Breakfast links: Headlines, bread-lines blow my mind

Rent is outpacing income

Rents in our region are rising much faster than incomes, more than any other US city. Demand has outpaced supply in popular coastal cities while many incomes nationwide have remained stagnant. (Post)

Rent is lower than SF, NY

Washington area rents may be high, but they still aren’t at San Francisco or New York levels. The average rent here is $1,715, while in the Bay Area it’s $3,226 and in the NY area it’s $2,893. Washington also has more vacant rentals than its competitors. (Washingtonian)

“Sue the suburbs” gets a win

Pro-housing activists are suing a SF Bay Area city for rejecting denser housing, under a little-used California law. Their lawsuit just cleared a key hurdle about whether the plaintiffs have standing to sue. (SFBT)

New wmata.com

Metro has released the beta for its new website design.  The new layout should work better on mobile devices and has more and bigger images in place of dense text. (Post)

“Privatize” Metro?

A mysterious group held a protest advocating for Metro privatization. No word on what organization they were connected to or if they had any idea what privatizing Metro would even mean. (City Paper)

Bidding for paratransit

Metro is looking for a new contractor to run part of its paratransit service. The goal is reliable and equitable service for the elderly and disabled, but at a lower cost than the current very expensive contractor. (Post)

Car2go, the car killer

For every Car2go on DC’s streets, there are as many as 7 fewer personal cars. That’s according to a recent study, which also looked at how Car2go has cut how often people drive and impacted public transit.  (CityLab)

Meals on wheels

Uber has extended its UberEats food delivery service to include deliveries by bike. The app errs on the side of employing a bike courier rather than a driver in dense areas, and the fees are the same. (Post)

Automation and safety

A self-driving bus in the Netherlands successfully navigated a 12-mile route along city streets. (TechCrunch) … A (human) taxi driver hit a cyclist outside Union Station on Tuesday. (DCist) … A Tesla’s autopilot stopped the car from hitting a pedestrian on New York Avenue. (@elonmusk)