Photo by drinksmachine on Flickr.

Danger: falling budgets: Metro is just the latest transit agency nationwide to warn of a looming budget crisis. Metro staff proposed $176 million in cuts, of which $103 million would come from staff and expenses and $73 million in service cuts. The board promised not to raise fares until 2010, though they could change their minds. No word yet on which cuts will happen.

Inauguration update: Every newspaper and most other blogs are covering inauguration transportation plans ad nauseum, and Greater Greater Washington isn’t going to try to beat them. But here are the most important points: Metro will run special express buses; forget about crossing the Potomac by car (Virginians are annoyed); all those overpriced rental offers are going untaken.

Oh look, yet another bike sharing program: American University brings it to four completely incompatible systems in DC. Via WashCycle.

Equity objection a “red herring”: Freakonomics continues their series on congestion pricing. This installment rebuts the common objection that pricing hurts the poor.

Fantasy map of the day: цarьchitect blogger and frequent GGW commenter has his own interesting fantasy Metro map. Via Imagine, DC.

How about those old Georgetown street names? Georgetown Metropolitan looks at ideas for keeping something of the historic street names alive without actually renaming the streets back to their 1880 names.