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 Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

CivLAvia map for April 21 celebration.

CicLAvia updates map for April 21 … no Figueroa, but MacArthur Park is back (StreetsBlog LA)

No rush but sometime before April 21, make sure you check out the new CicLAvia route, which is heading straight down Main Street, with a right onto 7th. (Take the Metro Red,  Purple or Gold Line to Union Station.) And even if you don’t ride, join the celebration of L.A.’s beautiful and diverse neighborhoods.

Can the bullet train provide a needed boost for second-tier cities? (The Atlantic: Cities)

Everyone has an opinion on high speed rail in California. Generally it’s about money, or lack of, but the plan to start building in the Central Valley also has proved irksome to city dwellers who think — rightly or wrongly — that cities are the economic centers and really ought to get the train before the outlanders do. But are cities the best place to start?  Here’s an argument for a second-tier city starting line. What do you think?   

San Francisco set to push transit benefits for commuters (San Francisco Examiner)  

This has been on the books for several years but it looks like there’s new interest in enforcing it. Under San Francisco’s Commuter Benefits Ordinance, all businesses with 20 or more workers nationwide must offer one of three transit benefits: The pretax deduction, up to $245 per month, for transit or vanpool expenses; transit subsidies valued at $74, the cost of a monthly Muni pass, or a vanpool from a worker’s home to the place of business. Businesses with fewer than 20 employees are exempt. No such law here but Metro has a variety of voluntary employer-sponsored transit passes and programs that make commuting easier and save employers and employees money. Worth checking out.   

Study says car commuters put on more weight than active commuters (Streetsblog DC)

Thought for the weekend: Going to the gym may not be enough to keep pounds off if we drive to work, says a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The study specifically measured commuters who bike or walk to work or to transit and that, of course, is a real calorie spender. But even for those of us who walk a block or so from our cars to public transit, it’s calories spent and muscles moved. Another kind of mobility that adds up to better health for us … and for our air quality.