DC Bus Privatization - Does Not Benefit Public

I picked this up at the Washington, DC, Greenfest - about privatization of buses in DC. Private companies by definition serve the share holders via the bottom line. I think they call that fiduciary responsibility. Responsibility to the public is low priority.

www.bettertransitDC.org

Bike Issues In A Land Down Under

Bike transportation issues are all over - from Australia below. And what about the unregistered motor scooters? The police tell me that any engine over 50cc must be licensed to be on a public road and that any engine under 50cc is not allowed on a public road. For the number of non-registered motor scooters I see, there is abig loop hole somewhere.

Riding roughshod

Bruce Guthrie
February 5, 2012 - 3:00AM

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PREMIER Ted Baillieu finally killed off the notion of bicycle registration, no doubt prompting sighs of relief from lycra-clad pedal-pushers. Said Ted: ''I think everybody has come down in the past on the side of not doing that, and that's certainly the starting point for me.'' It was a victory for common sense and cyclists.

At least, I think it was. On re-examining the Premier's comments, you realise he left himself a lot of wriggle room. And, more importantly, maybe registration is just what cyclists need if they are ever going to be treated with respect by other road users.

For the most part, I admire cyclists and believe the more we encourage cycling the better. It has obvious health and environmental benefits. But while I am loath to entertain the idea of any new government impost, bicycle registration might at least begin to heal the rift between riders and motorists.

And what a rift it is, as evidenced by the extraordinary support Shane Warne attracted recently in his call for registration. While the incident that provoked his call is the subject of claim and counter-claim, there is no doubt the cricketer tapped into a rich vein of anger among motorists frustrated by the aggressive behaviour of some cyclists and their lack of accountability.

I know that some of this aggression is necessary to simply survive on roads where cyclists are outnumbered, outsized, outweighted and constantly at risk of injury or worse. But do they have to be so righteously indignant about it?

I've had obscenities hurled at me for daring to turn left across the path of cyclists tens of metres behind me, been yelled at for opening my driver side door inappropriately (and, yes, I looked first to make sure it was safe), been almost bowled over at a pedestrian crossing by a cyclist running a red light, and, in one particularly memorable moment, had a cyclist hang on to my car at a red light and then flip me the bird as he took off ahead of me when red turned to green. And they have this annoying habit of changing their riding habits - one minute they'll use the road, then the footpath, then a pedestrian crossing, if it suits them. (Besides, on Sunday mornings, they crowd out all the best coffee joints.)

Whenever any of this happens I find myself thinking: how come I have to pay to share the road, but cyclists get off scot-free? And why can they break all these road rules anonymously? If it were a motorist I would at least be able to give police a registration number. If I failed to stop at a red light my picture would be taken and I'd be out $300 and three demerit points.

That's the root of the problem, isn't it? That motorists, motorcyclists, truck drivers and just about any other road user you care to name has to fork out hundreds of dollars each year for the right to use our roads, but cyclists are not required to spend a penny, or be identified. They don't even have to have any kind of licence or training or rider education. No matter what traffic engineers might try to tell us, experience teaches us that cars and bicycles do not go together well.

I have the same reservations about cyclists and pedestrians. Anyone who has ever tried to negotiate Southbank around 5pm on weekdays will know it's a dance with disaster, as homeward-bound pedallers flout speed restrictions.

All of which means the more separation the better, preferably more designated bike lanes. But where is the money going to come from to build them?

Hawaii has had a bicycle registration program since early last century and it doesn't seem to have dampened enthusiasm for cycling. According to the Honolulu mayor's office, the scheme was originally motivated by a desire to cut down on bicycle theft or, at least, aid recovery when it happens. Now it's put into a special bikeway fund used to pay for bike projects and programs.

The scheme is simple and is run out of the local equivalent of VicRoads, so there is no huge additional administrative cost. All bicycles with 20-inch wheels or larger have to be registered for a one-time fee of $15 and an additional $5 if the ownership is ever transferred.

The cyclist is given a unique numbered decal that is attached to the bicycle frame's seat tube. While Bicycle Network Victoria has no detailed figures on the number of bikes on our roads, a spokesman said more than 10 million new bikes had been sold in Australia over the past decade.

Victoria's share of that would probably be at least 2 million. Even if only half were subject to registration, that's a lot of money that could be going to cycling infrastructure and programs. These could include an advertising campaign aimed at educating motorists - and cyclists - about better road behaviour.

