Breakfast links: Mendocracy

Mendelson, Brown win leadership posts

Phil Mendelson cruised to election as DC Council chair, but the fight over the pro tempore spot between Michael Brown and Vincent Orange was much more acrimonious, even bringing Yvette Alexander to tears. Brown eventually prevailed despite some doubt about his previous ethics lapses. (Post)

Purple Line tunnel could have sidewalk

The Maryland MTA believes it can include a 5-foot sidewalk next to the Purple Line in its Bethesda tunnel. That will let pedestrians, and cyclists walking, to avoid crossing MD-355 at street level if they wish. (WashCycle)

“A” for effort at least

The DC government now wants your feedback on how its agencies are doing. Grade.DC.Gov will even post letter grades on how each agency performed.  (Post)

Columbia Pike streetcar survives

A measure that would have replaced the Columbia Pike streetcar with articulated buses was narrowly defeated in Arlington’s Transit Advisory Committee. (ARLnow)

Space for charters

DC charter schools can have a tough time finding space.  Meanwhile, many DCPS schools are empty or underutilized, but perhaps an independent authority could arbitrate to get to the best outcome for the city.  (City Paper)

Some people are rude, including on bikes

When a health columnist wrote about the challenges biking 17 miles to work from the suburbs, some replies encouraged him to keep trying while others were just rude and accused him of wimpiness. (Post)

Don’t rush to conclusions

The staggered train departures of Rush Plus will make Metro’s on-time metrics look worse than they actually are. (Examiner)

Who’s at fault

The largest number of driver and pedestrian collisions occur in the crosswalk when the pedestrian has the signal, followed by pedestrians outside the crosswalk (legally or not) and pedestrians without the signal. (TBD)

Where the car-free are

Ward 8 leads DC with nearly half of households car-free followed by Ward 2. Ward 3 followed closely by Ward 4 have the highest percentage of houses with cars. (TBD; this is actually not new, but many haven’t seen it.)

And…

The new iPhone OS will drop Google Maps and therefore transit directions. (Streetsblog) … Lots of rental property will soon become available in DC. (City Paper) … A seemingly broke Texas DOT still found $2 billion for a new highway. (Streetsblog)