The Associated Press just reported an interesting article about how there is a revival among U.S. cities of interest in installing street car lines.

Click here to read it.

Bolstered by President Obama’s support for transit options, cities are lining up for federal economic stimulus grants to install streetcar lines, which they hope will provide transportation options and yield economic development benefits.

Opponents say the federal grants are just making the fact that the public will have to subsidize the operations of the streetcars, which aren’t a practical transportation option.

The article mentions the streetcar in Portland, which runs from Northwest Portland in the Pearl District down to the new South Waterfront.

What do you think?

Oh, in case you’re interested, here is a map of the old Bellingham trolley lines:

Deals to have private investors buy government infrastructure have all but dried up in the recession, according to an article in USA Today.

They include Chicago’s proposed $2.5 billion deal to sell Midway Airport (the investors could round up enough money), and Florida’s proposal to sell a section on Interstate 75, know as Alligator Alley because it cuts through the Everglades (nobody bid at the auction for it).

Click here to read the article.

A 5,000-pound, three-foot-long rod fell off the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge yesterday in the middle of rush hour, damaging a car but, miraculously, injuring nobody.

Click here to read about it.

Maybe by coincidence or not, but right after a video rendering was released showing how much damage would occur to the Alaskan Way Viaduct in another serious earthquake, the governor announced an automated system that’ll stop traffic from getting on the bridge during an earthquake.

Click here to read the article at SeattleP-I.com.

The early warning system is expected to cost between $5 million and $10 million and it’ll be paid with federal money.

The state Department of Transportation had a simulation created showing what’ll happen to Seattle’s waterfront during a major earthquake.

It’s actually quite frightening.

The DOT didn’t want to release the video simulation, but a resident found out that it exists and did a public disclosure request, and the state had to comply. Click here to see the article.

How happy would you be if instead of riding on the state’s new MV Chetzemoka ferry you took a ride on the MV Safeco? Or the MV Starbucks? MV Microsoft?

You don’t have anything to worry about. A consultant hired by the state says it wouldn’t work to sell the naming rights to the state ferry system’s new ferries. There just isn’t enough ridership on the routes the new boats take, and there would probably be a big backlash against pasting the names of companies on the hull as opposed to Native American names.

That’s according to an interesting article in The Kitsap Sun newspaper. Click here to read it.

But the consultant told the state’s Transportation Commission that the state could expand advertising in the system, while not necessarily selling naming rights.

What do you think?

The last time my Toyota Corolla wouldn’t start, I took it down to Chuck’s automotive on State Street and they did an electrical test. Turns out it was just the battery wasn’t holding a charge anymore.

I think a new one cost roughly $100, which I wasn’t too happy about.

Apparently, the batteries in the hybrid diesel-electric buses in New York City’s fleet cost $60,000 each. Ouch.

I just read an interesting article in The New York Times about the bus fleet there, which is about 19 percent hybrid buses. Click here to read it.

“To reduce oil dependence, nothing would do more good more
quickly than making cars that could connect to the electric grid.”

— David Sandalow, Assistant Secretary for Policy and
International Affairs U.S. Department of Energy

That’s a quote on a flier for the upcoming “Beyond Oil,” the sixth annual transportation and technology conference. The conference, which is sponsored by Discovery Institute’s Cascadia Center, is this coming weekend.

The conference this year is going to be held at Microsoft’s Redmond campus, and speakers will include U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, and Bryan Mistele, president and CEO of Inrix and Rob Bernard, chief environmental strategist at Microsoft.

Click here to see the flier for the conference.

Click here for more information and to register.

The state Transportation Commission will consider naming a freeway overpass on Interstate 405 after a worker killed by a drunken driver and the Port Townend-Keystone ferry route after a Native American chief:

The Commission plans to take action on a proposal to name the I-405 overpass at NE 116th Street as a memorial to Kollin Nielson, a Kiewit Construction employee killed in the work zone by a drunk driver on I-405 in Kirkland during the summer of 2007. The Commission also plans to act on a proposal to name the new ferry serving the Port Townsend-Keystone route the “Chetzemoka” after a Native American Chief of the S’Klallam Tribe.

The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 20, and Wednesday, Oct. 21, in Olympia. Click here for more information.

State officials still aren’t sure what caused the massive landslide that destroyed a section of Highway 410 and diverted the Naches River, northwest of Yakima.

It wasn’t like the ones we have over here in Whatcom County, where rains saturate soils, which then slips. They’ve had indications of slippage before, but they never suspected anything of this scale.

Click here to read the latest in The Seattle Times.

Meanwhile, the highway is going to be closed through the winter, at least.