With that sort of money, they might even be able to afford someone prominent to front them. Shane Warne perhaps?

Bruce Guthrie is a former editor of The Age, The Sunday Age and Herald Sun.

Twitter: @brucerguthrie

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/riding-roughshod-20120204-1qyt6.html?rand=1328361912276

DPW: public transportation is a pain in the rear

By: Liz Farmer | 10/17/11 4:03 PM
Examiner Staff Writer Follow Her @LizFarmerDC

At a hearing Monday morning on how much the city spends on its fleet of vehicles (or what we're calling the Don't Pimp Your Ride hearing), D.C.'s director of the Department of Public Works revealed his disdain for getting around on public transit.

William Howland Jr., who often drives himself around in his city vehicle, said he needs a driver for days when he has back-to-back meetings downtown because "it's just difficult to get around to meetings just on public transportation." He'd drive himself but parking down by the John A. Wilson Building is nearly impossible and it's more practical to be dropped off. Such is the life, sometimes of an agency director, he said.

Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells, former chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Public Works and Transportation and a champion of public transit, quickly took offense. What kind of message does that send residents that city officials are being chauffeured everywhere, he asked.

"I’m not willing to hear that because you have a lot of meetings, you have to have a car and possibly a driver because you can’t park there," Wells said. "That’s just not the city we live in anymore. At least it shouldn't be."

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/capital-land/2011/10/dpw-public-transportation-pain-rear

For Those Who Have Not Been Paying Attention - Traffic In DC Metro Area Is Horrendous!

D.C. area is No. 1 nationwide in traffic congestion, study says

By Ashley Halsey III, Tuesday, September 27, 12:09 AM

Washington suffers from the worst traffic congestion in the nation, with drivers spending more than three days out of every 365 caught in traffic.

Helped along by a relatively robust economy, the Washington region forged well ahead of perennial rivals Chicago and Los Angeles, which ranked second and third in an extensive study conducted annually by a research group at Texas A&M University.

“This is one of those odd times when bad news is good news,” said Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean T. Connaughton. “The reason we have more congestion is that the Washington region has a very strong economy. I go to other parts of the state and they say they have no transportation problems.”

The 74 hours the average commuter is stuck in traffic each years burn 37 gallons of fuel; the average cost per area driver at the pump and in lost wages comes to $1,495. Local drivers travel bumper to bumper more than twice the national average of 34 hours.

“The biggest change in the commute has been all the construction,” said Darryl Colbert, who has driven into the District from Bowie for 20 years. “A good example is Central Avenue. I used to take that to avoid a backup on Route 50, but now they’ve got steel plates there for the Addison Road construction, and that causes a backup because nobody wants to tear their car up.”

There are efforts underway to create some congestion relief — the Intercounty Connector in Maryland, the Beltway high-occupancy toll lanes and the Metro extension in Virginia and several smaller projects — but officials fear that none of it is enough.

Projections by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments suggest that without significant investment in highways and transit, congestion could stifle the region’s desire to grow. By 2030, the regional population is estimated to increase by 1.2 million, newcomers drawn by 874,000 new jobs.

Public transit, one possible source of relief, has its own issues. Washington’s deteriorating Metro system is in the midst of a $5 billion capital improvement effort just to increase safety and bring the system into good repair.

Highway advocates see another bridge across the Potomac as critical to improvement. Transit and smart-growth proponents see developing communities around rail and bus hubs that are near job centers as a better choice.

But the next great transportation project hasn’t made it off the drawing boards, given the dismal funding prospects, and nothing so grand as the $2.4 billion Wilson Bridge replacement is likely to come around again.

The annual Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) study of urban congestion shows that Washington drivers spent an average of 84 hours delayed in traffic in the three years prior to the opening of the new Wilson Bridge. The number has dropped to an average of 73 hours in the past three years.

“The problem with the commute is that it’s just so random,” said Jeff Lancaster, who says he’s never sure what to expect between his home in Annapolis and his job in downtown Washington. “I don’t think it’s changed so much. It’s just the same. ”

‘Smoke and mirrors’

Nationally, the prospects for congestion relief seem bleak as federal and state transportation revenue continue to shrivel, much of the current transportation system has outlived its life span and few bold new highway or transit projects are on the horizon.

