"Gassama was carrying a red and black backpack when he began running," the Montgomery County Police write on their blog today. "The officer chased Gassama across Georgia Avenue and into the surrounding neighborhoods before Gassama was apprehended by another officer at the intersection of Chesterfield Road and Bel Pre Road."

The bag was missing when police finally reached Gassama but they tracked it to a trash can on Manor Park Court and lo and behold, inside it was a "a loaded Jennings 9mm handgun and a magazine with additional ammunition." Yikes. Police arrested Gassama for the firearms and failing to obey an officer and he is now held on a $5,000 bond.

See, D.C. commuters? Just another sign that life will be easier for you if you just remember to follow the rules of the road. Jaywalking comes with consequences.

Most commuters are probably familiar with the 600 or so white MetroAccess vans that have transported many in the region who experience disabilities for years, a familiar sight for years now. These new manufactured MV1s should be a welcome addition. MetroAccess riders may not have succeeded in fighting fare hikes recently but at least they'll have a snazzier set of rides here, which cost in total around $800,000. These new vehicles do look sleeker than the current models, I'll admit. This sharpness is noted by many VPG customers on the MV1's Facebook page and in the celebratory video of a vlogger known as ProfessirX below. In WMATA's announcement of the MV1s, Assistant General Manager of Access Services Christian Kent calls them "a more versatile option for providing trips, while maintaining a fully accessible paratransit fleet" because they're designed exclusively for passengers with disabilities. Metro promises seating for four and wide doorways. Take a first look at the vehicles in action here:

Both Maryland and Virginia offer versions of the 511 traffic information service, although Virginia's significantly ahead of the game with work beginning as early as 2002. The Federal Communications Commission established the three-digit number back in 1999, and states began deploying their own 511s with varying results in the years since. Virginia's latest 511 launched last Thursday, May 18, 2012 and promises easy tracking of road conditions via the web, a mobile application, video, and even, in a tourism-driven move, the best routes to Virginia Beach, and replaces the Commonwealth's 511 service launched in 2008.

"It's the first time we've been able to offer streaming video on our service," Scott Cowherd, program manager for the Virginia Department of Transportation, told a crowd at the Smart Transportation conference in National Harbor, Maryland, this week. He points to a display showing a map of traffic incidents. "It continues to upload while you're looking at it. That is live information ... There's over 700 cameras throughout the state."

What 511 promises is a new form of service from transportation departments across the country. Maryland has sought to engineer its own dynamic service, focused especially on sharing traffic information and video among many different organizations to maximize efficiency. Maryland kicked off its 511 in the last couple years, first with a procurement package in late 2009, then a notice to proceed in September of 2010, and a formal launch in August 2011. From then through the end of March, the Maryland 511 clocked 344,406 calls, 2.6 million pageviews, and more than 3,000 registered users. The older Virginia 511 has recorded about 200,000 calls a month, 11 million calls overall, and eight million website visits since first launching 10 years ago. Both states pull traffic information from prominent resources like software company INRIX to help travelers understand road conditions.

Maryland's goal, according to Maryland State Highway Administration Deputy Director Glenn McLaughlin, is to make this traffic information "actionable" to someone trying to figure out if they'll be trapped in gridlock for hours.

(Photo: MDOT)

"We want something available where people are, what they want," McLaughlin said in a Tuesday session on 511 innovations. "We need to take a more proactive role in recognizing the travelers as a partner in our roadways."

The development of these 511 services is relatively new in transportation, with a variety of jurisdictions struggling to articulate how they want to convey traffic information and the underlying philosophy. McLaughlin says that had Maryland started back in 2002 like Virginia, the state would be a lot further along. Virginia, to its credit, may have benefited for more time before its recent launch. Cowherd described the rush to launch the latest version last week as especially high pressure ... the government was "under the gun" to release the new 511. Our region is especially complicated by its sprawl and the fact that in the Washington, D.C. metro area, three jurisdictions dominate. The District of Columbia lacks a proper 511 service of its own, although its transportation department has made strides to coordinate video and traffic information in recent years and offer real-time updates. Its Twitter account is an especially critical and well-run resource, although Maryland, for what it's worth, sees Twitter as a poor resource for traffic updates. About 700 followers watch the Maryland 511 Twitter account — "Twitter is not the best way to convey travelers' information," McLaughlin remarked. DDOT has more than 10,000 followers despite no 511.

"We're trying to grow up like Maryland and Virginia and get our 511 running," explained James Cheeks, DDOT chief of traffic signals, safety, and standards, at the Smart Transportation conference. Cheeks acknowledges that D.C. has its own transportation priorities that would drive its version of 511, however, taking into account its myriad modes of transportation — only four in 10 D.C. residents commute by car, after all. What of Capital Bikeshare, streetcar, the rise of walking, the buses and trains? "We have our special things we'll want to do also," Cheeks said to his fellow transportation officials. "In the District we've got a lot of other modes of transportation."

The 511 service coincides with a broader technological revolution in how transportation departments let commuters know what's up on the roads. One key tool is the introduction and expansion of "dynamic message signs," which can feature any number of real-time updates for motorists. D.C. has 43 of these portable signs that can announce anything from road closures to the Cherry Blossom Festival, and Maryland's use of dynamic 511 signs caused the number of callers to increase ninefold. Money, as MDOT's CHART Systems Administrator Richard Dye emphasized, is a mounting challenge, especially as commuters expect more and more information and new information services. In that spirit, Virginia has set up 161 traffic signs promoting its 511 service and has sold premium and corporate sponsorships as a way of raising revenue for a fund intended to offset the program's annual operating costs of about $2.1 million. Virginia hopes to double the number of sponsorable signs to 300-350 within the next year or so and its long-term goal is to, at the least, break even. The state recently debuted six electronic signs around Hampton Roads, similar to travel time signs elsewhere in the Commonwealth, that alert people in real-time how many minutes it will take them to get to Virginia Beach. Virginia's new 511 is part of a five-year $10-million contract with Iteris, Inc. but the state may extend the contract to nine if all goes well. Other developments are on the horizon. Maryland foresees adding text and e-mail alerts this June. VDOT wants to add 200 traffic cameras on top of their current inventory of 750+. Overall, all three jurisdictions acknowledge the importance of sharing data and video and have attempted create robust networks in order to do so more easily.

