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Over the past quarter century, U.S. taxpayers have pumped more than $100 billion in subsidies into the nation's urban mass transit systems. That massive taxpayer investment has paid for urban public transportation systems that fewer and fewer Americans are using. Incredibly, mass transit ridership is lower today--not only as a percentage of commuter trips taken but also in absolute numbers of riders-- than it was in the early 1960s. Despite the low and declining use of bus and rail systems, federal grants for urban transit now appear to be as popular as ever: bills before both houses of Congress would...

Thanks to a bizarre MTA policy and a union contract, city bus drivers are taking an average of two months off each time a rider spits on them. This was revealed at an MTA committee meeting today where officials explained that they define an "assault" on a driver broadly enough to include getting spit on. Under the drivers’ contract, each time they are assaulted they are entitled to take sick time to recover. Last year 51 bus operators reported they were spit on and got to take an average of 64 days off, MTA officials said.

Cyclist is suing Miami-Dade County over accident Most people know that being a cyclist in Miami isn't the healthiest choice you can make. But now there is video proof. A Youtube video has surfaced which allegedly shows an incident in January where a Miami-Dade transit bus mows down a cyclist on Biscayne Boulevard. The footage comes from the on board camera on the bus. Watch the video here. Cyclist Pier Raccuglia is suing the county over the accident, claiming the bus driver tried to run him off the road. He suffered a broken foot in the accident. "It was...

As two companies compete to be the first to provide high-speed rail service between Las Vegas and Southern California in the not too distant future, a third is saying it will have a train click-clacking along next year. Las Vegas Railway Express will provide conventional passenger rail service to and from Los Angeles on existing tracks, its executives say. They’ve been studying the prospect since early 2009 and are now in the strategic planning stage for an inaugural run by mid-2011, more than three years ahead of when the planned DesertXpress high-speed rail system would make its first trip between...

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SNIPPET: "An hour apart, they detonated their hidden explosives on Moscow's renowned subway - second only in size to Tokyo's - killing 39 people and injuring dozens of others. The 39th victim was announced by Moscow officials on Tuesday after a woman died in a clinic from her wounds. Experts believe the attacks signal a return of the feared Black Widows - homicidal Muslim women who have lost husbands or other family in Russia's long-running Chechen conflict." Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/03/28/2010-03-28_two_explosions_rock_the_moscow_subway_system_killing_at_least_25_people.html

Service won't be affected, official says The Las Vegas Monorail Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday, one month after representatives of the rail system announced such a move could allow a future $500 million expansion to McCarran International Airport. Monorail officials said last month that they had three options: negotiate an agreement with bondholders without filing for bankruptcy; file for bankruptcy with the bondholders' blessing; or file without a new agreement in place. Curtis Myles, chief executive officers of the company, would not elaborate on a deal forged with bondholders. "We have been in discussions with bondholders. We have...

HONOLULU — Stinky city bus riders soon could get soaked. The Honolulu City Council is considering a bill that would impose up to a $500 fine and/or up to six months in jail for public transit passengers convicted of being too smelly. The bill will be heard Thursday in committee. It would make it illegal to have "odors that unreasonably disturb others or interfere with their use of the transit system." It doesn't matter if it's body odor or offensive fumes that emanates from clothes, personal belongings or animals. Councilmen Rod Tam and Nestor Garcia co-sponsored the anti-odor bill.

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - Olympic organisers are "very alive" to the threat of a cyber attack on the London 2012 Olympics, made more challenging because of its evolving nature, senior Interior Ministry officials said on Tuesday. Ticketing systems, the transport network and hotel bookings as well as security are among potential targets. Olympic security officials are also planning for the possible diversion of aircraft to protect airspace around the venues from terrorist attacks, the officials said. The greatest threat to security at the Games is international terrorism, the government's latest "Safety and Security Strategy" report said.

NORFOLK Police have recovered more than 2,000 government checks totaling $103,000 and arrested three men after a hotel mix-up led to what police on Wednesday called a quickly formed conspiracy and theft. Police said a contractor with the U.S. Department of Transportation checked into the Doubletree Hotel Norfolk Airport at 880 N. Military Hwy. on Monday and went out. Meanwhile, the hotel mistakenly checked a second guest into the same room. Acquaintances of the second guest went through the contractor’s luggage, police said, and found and took a laptop and the checks. The checks, in various amounts, were to be...