The U.S. Chamber of Commercehas estimated that an outlay of $222 billion a year is necessary to maintain the surface transportation system. Two funding proposals under discussion in Congress would spend $35 billion or $55.4 billion a year.

“Members of Congress continue to delay action on a new multi-year bill as their constituents idle each day in mind-numbing traffic congestion,” said Pete Ruane, president of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. “It’s inexcusable.”

Ruane said robust new investment was needed to revive the 60-year-old interstate system, but he acknowledged that the federal gas tax revenues that built it no longer provide enough money to achieve that.

“Traffic congestion is one of the nation’s very real challenges that can’t be solved by budgetary smoke and mirrors,” he said. “To address the problem, the day is coming soon when Congress will have to take the hard vote on increasing the user fee.”

The federal gas tax, set at 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993, has for generations paid the nation’s transportation bills, but the improvement of gas mileage and introduction of hybrids and electric vehicles has cut into that revenue. Now, highway tolls — as evidenced locally by the ICC, HOT lanes and preliminary approval for Virginia to collect them on Interstate 95 — are being considered as an alternative.

The TTI study said that the annual number of hours wasted in traffic would increase to 77 by 2015 and to 81 by 2020.

“The solution mix may be different for each city, but the one thing they all share in common is urgency,” said Tim Lomax, one of the TTI study’s authors. “If we want a strong economy, doing nothing is not a productive option.”

Engines burn money

The TTI report concludes that congestion cost Americans more than $100 billion in 2010, up from $24 billion in 1982 when calculated in 2011 dollars. Engines idling in traffic burned $1.9 billion gallons of gasoline. The researchers projected that the number would increase to 2.5 billion gallons and delays would cost $133 billion by 2015.

Congestion cost the average commuter $750, up from $351 in 1982. And the average time lost to congestion nationwide was 34 hours, up from 14 hours in 1982. Additional delays would drive the cost to $900 by 2015.

Until last year, TTI researchers used traffic volume data provided by the states to calculate congestion in major urban areas. Now they use data compiled by a private firm, INRIX, that places data-gathering devices on millions of trucks, taxis, fleet vehicles and delivery vans. It also offers an iPhone application that provides users with real-time travel information in return for anonymous tracking of the users’ travel.

The other cities on the top 10 most congested list, and the annual number of hours drivers spend caught in traffic are Chicago (71), Los Angeles (64), Houston (57), New York (54), Baltimore (52), San Francisco (50), Denver (49), Boston (47) and Dallas (45).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-area-is-no-1-nationwide-in-traffic-congestion-study-says/2011/09/26/gIQAtzij0K_story.html

DC Transportation Director - No Snow PLan

I take the following as a subtle admission that there was no plan........... ahhhh small government!! (or maybe it is small thinking government)....


District needs a major snow plan, transportation chief says

By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 27, 2010; B01

The District has a plan for a snowfall of 18 inches or more: Major roads should be cleared to bare pavement within 36 hours and residential streets within 60 hours.

The problem is there's no plan for much, much more, such as the amount dumped on the region during the back-to-back storms earlier this month, said Gabe Klein, director of the District Department of Transportation.

"What we need is a different plan," he said. "A contingency plan. A major storm plan."

Klein acknowledged the weak spot at a D.C. Council committee hearing Friday on the city's recent snow removal efforts. Residents who testified complained of inconsistent street plowing, untouched alleys and sidewalks, and random trash collection.

The snowstorms proved a test for all the region's leaders. But Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) appeared to face much of the criticism, having set high expectations with his longtime focus on constituent services and the city's praised handling of a 20-inch snowstorm in December.

The Fenty administration initially stumbled during this month's first storm with an announcement that schools would remain open, a decision that was quickly reversed. It continues to be criticized for the menacing, Blob-like mounds of snow that remain on street corners, in alleys and between parked cars. A few residents brought photographs as proof.

Their complaints were backed by council members who questioned Klein and William O. Howland Jr., director of the Department of Public Works, about why some streets were plowed and others weren't.

"This is about these pockets that weren't dealt with," council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) said. "In some cases, it was bizarre."

Klein said the record snow was too much for the city's equipment. The city has a supply of plows that were too large to squeeze through streets crammed by snow and ill-parked vehicles, he said. "There were, unfortunately, instances of plows hitting cars," Klein said.

City officials, led by Klein and Howland, realized that the District needed smaller heavy equipment. The city owns fewer than 10 small heavy-duty plows, Klein said, and contracted 56 more to help with snow removal.

