Breakfast links: Light rail reading
Books on the wind
Contra Costa County, California installed automated library kiosks in BART stations so patrons could borrow books before boarding trains. There are similar stations in Madrid, Bogota, Santiago, and Sao Paulo. (Polis, Justin M) (Tip: Justin M)
Fair and purple
Go back to Silver Spring the evening after our party for a forum Wednesday on making the Purple Line fair for residents of Langley Park. Prince George’s has some bad ideas for redevelopment around the planned station. (JUFJ)
Mote out of our eyes
UMD’s anti-Purple Line, pro-expressway President Dan Mote is retiring. Transportation aside, he did a lot for the University. (Rethink College Park)
People walk? News to 9 News
Apparently the only people trying to go to Georgetown for dinner on Valentine’s Day were drivers; or at least, a WUSA9 story only talked about traffic backups on Prospect Street exacerbated by the snow with no mention of the blockaded sidewalks that hampered pedestrians. (JTS) (Tip: JTS)
Stuck on the train
Passengers on two Amtrak trains got stranded for six hours Saturday around Lorton when one train broke down and an attempt to bring a second train to its aid didn’t work. (Post, Gavin Baker) (Tip: Gavin Baker)
Freeway pollution is bad
Researchers found that people living within 100 meters of an LA freeway had arteries hardening twice as fast as normal. (LA Times, Ben) (Tip: Ben)
Bike bites
SmartBike has been suspended “until further notice” due to weather (DCist) … 3-foot passing failed in the Virginia House but has another shot when the House votes on the Senate bill (VABike) … Bicycling is worth almost $2 billion a year to Wisconsin (GOOD, John W.) … NYC is replacing meters with bike racks as they install multispace meters. (NY Post)