Breakfast links: Maryland and Virginia are moving closer to a Metro funding agreement
There’s promising momentum towards securing dedicated funding for Metro
There's some promising political momentum for providing permanent, dedicated funding for Metro in Maryland and Virginia. However, crucial elements have not been hashed out yet, including how much money Metro would get, what reforms would be required, and more. (Robert McCartney / Post)
Amazon is reading up on Arlington County
An ARLnow article about Arlington County's environmental award from the US Green Building Council, which was published in December, got a spike in web traffic from Amazon. Could this mean anything for HQ2, or does Amazon just want to promote green building design? (ARL Now)
Uber now offers Express Pool, a more bus-like model
Uber Pool Express is expanding to DC this week. Riders will pay less compared to Uber and Uber Pool rides, but will wait longer for pickup, and will have to walk up to two blocks to the car and again to their destination at the end of the ride. (Faiz Siddiqui / Post)
The DCPS Chancellor resigns after outcry from the Council and the public
Chancellor Antwan Wilson resigned after it came to light that his daughter received preferential treatment to transfer to a new school in the city's school lottery program. Wilson had written a policy to prevent city officials from circumventing school transfer and placement policies. (Andrew Giambrone and Tom Sherwood / WCP)
The school board chair is calling for Prince William County’s superintendent to resign
Superintendent Steven Walts struck a moped with his car in August, sending the moped rider to the hospital. Now the chair of the school board is calling for the superintendent to resign, saying that he misled the school system about the severity of the crash. (Debbie Truong / Post)
The safety issues that caused Baltimore’s Metro shutdown were found in 2016
A 2016 Maryland Transit Administration inspection found deteriorated rails at seventeen turns in the system. Instead of replacing them, they continued to run the trains as usual until the sudden system shutdown earlier this month. (Colin Campbell / Baltimore Sun)
A taxi drove onto the Custis Trail in Arlington
A DC Taxi drove onto the multiuse bike and pedestrian trail, which was luckily nearly empty at the time. The trail has a wide enough trailhead for a car to pass. (Bridget Reed Morawski / ARL Now)
Local data experts dug into the region’s bikeshare information
At Bikeshare Hack Night, people shared their informative projects made using bikeshare data, from Capital Bikeshare ride breakdown, to interactive heatmaps of nearby bikes, to instructions for an Amazon Alexa to check bike docks for you. (Andrew Carpenter / Mobility Lab)
Salisbury will test out dockless bikesharing
Spin, the orange dockless bikeshare company, will launch in Salisbury, Maryland this week. The company will offer discounted rides to Salisbury University students and a cheaper monthly membership than is available around DC. (Nicole Lauren / WBOC)
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