In the future, the city might want to prohibit cars from parking on both sides of a residential street, Klein said, adding that it would have to weigh limiting parking against snow removal. When the city currently declares a snow emergency, vehicles are prohibited from parking on main roads, forcing them onto residential streets.

As for the alleys, Klein warned that plowing those back streets alone would have tripled the cost of removal.

Kathy Henderson, a former Ward 5 advisory neighborhood commissioner, praised the city's overall performance but said there should have been a plan for staffing during the storm. Henderson said she hated to wake up a driver asleep in his plow to tell him to get to a certain missed block "after your catnap."

She said residents who have been certified or trained to operate such equipment, including her, should be identified for emergencies. "I'd be willing to plow some streets," she said.

Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), chairman of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, said sidewalks that were to be maintained by property owners must be addressed. He pointed to Freedom Plaza, the open-air park across from the John A. Wilson Building and overseen by the National Park Service. The sidewalks and park were not cleared until well after the last storm. "Totally ignored," he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR2010022605835_pf.html

From DC Department Transportation's Gabe Klein

Transportation chief says bikes, buses are way to go in D.C.

By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 25, 2010; B01

It was, according to AAA, the worst commute since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Traffic in and out of Washington backed up for hours Feb. 12 on snow-blocked roads that had lost a lane or more. The frustration continued well into last week.

It was a grueling test for the District's young new transportation chief. Furious drivers complained that the city wasn't doing its job. But it wasn't the first time that Gabe Klein had annoyed motorists who thought he should do his job differently.

Rather than promoting driving, as he did previously as an executive for Zipcar, the car-sharing pioneer, Klein has been working to get vehicles off the road.

"Transportation has always been a field held captive by experts and engineers," said Harriet Tregoning, the city's planning director. For 50 years, the goals have been to enhance the road network to allow the largest number of cars. "Now, people have choices, and Gabe is saying, 'How do I get them to buy the things I'm selling?' "

Klein is selling an urban lifestyle that depends less than ever on cars and more on trains, buses, bicycles and walking. He is following the credo of like-minded transportation planners in Portland, Seattle and New York that public transit can revive ailing cities.

Klein is expanding the city's red, dollar-a-ride Circulator bus system beyond tourist destinations and into more neighborhoods. He's promoting car sharing and, with Tregoning's office, said he hopes to build on a bike-sharing pilot program with 1,000 new bicycles and 100 stations.

The changes have rankled drivers.

"There's an overly antagonistic attitude toward motorists right now," said Lon Anderson, public relations director for AAA. Among his beefs with Klein are higher parking meter rates, extending meter enforcement to Saturdays and evenings and a new lane along a portion of 15th Street NW devoted to bicyclists.

Forbes Maner, a lawyer whose street in the Spring Valley neighborhood was not plowed for 10 days after the Feb. 5 blizzard, agrees. He and his neighbors plowed it themselves, leaving some to park where they could -- in the wrong direction on Quebec Street. Last Friday, they were ticketed by a parking enforcement officer.

"People were willing to give the city some slack," Maner said. "But to come out and see that? It was a middle finger in our faces."

A year ago, Klein, the risky choice of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to lead the Department of Transportation, a high-profile city agency, had never held a government job, let alone managed a workforce of 1,000.

At 39, he is 15 years younger than some of his top deputies. But that might make the high-metabolism transportation czar a good fit in a city trying to attract people like him.

He assembled a new team devoted to "policy, planning and sustainability," a nod to transit projects he hopes will reduce pollution and cars. The most ambitious is a throwback to the days when streetcars were the city's primary mode of transportation: a 37-mile light rail line powered by overhead wires that would connect H Street, Benning Road NE and Anacostia. Full service is years away, but Klein is trying to fast-track a project he said will act as a catalyst for economic growth.

"There's a lot of things that go into making a city an attractive place to live," Klein said. "You have schools, public safety and high-quality transportation. People are realizing that what we had in our old cities is actually more sustainable than what we have now."

Klein drives his own Smart Car two or three times a week, calling the silver two-seater a "lazy asset." He prefers to walk the eight blocks to the office from his condo in Columbia Heights or ride one of his five bikes, which include a Vespa scooter. He's geek and hippie rolled into one, bag over his shoulder, BlackBerry glued to his ear, wearing rumpled shirts and less-than-perfectly tailored corduroy suits.

