Breakfast links: Ouch

Charter driver hits Metrobus

19 people were injured on a Metrobus this morning after the driver of a charter bus rear-ended a Metrobus on Good Hope Road in Anacostia. (Get There)

Hello? Police?

Metro police didn’t respond to a problem on the Red Line earlier this week. A man was screaming and hassling passengers, and the train operator kept calling out, “transit police please contact the operator.” The train waited 5 minutes at Gallery Place as the operator asked for police, but none arrived, nor at any other stations at least to Dupont Circle. (Unsuck DC Metro)

The new new corridor

Takoma Park is trying to promote its New Hampshire Avenue corridor with a new Web site, branding it “The New New Hampshire Ave” and celebrating the ethnic businesses along the corridor. It also includes a page on plans for the corridor, including a boulevard concept to make the road more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly.

“Transportation” equals “roads” to AASHTO

AASHTO, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, AAA, and the Chamber of Commerce picked “America’s Ten Best Transportation Projects.” Yet there’s not a single transit, pedestrian or bicycle project among them. That’s not just because they liked road projects the most; according to the press release, the award team only even considered road projects.

Preston Bryant to chair NCPC

President Obama has nominated Preston Bryant, Virgini’s Secretary of Natural Resources and a Republican from Richmond, to replace John Cogbill as Chair of NCPC. Cogbill’s seat must go to a Virginian, as the rules require Presidential appointees to include one person from Virginia and one from Maryland. From the few NCPC meetings I’ve seen, Cogbill wasn’t particularly sympathetic to DC’s needs; will Bryant be better? (Washington Business Journal)

Making the east coast look bad

The EFF compares transit agencies’ handling of schedule data. West coast agencies, like those in San Francisco and Portland, get high marks for embracing an open source model; New York and DC come out on the bottom between the NY MTA’s legal threats to applications and WMATA’s plans to spend $500,000 to find out if their data is worth anything. (Electronic Frontier Foundation, Michael P)  (Tip: Michael P)

Hunting for better bicycling

Froggie, who lives in Huntington, put together a bicycling wish list. Better signs, separated bike lanes, more trails, and a decent bike route through Old Town Alexandria top the list. (Froggie’s Blog)

A whale of a cake

This is really funny. DCist asked a cake shop to write “DCist” in big letters across a whole cake. Instead, they got a cake reading, “DCist on a whole cake.” Better yet, the handwriting makes it look like it says, “DCist on a whale cake.”