One fascinating footnote to the emerging 511 services is semantic. Should jurisdictions announce service for "travel" or "traffic"? Virginia opted for the former for years and just switched to the latter, whereas Maryland prefers the former. "Travel" advocates like the word's receptivity to other modes of transportation, its freedom, whereas critics see the word and hear "tourism." That's why Virginia changed its name.

But next time you're stuck in traffic, whether in Virginia or Maryland, try 511. With all the travel of Memorial Day weekend, there's no better time to use it.

"If we seek to ban the phone," said Leo McCloskey, vice president of marketing for telematics company Airbiquity at a Tuesday conference session, "the consumers will ignore us very, very quickly."

How do you change a driver’s behavior? That’s the task facing the transportation world today for the sake of everyone’s safety, whether passenger, bicyclist, or pedestrian. The challenge will call on regulators from federal and state government, auto makers, technology companies, and an emphasis on driver education. Recent history has created an unprecedented level of distraction for today’s travelers on the road but distraction is not entirely new — nor is it likely to be prevented until robots take the wheel.

"There was always the baby in the backseat crying," McCloskey remarked. "These things are never going away."

The history of the automobile is the history of mounting distraction. One decade, it’s windshield wipers. The next, it’s the radio. Now we have screens and games and smartphones and more and more noise. What’s changed is our lifestyles and severity of distractions. "Some of the recent things are what distracts us the most," said Steve Kenner, Ford’s global manager for automotive safety. Ford touts plenty of data points to reinforce the idea. Talking while driving, according to Kenner, will increase the risk but not that much. But if you dial with a handheld mobile device, you’re six times as likely to get into an accident or near-accident. If you have to deal with a big screen while driving, it’s 10 times as likely. If you’re texting, however, you really better watch out. Then the risk rises to 23 times as dangerous. "It seems like you could use the in-vehicle systems to do something safer," Kenner added. "We think some of the things we’re doing [at Ford Motor Company] are part of the solution."

What do industry and government officials believe may help reduce incidents of distracted driving? Ford pushes hand-free devices, operated by voice and less likely to pull a driver’s eyes from the road and traffic. Kenner also mentions the greater opportunities to counteract distraction in the name of traffic safety. The federal government has partnered with eight auto companies, including Ford, in recent years to integrate traffic safety technology that allows cars to communicate with one another and give warnings about potential collisions and whenever a driver veers out of his or her lane. Semi-autonomous driving features will become more common and perhaps curb our distracted impulses. Ford has released a tool called MyKey, which lets parents control the maximum speed at which their childrens' vehicles travel and presets other restrictions to minimize distraction (like, say, the radio volume, even) and encourage safety. Fight technology with technology.

Recent data, according to Kenner, suggests about one in 10 of the 32,788 traffic deaths of 2010 involved distracted driving and little more than one in a hundred involved a handheld device. NHTSA suggests about 3,092 deaths happened that year due to distraction (much lower than the previous year due to refined methodology). Concern over the seat belt, titan of traffic safety that it is, and drunk driving remain larger factors in the annual number of traffic deaths. Distracted driving? It's an issue — and as any of the five speakers at the conference session would emphasize, any traffic death is too many — but not the issue causing vehicles to veer recklessly.

"The practical reality, according to the 2010 data, is that it’s a small contributor," said Matt Howard, CEO and co-founder of ZoomSafer. He remains concerned about how private companies can develop the proper policies and enforcement on distracted driving.

But distraction is one of the watchwords of our Facebook-driven, Twitter-fueled age, and transportation will contend with distraction as much as any other field. None of the panelists felt that any emerging technology could end distraction, at least not until the robots, but the key will be on educating and creating ways for people to not lose sight of the road. Some technological improvements have already helped. Consider maps, for instance. Was looking through a pile of physical maps really better than hearing the voice commands of a GPS system now? Certainly not. Another panelist cited the concern that now, 20% of roads change every year though and, as Damian Woodward, vice president of sales for TomTom noted, "keeping your map fresh is imperative." Changing driver behavior is nothing new, though. We successfully demonized drunk driving starting half a century ago. The Click It or Ticket campaign has helped elevate the seat belt in the last two decades. Perhaps we need, McCloskey suggested, some "cutesy" message to stigmatize distracted driving? LaHood has begun trying. Perhaps, as one questioner asked, our speed cameras can zero in on mobile-phone users as apparently has begun happening in the United Kingdom. The panelists remained skeptical that the U.S. would accept such enforcement though.

"We’re going to have to deal with the fact that we are distracted," said Kenner.

The focus, according to Kenner, will be on "mitigating" and counteracting the problem and creating a world in which these new distracted-driving deaths are, somehow, "manageable."

Take a look at the slow, confusing mess here:

The price of transportation is especially relevant considering the upcoming Memorial Day holiday. AAA Mid-Atlantic predicts about 34.8 million people will travel distances of 50+ miles around the U.S. this year, about half a million more than last year, and more than 30 million will travel by car. A survey conducted by the auto club found that nearly half the intended travelers saw gas prices as an issue influencing their plans. These shifting gas price numbers frequently become an emotional and even political touchstone for Americans, sometimes more justifiably than others.

Yet perhaps the high prices reflect the real worth of the fuel. Look to European gas prices for comparison. As Americans stared at $4 a gallon this year, some European countries paid far more — around $10 a gallon in Great Britain earlier this spring, as one CNN columnist observed. One longstanding argument suggests higher fuel prices will be what forces us to consider more fuel-efficient vehicles and change our commuting habits in favor of more walking, biking, and public transportation.

Another holiday concern is traffic safety. Traffic fatalities tend to spike around any holiday, in part due to drunk driving deaths, and Memorial Day weekend is no different. Federal analysis shows that the year's major holidays have featured spikes in traffic deaths going back decades. In 2009, 473 people died during the three-day Memorial Day weekend period, with 42% of deaths attributed to alcohol-impaired driving. Risk is naturally elevated as more people take to the wheel along the Mid-Atlantic, with plans likely to take people up to Delaware, to Baltimore or Boston, Philly, or down South, trips for leisure, to see family, to visit the beach.

Stay safe this weekend, D.C., and for those traveling by car, be glad gas prices aren't quite as debilitating as last year.

