A round up of interesting tidbits and links about transportation from the last week or so!

• How did I never see the Bike Safety Boogie video before? Well, in any case, here it is above: watch for a catchy tribute to safe cycling by Vancouver children’s musician Will Stroet!
• Owen L. passed along a couple of great posts: here’s a group of artists creating graffiti on cardboard cutouts of TTC streetcars, and here’s a great article on ‘slugging,’ or a super informal carpooling culture in Washington D.C.
• Erika Rathje has a really nice post on our Art in Transit project. Also, here’s a note in the Westender about the project!
• The Daily Gumboot has a post with three stories about being a a TravelSmart citizen.
• The Vancouver Sun has an article on the TransLink funding challenges that the mayors are thinking about. We also get a mention in this column by Bob Ransford, talking about how federal and provincial governments have downloaded costs to municipalities over the years.
• Ooh — the Vancouver Archives has released a set of historic panoramic photos of Vancouver! Check out the one of Granville Street in 1914, where Waterfront Station is now! They’re getting much buzz online, says the Province. And rightly so!
• Japan debuted a new bullet train, the Hayabusa, last week! It’s only 10 minutes faster than the old bullet train, but still, faster is faster. Plus, someone paid 385,000 yen (~$4500 US) for a scalped ticket to the first ride: wow!
• David Cooper from Calgary Transit sent in a video that goes behind the scenes at their agency.
• New York City’s transit agency is doing some great work with encouraging open data development: here’s Anil Dash on their progress, and a link to Transportation Camp.
• And after the smoking-at-Surrey-bus-stops article, the City of Surrey is now drafting a bylaw to ban smoking at bus stops.
• Gordon Price has a neat series on the “end of the strip mall”: here’s a look at Richmond, and here’s a look at Abbotsford.
• Eep: San Francisco’s Muni drivers have been caught sleeping, speeding, snacking while operating trains!
• Sort of a backward compliment, but this article from Portland has a note trumpeting TransLink’s Twitter service in comparison to TriMet’s. Here’s to hoping all agencies will receive kudos in the future though!
• And Average Joe Cyclist has an interesting post on why more people aren’t using bike lanes.
• Last but not least, I’ve been asked by the Transit Museum Society to put a call out for some video footage of the Olympic Line Streetcar! They would like to update their Then and Now video, which you can find more info on in the Souvenirs section of their website. If you have any video to share, please send me a note and I’ll pass it on!

If you have any items to suggest, or a photo to showcase on these posts, e-mail me at thebuzzer@translink.ca! (Seriously: photos. Send them to me!)