• DC may require ride-hailing companies to share data, but won’t encourage pooling

      By David Alpert     May 15th, 2018

      Cities have required taxis to give logs of their rides to regulators for a long time. New York, Toronto, Chicago, Seattle, and others ask for taxi-like data from ride-hailing companies such as Uber, Lyft, and Via. Now, DC might join them. However, it won't follow through on an earlier proposal to encourage carpooling on these ride-hailing services.

    • Phil Mendelson restores some, but not all, streetcar and solar funding

      By David Alpert     June 12th, 2017

      For the first vote on DC's budget on May 30, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson slashed streetcar funding and a program that provides incentives for more solar power in DC. The budget lacked money necessary to extend the streetcar to Benning Road, never mind downtown. Now, he's proposing to bring back some but not all of the lost funding.

    • DC Council Chairman Mendelson says he didn’t cut the Benning Road streetcar extension. DDOT says “that’s false.”

      By David Alpert     June 8th, 2017

      When a final budget came out of the DC Council the night after Memorial Day, I reported that it cut $60 million from the DC Streetcar and that would significant delay, or permanently scuttle, extending the line to Benning Road Metro in Ward 7. Chairman Phil Mendelson is disputing that's the effect of his cuts, but transportation officials re-confirmed to me that is exactly what will happen if the cuts stay.

    • DC Council Chairman Mendelson’s budget slashes the streetcar to Benning Road

      By David Alpert     May 30th, 2017

      Residents of DC's Ward 7, who have long awaited new investment in their community and support extending the H Street streetcar line to Benning Road, will have to wait six years or forever if the budget released last night by Chairman Phil Mendelson passes. That budget cuts about $97 million from transportation capital projects.