The government agency estimates that three million tickets have been given out as part of the campaign over the last half decade. Seat belts, the agency contends, save thousands of lives. In 1977, the federal government mandated they be installed in every car by the early '80s. In the interim years, state governments responded with laws mandating that passengers buckle up, and statistics suggest they've saved more than a quarter million lives since, despite a few who persistently don't wear seat belts. One government report notes that while seat belts saved more than 12,000 lives in 2009, they could have saved 3,688 additional lives if everyone wore the safety belts. Traffic fatalities, both locally and nationally, have dropped in recent years. D.C. enacted its own mandatory seat belt law in 1997, and seat belt use rose from 58% in 1997 to about 92% in 2010. The District issues $50 tickets for not buckling up, and police warn drivers that they can stop them for that violation alone. D.C.'s ad spots have an ominous tone, as you can see from last year's here.

But the federal government decided to go funny this year in its new national Click It or Ticket ad campaign entitled "Fake-A-Rooney." Death, crashes, bloodied roads? Forget about those bleak images. Fake-A-Rooney identifies a series of goofy characters who attempt to buckle their seat belts at the last minute to avoid cops and find themselves spilling food all over themselves and looking ridiculous. The tone is silly and strange but may appeal to younger audiences less attuned to the grim. See the signature 2012 PSA here:

A recent Metro announcement is draped in responsible language on the replacement and rehabilitation — "prudent," the transit agency says. The elevator has gone about 28 years without rehabilitation, according to Metro, and 10 years since ADA upgrades. It will receive a new cab, motor, and control system, among others. The agency will offer free shuttle service between Medical Center and Bethesda during the rehabilitation work. The station may have to close if both the elevator and the escalators fail, despite a technician on scene: "In the event that all three units are out of service, the station will need to temporarily close for safety reasons," Metro announces ominously.

What's also worth remembering is that these Bethesda escalators and elevators are in such poor condition not only due to their decades of age but from an acknowledged history of neglect and poor upkeep practices from the agency, as we learned from a 2010 audit.

(Photo: Vertical Transportation Excellence)

At the request of WMATA's General Manager Richard Sarles, Vertical Transportation Excellence audited the transit agency's escalators and elevator practices and in late 2010, submitted a report on the entrances of four stations, including Bethesda. Of the four stations, Bethesda was the only Metro station to receive ratings of no higher quality than "poor" or "fair" in all assessed categories, perhaps in part due to the length of the escalators and their heavy use. The station's average weekday passenger boarding was about 10,765 riders in 2011.

But as Metro discovered two years ago, no one kept track of what happened with this popular station entrance. Consider this audit excerpt on the entrance elevator: "None of the spare parts appear to have inventory records tracking their location or use. The machine room does not have the sufficient space and storage capabilities to accommodate the materials. The maintenance condition of the machine room is poor." No one kept track of the parts? Perhaps in the same way no one kept track of the life-saving defibrillators Metro said it would prioritize years ago and only did once a person died earlier this year. In 2010 the Bethesda elevator showed signs of "minor rust" in multiple locations and "a minor accumulation of debris, dirt, and water" in the elevator pit. Auditor photos shows boxes scattered in disarray throughout the machine room, a state that "impacts maintenance" according to VTX.

These failings have amounted to broader escalator and elevator problems that plague Metro. In the last two years, WMATA says it wants to replace about 100 escalators and rehab plenty of elevators. Good. But the problem often ties into how the agency's workers maintain the equipment. Here's how Metro summed up some of the equipment and workforce utilization audit findings on those four stations, including Bethesda, to its Board in October of 2010. What's wrong with Metro entrances?

o Lack of adherence to maintenance standards

− Escalator switches require cleaning and adjustment

− Insufficient lighting in the machine rooms

− General housekeeping issues

− Stopping distance adjustments

o Water intrusion in machine rooms, hoistways and pit areas

• Unbalanced Preventative Maintenance (PM) schedule

• Co-location of Elevator/Escalator Operation Control (EOC) and Maintenance Operation Control(MOC) is an excellent configuration that ensures accurate communication and improved response time

• Elevator/Escalator issues transmitted from the Station Manager to MOC, rather than EOC directly

• Mechanics require training on necessary closeout information that is needed by EOC to ensure efficiency

• Shortage of Supervisors

Metro showed signs of realizing its problems in late 2010 and outlined a series of steps to remedy them, wisely, if not always on schedule. WMATA wanted to begin replacing the Foggy Bottom escalators, deemed "unsafe" by VTX, in November of 2010, work that began a couple months later than planned and that was not completed until November of 2011 (and the overall entrance changes not until this month). That's a start. The Dupont Circle Metro station is in the midst of replacing entrance escalators in a project expected to last more than eight months.

The escalator and elevator rehabilitation and replacement will continue to be a key component of Metro Forward in the years to come. Let's hope the practices continue to improve along with the equipment.

Here's a view from this morning's Bike to Work Day gatherings and travel in Alexandria, Virginia, and the District:

"I've been out with people who have been refused cab after cab," Hornal told me over coffee at Chinatown Coffee Company, blocks from where he lives, yesterday morning. "It's very difficult to get a cab to Northeast [D.C.] and even worse to Southeast."

Cabs will, according to Hornal and other accounts in recent years, happily accept passengers if they're going to popular, central destinations like Dupont Circle but may be less inclined to transport passengers to certain neighborhoods. Hornal takes a taxicab perhaps once a month, normally sticking to his motorcycle and bikes, but from talking to his friends, he says he always knew something was wrong. He's right. "The people of Ward 4 can't get a cab," Councilmember Muriel Bowser told D.C. Taxicab Commission Chairman Ron Linton at a January hearing. She said they couldn't receive service by appointment or by hailing and that it was common knowledge — and a major unacceptable problem among many unacceptable problems our taxi industry of 8,000 drivers is mired in. Yesterday D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh acknowledged "underserved" areas of the District from "unreliable" taxicabs as she and fellow councilmembers discussed proposed modernization legislation, which would kick off a study on how to better serve the neighborhoods Hornal refers to.

But Hornal doesn't want to wait for any studies. He's hoping to help carve out a legal solution and advocate for the District's passengers.

Daniel Hornal.(Photo: John Hendel)

In his legal studies, Hornal focused on consumer protection law. Unlike many states, D.C.'s generous consumer protection laws yield $1,500 per violation as well as attorney's fees in broad legislation that applies to the D.C. taxicab industry. He observed the taxicab problems and began "tracing it backwards from the harm."

