Happy Earth Day. Keep exploring — your city and beyond. Guess the name of this pass and I will declare you the Greatest Transit Rider Ever in the next How We Roll. Photo by Steve Hymon.

Things to read whilst transiting:

•National Geographic has dedicated its entire May issue to Yellowstone National Park in honor of the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary this year. The great author David Quammen (“Song of the Dodo”) handles the writing duties and the photography, as would be expected, is pretty amazing. Great reading and viewing on Earth Day.

•Audubon Society’s photo contest winners. I would have given the big prize to the shot of the two ravens.

Twitter Interestingness

From the Department of Let’s Go Kings!:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEgZZwSoPZl/?taken-by=metrolosangeles

Rail authority revises bullet train plan to include Merced in first segment (LAT)

Under the current plan, the California High-Speed Rail Authority says that the first segment between San Jose and Merced could be up and running by 2025 — and that they believe they have enough commitments from state and federal money (and other sources) to cover the $20-billion cost of building it. North of $40 billion would still be needed to get the train from the Central Valley to Burbank and then Los Angeles Union Station.

Elon Musk’s secret plan to curb city traffic with self-driving bus (Bloomberg) 

Actually, Musk is saying little other than they fact his company is working on something that would replace buses in urban settings and that it’s self driving. He should talk to Beverly Hills, where the City Council recently resolved to get self-driving shuttles up and running to help residents get to the future subway (despite the lawsuit versus Metro) and other destinations.

Tribute to Prince (Flickr users)