The laid-back sartorial style and get-things-done metabolism come from a childhood on a yoga commune in Charlottesville and an entrepreneur father who owned a bike store and sold a form of electric tape he had found in Japan.

After receiving undergraduate and business degrees from Virginia Tech, Klein served as D.C. regional vice president for Zipcar from 2002 to 2006, then co-founded a boutique company that specializes in healthy on-the-go meals sold from green carts around Washington.

Under Klein, the Transportation Department's bureaucracy communicates through Facebook, e-mail and Twitter, updating constituents on snow-clearing operations and new projects.

A new, more transparent Web site was launched Wednesday, with budgets and schedules for every road, bridge and transit project, including those that veer off schedule, along with explanations why. There's a YouTube primer on how to pay the new, high-tech parking meters on U Street, featuring Klein himself.

There was Klein during the snowstorm that had begun the morning of Feb. 5, guarding a downed traffic light on Capitol Hill at 2 a.m. until police arrived. As snow pelted the city again five days later, he took a photo of a huge tree that had crushed a parked van in Columbia Heights after narrowly missing a man shoveling. The image went up on the Transportation Department's Facebook page to warn people of the dangerous conditions.

"Gabe's a consumerist," said D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), chairman of the Public Works and Transportation Committee. "In terms of responding to residents, he's remarkably talented."

Klein acknowledged that higher parking meter rates, now $2 an hour, are designed in part to send drivers a message to change their behavior. "If everybody drives a car all the time, it's not going to be very pleasant," he said.

But he noted that the department, with the help of federal stimulus money, has three-quarters of a billion dollars in road and bridge projects underway, including a rebuilt New York Avenue and a new bridge over 11th Street.

Klein defends his agency's snow-clearing effort, shared with the Department of Public Works. "I think we did a spectacular job, give the forecasts we had to deal with," he said. He acknowledged that the Feb. 12 commute "was bad everywhere. "

"But after three feet of snow, the commute is not going to be normal," he said.

There have been some missteps. The department announced last fall that a budget shortfall would force the closure of the H Street shuttle, a popular express bus downtown, only to restore the service days after a public outcry.

A Circulator route on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown also met its demise and a quick resurrection with a mayoral news conference.

Klein said he's also learning to negotiate thorny neighborhood politics with a baptism by fire over speed bumps in Chevy Chase. He set a block-by-block standard for installing traffic-slowing devices.

The controversy had a silver lining. It led Klein to set aside up to $3 million for comprehensive studies of 24 neighborhoods to determine whether they need traffic calming, starting with Chevy Chase. He says it's part of the effort to encourage families to move back to the District. If they're worried that their children aren't safe from speeding cars, they will stay away, he said.

Businesses That Can't Clear Their Sidewalk - Red Rocks

Red Rocks in Columbia Heights promotes itself as part of the new hip world - but that doesn't include a proper clearing of the sidewalk around the business a week after the snow stopped. It would seem to me that within one week of the snow stopping they could afford to make the sidewalks totally clear of snow and perhaps even clean up the crosswalk entrances that many of their customers use. All photos taken on Wednesday, February 17, 2010.

Bribery In My Councilmembers Office

The wheels keep turning......... really a tragedy anyway you stack it up - Ted Loza seemed nice enough the couple of times I had anything to do with him through Jim Graham's office. Always a tragedy when we stumble on our own feet.....




Graham Aide Charged With Taking Bribes On Taxi Issues
D.C. Council Staffer Heard on Wiretap

By Del Quentin Wilber and Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 25, 2009

The chief of staff to D.C. Council member Jim Graham was arrested on bribery charges Thursday, accused of taking trips and $1,500 in payoffs in exchange for pushing legislation that would reward some in the taxicab industry.

Ted G. Loza, 44, was taken into custody at his home on Columbia Road NW a little before 7 a.m., just hours before federal agents descended on his office at city hall to search records and computers.

Federal prosecutors allege that Loza accepted a "stream of things of value," including cash, the use of vehicles and trips, to help an unnamed informant with a financial interest in the taxicab industry. The trips included one to Ethiopia and free limo rides to airports and other destinations in the D.C. area, two law enforcement sources said.

Graham (D-Ward 1) introduced legislation that would have benefited the informant, authorities said. The council member is not charged in the indictment and denied any wrongdoing. "I have had no engagement whatsoever in any illegal or unethical behaviors," he said.