"D.C.'s got all these great laws — no one's enforcing them," Hornal said. "I went to law school to do public interest, and I kept my idealism."

In the year since graduation, he assisted with a law professor, passed the bar, and decided to open his own firm. And after diving through the District's code, he hopes to advocate for the city's taxicab passengers and those renters subject to any deceptive landlord practices. He's belonged to Reddit for five years, so posting his intentions on the network seemed "very natural." He explained the proposal to local Redditors: I want to do something about this, because DC hasn't and won't ... So, if you want to do your part help the Taxicab Commission's do the job that they refuse to do, it's pretty easy. Next time a cab or dispatcher does something shady like refuse to take you somewhere, overcharge you, whatever, write down the taxicab company's name and any other info you can get. The Equal Rights Center has also alleged that taxicab drivers discriminate against African-Americans and the blind as others question the quality of customer service. Hornal sees violations of consumer protection law that deserve attention in court and hopes to inspire institutional change by raising awareness of these cases and discouraging taxicabs and potentially landlords as well from questionable practices.

Hornal tells me he doesn't have anything against cab drivers and that he doesn't believe the majority are bad people. But the problems are well documented and too few passengers take advantage of the consumer benefits they're liable to collect. To not pick up passengers, to selectively choose, to geographically isolate communities creates a public safety problem, Hornal believes, and amounts to a fundamentally unfair mode of transportation that operates in violation to codified standards. In the course of the Reddit discussion, Hornal links to the many elements of D.C. code that drivers are alleged as violating — here in the code is, for instance, where the District outlaws discriminating based on race, gender, disability, and residence, playing the radio against a passenger's will, and asking passengers their destinations before they've entered the cab.

You can e-mail your troubled cab experiences to Hornal here. He says he's received a few messages so far but has no way of anticipating how many folks he'll hear from. He plans to reach out more in the coming weeks and is considering visiting churches, community centers, and perhaps even posting flyers as he tackles issues of housing and transportation law. The biggest challenge will be providing evidence of the taxi industry's wrongdoing in these cases but he suspects they will be easier to process than people think.

"It's not that much hassle," Hornal said. "It isn't difficult."

It's official, we have crossed the 2 millon ride mark and there's no going back. Congrats to all of U for all your pedaling!

— Capital Bikeshare (@bikeshare) May 17, 2012

Consider the dates: the bikeshare network opened on September 20, 2010; hit half a million rides on June 1, 2011; hit one million rides on its first birthday of September 20, 2011; then 1.5 million rides by mid-February, 2012; and now, on the afternoon of May 17, the service has clocked two million rides. Pay attention to how these milestones have sped up. A year ago, the service still hadn't hit even half a million trips and now it's hit two million. That's nearly a million and a half of these trips in a single year.

Here's a graph showing how Capital Bikeshare's trip numbers have soared since it debuted in late 2010:

(Photo: Capital Bikeshare)

There's no mistaking the direction of that arc. Even though the data doesn't yet show April 2012, we know it's broken another record with 174,354 trips. The bikeshare network is about to expand to Alexandria, Virginia, which will only add to the number of trips ... and the speed at which the numbers are accelerating.

But the bike messenger is not dead yet. Shawn Blumenfeld, a local cycling racer and past courier, tells me he estimates that there are still about 100 to 150 bike messengers today in the District because many messengers he knew from a couple years ago are still at work in the industry today — although he emphasizes that this is just a guess. Here's a glimpse into the fast-paced and complicated life facing these gritty cyclists, who still understand and value the freedom of their occupation, presented by the Corcoran students of Fixed Focus Productions:

Hat tip to Prince of Petworth.

And yes, you read that right. Last summer. The Foggy Bottom project began a year ago, and its timeline is worth considering in light of all the other Metro escalator replacements bound to happen in the years to come. WMATA predicts it'll replace about 100 over the course of the next half decade. The transit agency began replacing the escalators at one of the Dupont Circle Metro entrances and predicted — to great horror — that it would take eight and a half months. So how long did the Foggy Bottom replacement take?

About 10 and a half months since the first new escalator began running.

The first of the new three escalators, each with 127 steps, debuted on July 11, 2011, although WMATA notes the removal of old escalators began in "late January" of 2011. One of the old escalators had collapsed back in February of that year, creating greater worries. Each escalator, WMATA predicted last summer, would take about 15 weeks to install. The second new escalator went into service last September and the third in November, which kept that schedule more or less on track. WMATA says these new escalators should last 15 to 20 years and celebrated the move on November 30 in a ceremony at the Metro station. Metro General Manager Richard Sarles acknowledged then that Metro riders faced "a lengthy process" with these efforts. The escalator replacement here at Foggy Bottom, unlike at Dupont Circle, didn't involving closing the station entrance because it's the only one the station has, and the escalator replacement only took about five months from the first escalator to the last. If you count work beginning in late January, the Foggy Bottom project took about 10 months to deliver full working escalators and close to a year and a half from start to finish.

But then the canopy and staircase took another half a year to complete, which adds to the perception of sluggishness that accompanies many of these rebuilding efforts of Metro's. Foggy Bottom commuters, enjoy the staircase and canopy ... you've certainly been hearing about them for long enough by now.

Stairs at foggy bottom are finally open! No more escalators!instagr.am/p/Kr9PAaP9cx/

— Angela Barnett (@Angela_Barnett) May 16, 2012

In D.C., many would say the answer is yes.

Conservative estimates about our region's Zipcar membership suggest at least 60,000 as of last year. Zipcar has aggressively marketed itself out to residents since then, with street teams at Chinatown Coffee Company and elsewhere, advertisements, and other deals. The District also acquired Car2Go and Hertz On Demand since. Our region's overall car-sharing membership is probably closer to 70,000, I'd guess, at the least, but even if we still only have 60,000 car-sharers in the region, we amount to about a tenth of the nation's car-sharing market based on the national figures RAND includes.

The United States is now host to about 560,000 car-sharers, according to the RAND report, which represent about 0.27% of all U.S. drivers. That's still a very small number but what struck me was how concentrated the membership must be. The membership is centered in a few big urban spots like D.C., where at least 10% or so of the membership resides. Zipcar continues to reign supreme in the car-sharing world, and as of late March, touted 673,000 members globally, many of whom live in the U.S. Zipcar first entered the D.C. region back in 2001 and for many years, provided the only car-sharing option available.

