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.

Cyclists applaud Santa Monica’s bike plan (Santa Monica Daily Press)

The city hopes to double the existing mileage of bike lanes in the city to 69 by 2015 and put in enough infrastructure to persuade 25 percent of all commuters to bike to work in the city by 2030. About 3.4 percent currently ride to work. Santa Monica is already a very bike-friendly city and it’s great to see they’re striving to get better.

Calculate your greenhouse gas savings by taking transit (Transportation Nation) 

The new calculator from the HopStop website provides transit directions and shows the user an estimate of how many pounds of greenhouse gas emissions they’re sparing the air by taking transit instead of driving solo. I don’t think many transit agencies promote the “do something about climate change” angle very well and maybe a tool like this will persuade more of them (hint, hint) to better explain this key benefit of taking transit.

The contrapuntal sounds of gridlock (New York Times)

Reporter Jon Pareles makes an audio tape of traffic in Manhattan backed up trying to enter the Holland Tunnel for the journey to New Jersey. As would be expected of impatient New York/Garden State motorists, there’s a horn section. Funny thing is that many of these motorists presumably sit in the same traffic jam day after day after day, so it’s hard to say what all the bleating accomplishes.