As part of the investigation, prosecutors said, the informant wore a hidden microphone. In July, after accepting a $500 bribe from the informant, Loza explained his motives for accepting the cash, prosecutors said. "You know I need it," Loza said, according to the transcript of the conversation in court papers. "That's why I take it, you know."

Loza pleaded not guilty to two counts of receiving a bribe by a public official during a brief appearance Thursday before U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman. Loza, a native of Ecuador who is not a U.S. citizen, was ordered to surrender his passport and was released on personal recognizance. He faces up to 30 years in prison for each count if convicted.

Loza's attorney, Pleasant S. Brodnax, said the Graham staffer did nothing wrong. "When all the facts come out and the entire context of this is understood, you will see that Mr. Loza is not guilty of bribery," Brodnax said.

Graham, first elected to the council in 1998 and known for his bow ties, said he was "deeply troubled" by the indictment and will cooperate fully with federal investigators. The council member said he has "never had a conversation with Teddy Loza where he came to me and said, Will 'you do this or will you do that?' "

And, Graham said, "nothing that has been alleged, whether it occurred or didn't occur, had any influence on any action I took in terms of the legislation on taxicabs, which I introduced."

Law enforcement sources said the probe is broad. Although the accusations against Loza are fairly recent, law enforcement sources said agents have been conducting a corruption investigation for at least a year. They also obtained wiretaps as part of the probe, said the sources, who, like other sources, spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

On Thursday, federal agents spent most of the day searching Loza's office. But, according to the search warrant, they were not authorized to go through Graham's work space. They also seized files from the D.C. Council's mainframe computer in the basement of the John A. Wilson Building. Graham was leading a meeting of the Metro board when the raids began.

The warrant said agents were searching for documents tied to taxicab legislation, licenses, medallions, a taxi company called United Fleet Management and Fiesta D.C., a nonprofit organization that puts on an annual Hispanic festival in Mount Pleasant.

According to the organization's Web site, Graham is an honorary board member for the organization. Loza's wife, Ligia X. Mu?oz, works for the organization and is in charge of its finances and administration. Loza was on the board until recent weeks.

Yitbarek Syume, owner of United Fleet Management, declined to comment.

Agents also were looking for any correspondence and financial information connecting Graham, Loza, the informant and "other Washington D.C. area public officials," the search warrant says.

According to law enforcement sources and court documents made public Thursday, Loza is accused of taking bribes from an unidentified man with "financial interests in the taxi industry." In a 10-page indictment, authorities allege that Loza accepted separate $1,000 and $500 cash payments in June and July from a man, identified only as "Individual Number 1" in the indictment. In exchange for the cash, trips and free car rides, Loza agreed to promote legislation and policies that helped the unnamed individual, the indictment alleges.

The indictment says Individual Number 1 wanted to limit the number of taxicab licenses issued by the District and to create an exception for hybrid vehicles under D.C. law.

Three sources familiar with the investigation identified Individual Number 1 as Abdulaziz Kamus, the executive director of the African Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that assists African immigrants, according to press accounts. Kamus, who hails from Ethiopia, has also been quoted in the media as an advocate for Ethiopian taxi drivers.

Kamus could not be reached Thursday. The number at the African Resource Center was disconnected.

Graham is not identified by name in the indictment but is referred to as "Public Official No. 1." He is chairman of the council's Committee on Public Works and Transportation. The committee has oversight of the D.C. Taxicab Commission.

The indictment says federal agents tape-recorded a meeting between Loza and Individual Number 1 on June 19. In that meeting, the individual handed Loza a "Father's Day" present of an envelope containing $1,000 in cash, according to the indictment.

Individual Number 1 said the money was from him and another person, who apparently also works in the taxi industry.

"What do you want me to do?" Loza asked after receiving the cash, according to a transcript in the indictment. "What do you want me, I'll talk to [Graham]. And I can call you back later on."

Ten days later, the indictment alleges, Individual Number 1 met with Graham to discuss taxicab legislation with a hybrid car exemption. The council member "declared that he would introduce that legislation," the indictment says.

The next day, June 30, Graham introduced a bill that he has said was designed to limit the number of cab operators in the city because he feared the District was being overrun by taxis. The bill would create a medallion system, similar to those in New York and Boston, in which users would buy licenses to operate a taxi. Under the bill, which was co-sponsored by Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), operators of "low emissions," or hybrid, vehicles would get such medallions for free.