The report's data also outlines the amount of greenhouse gas that car-sharing prevents, numbers that Wonkblog calls "fairly meager." Today's reduction is only 0.05% and even dream scenarios of car-sharing — with more than 12% of urban drivers participating — only drops the percentage of greenhouse gases by 1.7%.

Favorably considered was Car2Go's point-to-point model, which the report noted was untested but seemed to have potential. That car-sharing company recently paid the District more than half a million dollars for the privilege of parking freedom here. These innovations may prove critical to expanding the car-sharing appeal to new markets.

.@TUTAZGAMD the Red Line car pictured did have an uncommanded door opening. No injuries, train offloaded shortly after. ^BA

— @wmata (@wmata) May 15, 2012

Disturbing. Unsuck D.C. Metro first flagged a photo tweeted of the incident early this morning, and The Examiner reports additional details, that we're talking about a 1000-series Red Line train between Van Ness and Tenleytown from this morning.

Here's a question though. If Metro does have to pull any of its 1000-series fleet, what would that do to WMATA's Rush+ service scheduled to start on June 18? WMATA has 290 1000-series railcars, which comprise about a quarter of Metro's total fleet.

This drop in traffic fatalities suggests that perhaps all our initiatives, from traffic safety officers to better biking infrastructure to signs warning against blocking the box and educating drivers about safety through concerted local campaigns and broader regional efforts like Street Smart, may have an effect. Last year there were 32 traffic fatalities total, 25 the year before that, and 33 the year before that. Those numbers are already much lower than the numbers of killed commuters in years past — like the 69 D.C. traffic fatalities of 2003, for instance. We're nearly halfway through the year, and six dead is, while obviously still unfortunate and a tragedy to be avoided, putting us on track for what may be a record low. It's less than half of the fatalities at this time last year, and if our streets stay as safe in the second half of 2012, we'll have the lowest number of fatalities as of at least the last 17 years. Will it be possible to one day end traffic deaths? Gabe Klein, former director of the District Department of Transportation, believes yes and hopes to achieve zero deaths within 10 years in Chicago, where he currently leads transportation initiatives.

Another more controversial tactic in D.C.'s broader strategy of traffic safety is the expanded use of automated traffic enforcement cameras. You all know the talk of speed cameras, red light cameras. D.C. Mayor Vince Gray has said he would welcome speed cameras all over our city to help ensure traffic safety. Earlier this month, the MPD announced another 20+ speed cameras that'll begin issuing tickets starting June 6, 2012, as the Post noted earlier today. Here's those locations and their speed limits:

Southwest Frwy SW @ Exit 4 westbound, 40mph
I395 SW after Exit 4 eastbound, 40mph
400 blk 14th St SW northbound, 35mph
200 blk 17th St NE southbound, 25mph
800 blk Maine Ave SW northwestbound, 25mph
1300 blk 4th St SW southbound, 25mph
9th St Tunnel NW southbound, 35mph
3000 blk Foxhall Rd NW southbound, 25mph
1800 blk Harvard St NW northwestbound, 25mph
7600 blk Georgia Ave NW southbound, 30mph
4800 blk Georgia Ave NW southbound, 30mph
1700 blk North Portal Dr NW southwestbound, 25mph
2800 blk Bladensburg Rd NE southwestbound, 30mph
3100 blk Bladensburg Rd NE northeastbound, 30mph
2200 blk South Dakota Ave NE southeastbound, 25mph
S. Dakota Ave NE westbound prior to V St, 25mph
700 blk Franklin St NE westbound, 25mph
1400 blk New York Ave NE northeastbound, 35mph
1500 blk West Virginia Ave NE northeastbound, 25mph
2000 blk West Virginia Ave NE southwestbound, 25mph
3100 blk Minnesota Ave SE southwestbound, 25mph
3000 blk Minnesota Ave SE northeastbound, 25mph
3700 blk Massachusetts Ave SE southeastbound, 25mph
3900 blk Pennsylvania Ave SE southeastbound, 30mph
4300 blk Texas Ave SE southbound, 25mph
4800 blk Texas Ave SE northbound, 25mph
5000 blk Sheriff Rd NE westbound, 30mph

Oskar Mosco, a manager for National Pedicabs twice arrested now, pretended to videotape Park Police officers in the moments preceding his second arrest in late March but now has begun truly recording moments of friction in the territory where dozens of his colleagues transport tourists and residents alike in a burgeoning industry that exists in regulatory limbo. Two days ago, one Park Police officer issued Mosco four citations that "appear to be retaliatory in nature for my shooting this footage of his interaction with another pedicab operator," he told me. The tickets were for distracted driving, not signaling, obstructing, and for parking in a no parking zone, according to Mosco, and amount to $255 ... but the pedicab operator isn't worried. He suspects these tickets, like countless others issued to pedicab operators, will be dismissed. Mosco has been outspoken in calling such behavior harassment for more than half a year now.

Four tickets in one day does sound harsh. Factor in Mosco's two past arrests, and he may be the most notorious pedicabber on the National Mall. The first arrest, which occurred last November, was dismissed in early spring. The second arrest, which alleges assault and involved a bloodied throwdown of Mosco in front of the Museum of Natural History, is ongoing, with a pre-trial hearing set for May 24 and trial on June 1. Other incidents of citation, threats, and arrests began receiving attention last year, such as when Park Police forced college student Sarah Roberts down onto the pavement as they handcuffed her on account of not immediately providing identification in June of 2011.

The video clips Mosco has begun releasing in the last week are hardly damning or comprehensive takes on what's transpiring on the National Mall, but they provide the tone of how pedicab operators interact with Park Police. See these couple clips, which allegedly sparked the "retaliation" of four tickets:

"If I see you again, I'll just arrest you," an officer tells one of the pedicab operators before ordering Mosco off of National Park Service land, too.