While The Resident is telling you NOT to Panic it seems the Vice President is telling you otherwise... NBC New York: "I would not be at this point ... [be] suggesting they ride the subway," Biden said when asked whether he would advise family members to use public transportation. Biden made his comments during a brief interview on NBC's "Today" show during an interview with Matt Lauer. The vice president said if one person sneezes on a plane "it goes all the way through the aircraft."

SNIPPET: "Fourteen years ago today Aum Shinrikyo released sarin gas on the Tokyo subway." SNIPPET: "A final note - Aum Shinrikyo operatives, on the order of the cult's leader, underwent flight training in Florida. There is no evidence that they made any attempts to use this training. It is just an odd, disturbing coincidence."

Nov 26, 2008 5:00 pm US/Eastern "Feds Warn Of Terror Plot Against NYC Subways Homeland Security: Expect Larger Police Presence In NYC And In Major Cities Across U.S. During Holidays" ARTICLE SNIPPET: "NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ― Federal authorities are warning police of a possible terror plot against the New York City subway and train systems during the holiday season, prompting local officials to beef up security at stations. An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says the FBI has received a "plausible but unsubstantiated" report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system. A...

CBS 5 Poll: South Bay BART Measure Falling Short SAN JOSE (CBS 5/KCBS/BCN) ― A new poll of Santa Clara County voters finds Measure B, a one-eighth-cent increase in the sales tax to help pay for the BART extension to San Jose, still has not garnered the two-thirds majority it needs to pass. A CBS 5 poll conducted by SurveyUSA found that 62 percent of likely voters either lean toward voting or are certain to vote for the extension. The Yes on B campaign has lined up big names such as former Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to convince the 17...

Welcome to your Monday morning blood-boiler. The NY Post reports that a jihadi group in NYC planning on running a series of subway ads is led by a Muslim imam tied to the terror plot to bomb the city’s landmarks. Submission: Allah board!An Islamic group plans to blitz 1,000 subway cars with advertisements this September in a campaign being promoted by a Brooklyn imam whom federal officials have linked to a plot to blow up city landmarks.The group says its mission is to explain the true nature of Islam to non-Muslims who believe the religion is bent on acts of...

MUSLIM SUBWAY ADS LINKED TO TERROR PLOTS - New York Post Jul 21, 2008 ... An Islamic group plans to blitz 1000 subway cars with advertisements this September in a campaign being promoted by a Brooklyn imam whom ...

Michael Munger of Duke University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about Munger's recent trip to Chile and the changes Chile has made to Santiago's bus system. What was once a private decentralized system with differing levels of quality and price has been transformed into a system of uniform quality designed from the top down. How has the new system fared? Not particularly well according to Munger. Commuting times are up and the President of Chile has apologized to the Chilean people for the failures of the new system. Munger talks about why such changes take place and why they...

The Municipal Railway will not use buses from its new hybrid fleet on one line that runs through the public housing projects in San Francisco's Hunters Point neighborhood until officials can stop troublemakers there from turning off the buses' power switches. Muni drivers have reported over the last couple of weeks that people have been shutting down the power on their buses by flipping a switch that can be accessed easily through an unlocked panel on the outside of the bus. When that happens, the drivers can't accelerate, they lose radio contact with dispatchers and the interior lights on the...

FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan 3. -- Just before New Year's Eve, a Fort Worth mother was kicked off the public bus for reading the Bible aloud to her children on the way to church. "What kind of person pulls over public transportation and kicks out a mother and her children for reading their Bible on the way to church?" said Kelly Shackelford, Chief Counsel for Liberty Legal Institute, the legal organization representing Christine Lutz. "Freedom of religion exists on public transportation just like anywhere else." Christine Lutz was reading the Bible to her children while on the way to church...

A MARTA employee is in jail on pending charges of kidnapping a 15-year-old girl on a bus. When Jamella Duvall saw a MARTA bus approach her stop on Hollywood Road Dec. 21, she said, it pulled over and let her on like dozens of times before. She said she had no idea her step onto the bus would lead to a flying leap from the moving vehicle. Dennis Sims, 48, a bus inspector, was supposed to be transporting the bus from a garage to the H.E. Holmes MARTA station for a bus swap, according to the MARTA police report. He...