On July 10, Individual Number 1 and Loza met again. During the conversation, Loza handed the individual a copy of Graham's bill.

"Beautiful, wow, beautiful," the person said, according to a transcript in the indictment. "Really. I want to thank you very much."

The person then asked about hybrid vehicles.

"Yeah, that's the exception," Loza said. "But, but, read it, and uh, then let me know if there's something . . . that, that raises your eyebrows."

Individual Number 1 then said the other unidentified person also "wanted to really thank you as well for this."

"He does?" Loza asked. "What, didn't he thank me or didn't you guys thank me already?"

Individual Number 1 then handed Loza $500 in cash, the indictment says, and the council staffer pocketed the money.

Loza has known about the investigation for some time, said his attorney, Brodnax. Graham said Loza told him that he was under investigation several days ago.

"The fact of the matter is, in the course of a day of council activities, a great many people ask you to do a great number of things," Graham said. "I would want to see this more specifically, but I know I have engaged in no such activities."

Staff writers Yamiche Alcindor and Nikita Stewart and researchers Meg Smith and Julie Tate contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/24/AR2009092402637.html

Statement from Jim Graham sent to neighborhood email list group:

Dear Friends,

I was deeply upset and deeply saddened to learn that Ted Loza was arrested yesterday by the FBI on charges of taking a bribe.

As my constituents, I want you to know --

I have not personally engaged in any illegal behavior or activity.

What Teddy allegedly did in no way influenced any action I took on legislation. Indeed, Teddy generally is not involved, nor is he consulted on legislative matters which are instead handled by myself and our committee staff.

As I said to FBI agents yesterday, I will fully cooperate with their investigation bringing forth all of the information relevant and needed.

I have placed Teddy on administrative leave effective yesterday, with pay, until there are further developments. Teddy--like all of us-is entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

If you have concerns or questions, please let me know--as always--by using this direct email address for me.

Sincerely, Councilmember Jim Graham

Streetcars Begin Slow Return To DC

(D.C. Department Of Transportation) Anacostia Streetcar Track Installation Begins By James Hohmann Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 20, 2009 Crews are finally laying the tracks for the Anacostia streetcar line in Southeast Washington, causing delays through the end of the year on South Capitol Street but exciting boosters of the $55 million project. Track installation on Firth Sterling Avenue has begun, but the more visible installation of tracks at the South Capitol Street intersection is expected to start next week, the District's Department of Transportation said. Through the end of this month, the track work will reduce traffic flow at the intersection to one lane in each direction, causing delays of five to 10 minutes. Other work will continue in that area through the end of the year. The locations of several proposed stops along Howard Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE are not set in stone. But officials overseeing the project hail the work as a significant step toward the first segment of what they hope will become a citywide system a decade from now. "The tracks are actually going in," said Gabe Klein, the District's director of transportation. "As people see that, they'll realize we're getting closer than we've ever been." The District had hoped to have streetcars running through Anacostia by the end of this year, but the project was beset by delays. The city purchased three red-and-gray trolleys almost three years ago for $10 million. Those sit in a warehouse in the Czech Republic, where they were manufactured. Streetcars, a form of light rail powered by overhead wires, share lanes with automobiles. Similar projects in Seattle and Portland are considered successes. The initial 1 1/2 -mile segment includes a platform near the Navy Annex at South Capitol Street and Firth Sterling Avenue. Another platform is by Barry Farms on Firth Sterling Avenue. A maintenance facility is being built near the end of the line on South Capitol Street to service and store the trolleys. Klein said the District might have some part of the Anacostia line running before fall 2012. Late last month, the District closed two intersections to cross-traffic along H Street NE to install tracks for a separate streetcar line. Klein said his department decided to lay that track because other work was going on in the area. Engineers still need to find a way to power the cars on H Street and find places for the streetcars to turn around, said transportation spokesman John Lisle. They also need to find a place to store and maintain the cars on that line. The transportation director has a grand vision for streetcar lines across the District that fills in the gaps where Metrorail doesn't run and resurrects an elaborate system that existed a century ago. Klein acknowledges that in the current fiscal climate, with massive shortfalls and short-term demands for money, it's hard to get it moving. "I know we're in a downturn right now, but these are decade-long projects," Klein said. "If we never thought ahead when we were in a downturn, we'd never get anywhere. We're building upon a lot of the work that's already been done." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/19/AR2009091902291.html