Los Angeles Sees Sharp Rise In Red-Light Camera Revenue
Los Angeles Times
Map: EPA Violations In The L.A. Area
LAist
No On Prop 1A Crowd Reunites To Attack HSR
California High Speed Rail Blog
R We There Yet?: Re-Evaluating Los Angeles’ Transit Future
Lascher@Large
Revealed: Crazy Basket Bridge for 210 Freeway
LA Curbed
Share The Road: Buses And Bicycles (video: shared responsibility of bus operators and bicyclists regarding mutual safety from the Chicago Department of Transportation and Chicago Transit Authority)
A Social Snow Storm For Transportation Agencies (D.C. Department of Transportation social networking communication efforts pay off during blizzard)
Washington Post
Categories: Transportation News