Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the library’s blog.

DOT Releases Second Round of High-Speed Rail Grants, Bringing Good News to California (The Transport Politic)

The Department of Transportation has announced another round of investments in high speed rail, this time to the tune of $2.5 billion straight from the FY 2010 budget. California will receive the biggest chunk – more than $900 million with $715 million of that earmarked specifically for the Central Valley. According to The Transport Politic our state now has enough funding to kick off construction, and with so much of the funding allocated to the Central Valley it makes sense to start there. It doesn’t hurt that there’s less local opposition in the Central Valley than in the more populous areas to the north and south.

Streetcar desire hits Pasadena (Pasadena Star-News)

Pasadena is the latest city to join the streetcar craze. A recently completed study with a price tag of $100,000 (funded by the city and local businesses) found that a streetcar could bring an economic boom to the city through increased property values and retail sales gains. But to compete for federal funding Pasadena would have to come up with up to $75 million to be considered.

New LADOT Bike Parking Map (LADOT Bike Blog)

The LADOT bloggers have put together a nice Google Map of the locations of all the bike racks installed in the past year – over 450 of them. The map will be updated as more racks are installed, and a professional map will be made once the inventory is complete. How many bike racks has LADOT provided to the city in total? Over 3,600 according the the blog.