The National Mall falls largely under National Park Service control and U.S. Park Police enforcement. No pedicab regulations yet dictate how these operators need to operate, but the NPS has proposed rules, with requirements for routes, stands, and insurance, which were open to public comment until May 2. The NPS hopes to make these rules official by early summer. Among the comments was concern about this very friction with Park Police. Consider pedicab operator Donald Clark's comments:

Sounds perfect, right? An open-air tour around the Mall for the grandparents, and a nice opportunity for the pedicabber. Well, a Park Police officer, on a motorcycle, had been eyeing me the whole time from a vantage point near Memorial Bridge. So concurrent to her parents arriving, on the sidewalk from the Vietnam Memorial, the excited Park Police officer pounced. Just when the middle-aged daughter said, "Wonderful, here they are!" the Park Police motorcycle zoomed up and he yelled out -as they were standing next to my cab, "Move it!" I replied, politely, "Sir, they had flagged me down, and I was just leaving." He tersely replied, "I'd been watching you for the last few minutes, now MOVE IT!"

Well, at that point, facing a ticket/s, arrest? I "moved it", much to the chagrin of the two tired grandparents, who looked confused and deeply disappointed. For my part, I too was disappointed and drove away with a deep sense of frustration and anger. Frustration that I could not serve this needy elderly couple, and anger that all those who witnessed this encounter likely had the impression that I must have committed a criminal or unsafe act to be driven away like that.

What happened here is not an ideal transportation scenario. Pedicab operators have, across the board, struck me as not inherently hostile to Park Police. They want to get along just as the Park Police spokesman and Captain Kathleen Harasek emphasize they want to foster peace. But a lack of trust has created problems. "A pedicab driver is not a machine or a draft animal," pedicab operator Robert Hart writes in public comments about the provision that operators stick to marked pedicab standing and parking areas. "We are worried the U.S. Park Police will interpret these stands as a mandate to restrict all pedicab operations solely to these limited areas and prohibit drivers from stopping anywhere else. To not allow pedicab drivers to rest in the shade during the extreme heat of a Washington summer may risk the health and safety of the driver." Pedicab operators see no clear set of rules and what feels like arbitrary enforcement; the Park Police captain in charge of the Mall, meanwhile, offers supportive words for the industry and says that they've already selectively enforced rules in favor of pedicab operators (Park Police, she told me, could ticket operators every time they solicit customers but choose not to — although the videos above show officers may threaten to ticket and arrest on those grounds).

Trust is critical to the Park Police officers and pedicabs coexisting on the National Mall, and the culture right now continues to suggest deeper frictions. The National Park Service and the Park Police quite successfully held an open meeting on the new proposed rules in late April, but one meeting is not enough to fix the culture amid the heat and attitudes of the Mall.

"Initially, we plan to charge users 5 cents/hour for most of the day, and 2 cents/hour during overnight hours," WMATA's Justin Antos of the Office of Planning wrote last fall when construction was underway. "The off-peak discount is designed for customers who want to park their bike overnight as a 'station bike.' This will work out to about 50 cents/day for most commuters."

BikeLink has partnered with WMATA to help run the facility, and you can review the initial details of setting up an account here. Any bicyclist looking to use the Bike & Ride will receive a BikeLink card, and when you first use the facility, WMATA will photograph your ID for verification purposes. This one-time step costs about $5, after which you'll only have to worry about the low amounts listed above: 5 cents an hour from 8 a.m. to midnight, and 2 cents an hour other times. The facility comes with security cameras and allows you to store your bike for up to 10 days. Given D.C.'s many fears about bike thievery, the security element of a Bike & Ride seems like the best incentive.

(Photo: WMATA)

WMATA's Capital Improvement Program has included a myriad set of pedestrian and bicycling amenities in its plans for the next decade or so. The transit agency has set a goal of increasing its stations' bicyclist mode access to 2.1% by 2020 and 3.5% by 2030, and the Office of Planning has sought to determine the amount of bike parking necessary to accommodate these future bicyclists. The current bike mode share of stations, according to WMATA, is 0.7%, meaning WMATA hopes to triple the amount of bike access to its stations within the next eight years. Last year, the agency mapped how crowded its various bike racks became as well as data on how riders used the 1,700 bike racks at 84 of the 86 Metro stations. WMATA concluded there was space to park about 3,500 bikes at the time.

To reach its future access goals, WMATA hopes to add significant bike parking capacity — 4,308 additional bike parking spaces by 2020 to reach an access goal of 2.1%. WMATA has already identified 400 possible locations and plans to achieve nearly double that capacity, 8,200 bike parking spaces, which would include 30 of these Bike & Ride facilities accounting for 1,508 of the new bike parking spaces. The majority of identified new capacity would come from covered inverted U-racks. "These locations include recommended equipment types, capacity achieved, dimensions of the space to be used and geo-tagged photographs," WMATA's Office of Planning notes. "These features also include cover recommendations, security ratings, convenience ratings, and factors that may impact the cost of installation." WMATA is still struggling to identify how to fund all these initiatives and only is able to fund about a quarter of the Bike & Ride plans as of now. The total cost for these new centers comes to about $1.6 million. WMATA has, meanwhile, sought to increase its access in other ways in 2012. Geoff Hatchard recently observed how the transit agency upped its bike parking at the NoMa Metro station in recent months.

And now here's our first Bike & Ride center. Users tested it out over the past month, and within 24 hours, the facility will be open to the public. Tomorrow WMATA will hold a ribbon cutting at 10 a.m. with the mayors of Greenbelt, College Park, WMATA Deputy General Manager Carol Kissal, and Shane Farthing of the Washington Area Bicyclists Assocation. The debut represents a key commitment to multi-modal transportation in the region and hints at broader, longer-term strategies that may prove vital to how we get around the District and beyond.

Update, 2:33 p.m.: Here's a WMATA brochure and, below, a bicyclist's video of the new facility if you want a better sense of the Bike & Ride.

Update, 2:10 p.m., May 15: WMATA has released its own video, starring Antos, to guide people through the Bike & Ride, and announces that such secure bike parking facilities will also be built at the King Street and Vienna Metro stations by next summer.

The contract first moved forward in the middle of last year. "LED provides better power, better color — it's a white color," Jama Abdi, an engineer for the District Department of Transportation, told me last July.

The first of the LED alley lights, as part of the million-dollar contract now concluding, was expected to have been replaced late last summer. Washington, D.C. has taken close to 10 months to complete the replacement of these 1,360 lights. Last summer, DDOT said it hoped to replace about 1,000 over the course of six months. The District government has also stated it's looking into how to integrate LED lights more broadly across the city's 68,000 street lights, nearly nine out of 10 of which are high-pressure sodium lamps.

