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.

Gas prices hit new high for April (ABC)

The national average of $3.79 is the highest ever recorded for April. As a result, upticks in ridership are already being seen in some cities across the U.S. One export who is quoted says that he believes the true tipping point to change Americans’ driving behavior will be $5 a gallon gas.

Learning more about President’s cuts to high-speed rail (California High-Speed Rail blog)

The good news in the latest federal budget deal is that California won’t lose any of the money already awarded to its bullet train project by the feds. The bad news: President Obama’s national high-speed rail program took a $1.5-billion hit going forward and that could just be the beginning of the cuts, with Republicans targeting a program they consider wasteful.

Studies say natural gas has its own environmental problems (New York Times)

While natural gas is often lauded as being eco-friendly because it burns cleaner than other fossil fuels, a new study says it’s not so clean after all. Why? A lot of methane — the key component of natural gas — escapes during the drilling and shipping process. Officials from both the natural gas industry and and an environmental group NRDC question the study’s estimates. The production of natural gas has been ramped up in recent years with the backing of the federal government. Here’s a good story about gas drilling in Wyoming and groundwater pollution published by ProPublica and available for reading for free on Kindle devices and software.