Breakfast links: Virginia all-in for roads

VA senate passes McDonnell’s roads plan

Virginia’s Democratic-controlled Senate overwhelmingly approved Governor McDonnell’s $4 billion road-building plan. With the passage of a companion bill in the House, the plan faces little remaining opposition. (WUSA)

Wider roads top priority in new report

A report from The Road Information Project identifies the group’s 50 top transportation priorities for Virginia. Of the top 10, 9 involve roads, 7 contain the words “widen” or “add lanes,” and while 2 contain Metro recommendations, one is Dulles rail, and the other is extension of Metro southward, contingent on widening I-95. (WTOP)

More “design by fire truck”

Arlington removed parking on one side of a street because fire trucks might have trouble fitting down the street. However, this will lead to people driving faster. A better solution would be to buy narrower fire trucks, which Arlington’s Transportation Commission has recommended. (TBD)

DoD should be chipping in for transportation

A Transportation Research Board report criticizes the Department of Defense for refusing to pay anything toward transportation around area BRAC sites. Pentagon policy is only to pay if congestion would double, and then only for roads and not transit. (Examiner)

Evans unfazed by Snyder lawsuit

Apparently suing a good local paper isn’t enough to get Jack Evans to stop wanting to give taxpayer dollars to the Redskins to get them to locate something, anything, in the District. Tommy Wells, meanwhile, was opposed before and is more so now. (DeBonis)

Development team selected for New Carrollton

WMATA and Maryland have selected Forest City Washington and Urban Atlantic to lead the re-development of the New Carrolton Metro station. The project will transform many parking lots into 5 million square feet of office and retail, and as many as 5,500 homes. (Post, C. R.)  (Tip: C. R.)

Pepco frustration continues, MoCo eyes other options

Despite official apologies and several ads apologizing for poor service, Pepco is still under fire from Montgomery County officials, who have begun talks with the American Public Power Association about starting a new, publicly owned utility. (TBD)

More research says cities safer than suburbs for kids

Everything from lots of driving increasing crash risks, higher propensity for teenagers to drink and drive even to low school diversity increasing shooting risks, more research is indicating that cities are a safer place to raise children than the suburbs. (National Post)

Remembering freedom bus rides

50 years ago, 13 people, black and white, hopped a Greyhound bus from DC to Mississippi in a protest that would help end segregation on intercity buses.  An old bus on the campus of the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg remembers those riders. (WAMU)

And…

University of Maryland officials are still arguing against the Campus Drive Purple Line alignment, though less vehemently under Wallace Loh. (Rethink College Park) … A Maryland State Senator wants to raise the state gas tax by 10 cents, and index the tax to inflation beginning in 2013. (WUSA) … A pedestrian was injured in a hit-and-run crash in Wheaton this morning. (WUSA)