But the alleys mark a good start. The public space is critical for a community's pedestrians, who rely on the spaces to cut through and circulate. Safe passage frequently calls for other residents using the alleys and proper illumination. Don't underestimate the transportation implications of a good, functioning alley in any town.

The Chicago Department of Transportation, led by former DDOT director Gabe Klein, includes the following chilling and instructive chart in its new transportation priorities report, a reminder of what many already know but helpful to see again. Chicago is pushing to lower its residential speed limits from 30 miles/hour to 20 in the name of reducing traffic fatalities — the city hopes to lower the number to zero within a decade. Last year D.C. Councilmember Muriel Bowser suggested that D.C. lower its residential speed limits from 25 miles/hour to 15 but that never passed into law.

(Photo: CDOT)

Note: I've seen the exact percentages vary over the years depending on what sources you look at. Consider this stat from New York City's transportation department last year: "If a pedestrian is hit by a car traveling 40 m.p.h. or faster, there's a 70 percent chance that pedestrian will be killed; at 30 m.p.h., there's an 80 percent chance that the pedestrian will live." The same principle applies, but the chances differ considerably. In 1999, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration pointed to a classic collection of studies from the early '90s that together suggested "5 percent of pedestrians would die when struck by a vehicle traveling 20 mph, about 40 percent for vehicles traveling 30 mph, about 80 percent for vehicles traveling 40 mph, and nearly 100 percent for speeds over 50 mph." These numbers come close to what Chicago just released. These exact Chicago numbers appear to come from the U.K. Department of Transportation's 1987 analysis, entitled Killing Speed and Saving Lives and cited frequently enough by the federal government and pedestrian safety advocates ever since.

Key among them — "Eliminate all pedestrian, bicycle, and overall traffic crash fatalities within 10 years."

Well, that's a nice idea now, isn't it? According to the city's transportation department action agenda, Chicago wants to cut bicyclist and pedestrian injuries by 50% each within a half decade and the total of all roadway crashes and injuries by 10% a year.

Several proposals in the document outline how the Windy City will move toward those goals. The government hopes to educate adults and children more on traffic safety issues to the tune of 5% more a year. Actions include identifying the top-10 crash sites around the city and improving them, up the the amount of traffic studies, carefully placing the city's red light and speed cameras, dropping residential speed limits to 20 miles/hour (D.C.'s standard is 25, Chicago's is 30), rolling out better traffic safety signage, installing 300 countdown pedestrian signals at intersections this year and maybe 100 more next year, and developing a model for bicycle signals.

And how realistic are these plans? D.C., after all, proposed lowering residential speed limits last year without any follow-through and has ignited skepticism with its automated traffic enforcement cameras. Klein assures the Chicago Sun-Times that all the goals have been deemed feasible. D.C. and Chicago both still struggle with the perils of traffic safety. Chicago averages 3,000 crashes between cars and pedestrians, according to the city plan, and 50 pedestrian deaths a year. Last year the D.C. region was home to 76 pedestrian deaths, six bicyclist deaths, and 202 vehicular deaths, according to Street Smart, and AAA Mid-Atlantic recently spotlighted nine bicyclists killed in the last 12 months. In Klein's first year in Chicago, he also tried to raise awareness of the city's pedestrian deaths through a set of 32 mannequins, representing people killed, arranged throughout the urban streets. Overall traffic fatality statistics have improved over the years but death is still very much a part of our transportation systems. But can they ever really be eliminated given the thousands upon thousands of trips happening out there? The efforts are worth attempting.

"Every life lost is one too many," Chicago's officials declare.

But the Metro has created new challenges for its riders in the past year, with breakdowns (offloads, friction rings, a derailment, even the gloom of suicides) along with what has lately been constant track work that often makes the Metro far less convenient, especially on the weekends. No one wants headways of 15 to 30 minutes. The rail system no longer seems as trusty and reliable as a way to get around outside of its weekday rush-hour windows and has, more and more, come to resemble a commuter rail as WMATA rebuilds. As these delays have become depressingly business-as-usual, have residents abandoned the Metrorail in favor of the Metrobus?

The above chart shows the monthly ridership for Metro and Metrobus, in the millions. Today Metro's Board of Directors examined the riderships of both modes in the year to date. In 2012, Metrobus has experienced about 99 million trips compared to about 160 million Metrobus trips. What does that mean? The rail has shown itself to be 1.4 million trips (-1%) below budget but still records 1.1 million trips more than at this time last year. The Metrobus, however, is 7.5 million trips (8%) above budget, with 6.8 million trips (7%) more than this time last year. Consider that difference. Rail ridership still increased by little over a million trips to date this year compared to last, sure, but bus ridership increased by by nearly seven million trips over that same period. 99 million bus trips versus 160 million rail? The bus is catching up. WMATA had expected 91 bus million trips versus about 162 million rail. The transit agency credits the warmer weather, which may be a factor but not the entire story.

Don't expect the broad trends driving away rail riders to disappear either. That fare hike is kicking in within two months, remember, and while it affects both bus and rail, the rail fares are more expensive. Endless weekends of track work are expected to continue — for years. Perhaps some of the trends will be offset by the beginning of expanded service for Rush+ on June 18, but let's wait on that for now. Buses, meanwhile, will start becoming even more attractive starting later this year and especially in 2013 as more and more bus shelters receive real-time arrival signs and as the busiest routes become more reliable, as WMATA pledged to work on starting June 18 in an announcement today. This resurgence flies in the face of past fears, such as in the fall of 2010 when the Post noted "a pattern of dwindling bus ridership and revenue that has contributed to growing budget deficits at Metro."

Then there's the D.C. Circulator, which DDOT Director Terry Bellamy noted had more than 500,000 riders a month back in October. Other transportation options, from Uber to car-sharing to walking to biking, have also received significant attention over the past year and may also be sapping away a certain percentage of rail riders.

Keep watching these bus and rail numbers over the next year or two. The rise in bus riders makes sense given all the changes to the D.C. region's rail system in the last year. WMATA would benefit from encouraging its riders to use bus more than rail, frankly, until the system is finally rebuilt in half a decade. Gridlock may be bad but I'd place my bets on that before single-tracking and offloads.

