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.

Reducing flight delays at O’Hare (Welcome to the Fast Lane)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says a plan to modernize Chicago’s airport — the nation’s second busiest — is a go. The airfield will get two new runways, as well as new taxiways and a runway extension, which Secretary LaHood says should help reduce delays. Now, if they could do something about the weather…

Larger passengers may lead to bus design changes in the U.S. (Bloomberg)

The federal government at present assumes the average passenger weighs 150 pounds on a bus. But the Federal Transit Administration has proposed raising that to 175 pounds — meaning that’s what manufacturers have to take into account when designing safety features. The agency — putting it diplomatically — says the proposal reflects “changes” in the weight of Americans in recent decades.

Mapping all of America with key Census data — block by block (Primary Resources)

The Metro Library’s blog takes a look at the New York Times’ mapping project using census data collected between 2005 and 2009. As Primary Resources explains, readers can use the NYT data to look at trends within their own census tracts or even smaller areas such as city blocks. It doesn’t look like the NYT did much with transpo data — but I encourage our readers to play around with this database to see if they find anything interesting. If so, please let us know at sourcemetro@gmail.com. I just spent the past few minutes looking at some data on my own neighborhood. Interesting stuff.