Consider the global comparison of bikeshare prices in this chart*, featured courtesy of WNYC's Stephen Reader (and hat tip to Transportation Nation for showcasing it). When looking at hourlong and 90-minute bike rides, New York's new system will cost more than other systems despite promises of "cheap" trips. CitiBike says it's "privately sponsored, privately launched and privately operated, with no public funding" whereas Capital Bikeshare runs as a public-private partnership of Arlington, D.C., and Alta Bikeshare. D.C., based on the times listed in the chart above, is comparable to most other systems and has the benefit of costing many members nothing for trips under 30 minutes, the same as the new CitiBike system. The crucial difference when considering these shorter, free trips is overall membership charges (a NYC annual membership costs $95 compared to Capital Bikeshare's $75, and CitiBike's 24-hour pass is about $3 more expensive than one in D.C.).

The debate has also stirred some of our local politicians. Two days ago, a producer for The Peter Schiff Show badgered D.C. Mayor Vince Gray about why D.C. couldn't follow the lead of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and save local taxpayers the burden of the bikeshare cost (although looking at Capital Bikeshare's first year of operating costs versus revenue, our region is doing rather well). Gray didn't accept the criticism lightly, however, and entered an extended exchange with the man on Monday afternoon in full defense of Capital Bikeshare. This little rhetorical moment stands out to me for several reasons, in part due to how it eclipses any initial doubts about whether Mayor Gray would continue the policy of progressive transportation that the previous administration had begun to spearhead. In the last year, the mayor has elevated his rhetoric on long-term transportation goals, on Capital Bikeshare, and on ambitious plans like the D.C. streetcar and has sought to assume an ownership of these projects. His transportation department may struggle to implement elements of them at times, but his vocal support should no longer be questioned.

See the mayor's extended exchange on Capital Bikeshare, Storified below:

*Update, 7:36 p.m.: The price comparison chart, as some of you have also observed, is a little off in places, and Stephen Reader and I have corresponded on some of those points and he's created a new version of the chart that integrates more accurate reporting. The new version of his chart is now featured above.

These conclusions, of course, directly support the central issue for which the poll's sponsoring organization, America Bikes, advocates, which is worth noting. The survey consciously led respondents through a series of questions and detail before receiving their answers about increasing or maintaining sidewalk and bike funding. Here was the sequence of questioning, according to the full white paper on the poll:

Participants were first asked to estimate what percentage of federal transportation funding is currently spent on sidewalks, bike lanes, and bike paths. Participants were then were asked to say what percentage of transportation funds should be spent on biking and walking infrastructure. Respondents then learned that less than 2 percent of transportation funding goes to sidewalks, bike lanes, and bike paths; 17 percent is used for public transportation; and 80 percent is used for roads and highways. Respondents were asked if the percentage that goes to biking and walking should increase, decrease, or stay about the same.

The method naturally primes people to answer in the way they did, but the bias may not be terrible. These methods successfully alert people to how transportation funds really are spent, which many don't know. It matters that four out of five federal dollars go toward automotive transportation. A little education and proper disclosure of current funding may, sensibly, make a person more inclined to favor pedestrian and cycling investment. The survey seems like a direct challenge to the debates that seized Capitol Hill for much of the past year, with multiple Republican politicians challenging the notion that the government should be paying for these car-free amenities.

Here's a breakdown of the support, by political ideology, gender, age, income, education, geography, and more:

(Photo: America Bikes)

See the full report on the poll here.

When Car2Go, the international car-sharing company that touts 38-cent-a-minute, blue-and-white smartcars and bases its U.S. operations out of Austin, came to D.C. this spring with its fleet of 200 vehicles, one of the biggest selling points was that its members would not have to worry about most parking restrictions. Meters? Forget about 'em. Car2Go members only have to pay attention to more serious restrictions such as rush-hour zones and street sweeping, according to the deal that Car2Go hashed out with the D.C. Department of Transportation over the past six months. Katie Stafford, the Car2Go communications manager for North America, said the agreement covers "metered parking and the zone 9 residential parking permit."

The deal's final cost? $578,000 for the first year of the parking agreement.

Josh Moskowitz, DDOT's car-sharing project manager, confirmed the figure, first mentioned in a Discovery review of the service, and explained the timeline of how Car2Go secured the agreement. The car-sharing company initially had planned to expend quite a bit of its D.C. cash on a few of the government's 84 curbside parking spaces auctioned off last summer to three car-sharing companies (including longstanding District champion Zipcar and fellow newcomer Hertz On Demand) with astoundingly high sums in the neighborhood of $300,000 or more for all 84 spaces.

Car2Go "relinquished," Moskowitz explains to me, its 47 city curbside parking spaces on December 31, 2011 once the first quarter concluded, and DDOT and the company tried to work out an alternative agreement. Those negotiations continued for months and weren't finalized until the end of February when Car2Go announced its official plans to launch in the District a month later. The company likely paid far more for its agreement (a bit under $600,000) than it likely ever paid for the 47 curbside parking spaces. What a high price to ensure that members would never have to sweat parking tickets, no? Consider the math of what Car2Go paid D.C. for a second. Your standard ticket for an expired parking meter runs $25 in Washington, D.C. In paying $578,000, Car2Go paid off D.C. for the lost income of what would calculate into 23,120 expired-meter parking tickets. But the parking agreement remains a powerful and unique incentive for those considering car-sharing, even if the vehicles did receive a few mistaken tickets in initial weeks. Stafford calls the agreement a "key advantage" of Car2Go in D.C. and says members "absolutely love that they don't need to pay to park; and they absolutely love that they can essentially park anywhere." She wouldn't disclose any numbers about Car2Go membership but said it's "growing exponentially" so far.

And what happened to those 47 lost Car2Go spots? DDOT turned back to Zipcar and Hertz On Demand in early 2012 to see "about operating out of the spaces they would [have] won without Car2go's participation in the original bid," according to Moskowitz. The two other car-sharing companies happily took the spots. Hertz On Demand will soon go from having 23 of the District's 84 curbside parking spaces to 43, and Zipcar has received the other 27 for a new total of 43 curbside spaces. Zipcar had, until last year's bidding, possessed all 80+ parking spaces the District offered without competition and, until the last two years, without paying anything.