The eight-page draft report, by the U.S. Transportation Department’s inspector general, is expected to be released Tuesday afternoon. A copy of the draft was obtained by The Washington Post.

The accident on I-395 North before Edsall Road is blocking the right shoulder.

The disabled vehicle on I-95 North before St. Barnabas Road has been cleared.

A passenger aboard the train took a picture of it, and it was posted to unsuckdcmetro. Here’s the original tweet:

Until June 6, the registered owners of vehicles exceeding the posted speed limit will receive warning notices. Starting June 6, citations will go out and fines will be imposed.

Red Line delays remain after the earlier single-tracking between Medical Center and Grosvenor. The single-tracking has been lifted and trains are moving again, but delays still remain for commuters heading in both directions.

The rain and thunder may slow some of the road work listed below, though many work zones remain active. Metro crews now work on maintenance pretty much around the clock, outside of rush hours. That leads to midday and late night delays on many lines. See Monday’s Tom Toles cartoon on Metro service.

It’s wet and rainy out there, and there have been several accidents and other traffic issues this morning. Use caution when you head out today.

One southbound lane remains blocked on Connecticut Avenue at Bradley Lane. The other two lanes have reopened.

About 5:30 p.m. on a recent Friday, I lost my Metro SmarTrip card in the National Gallery of Art. I returned to the room where I had been viewing a special exhibit but did not find it.

The Capital Weather Gang thinks this weekend could be a highlight of the month of May and a great time to travel around the D.C. region. But be wary of work planned for the roads and rails.

The traffic lights are up and running again at the intersection of Southern and Pennsylvania avenues SE, according to D.C. police.

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]]> http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=d28a108fc278e5d425ead361d08f502d http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/post/i-66-west-lane-blocked-before-beltway/2012/05/11/gIQAFKieHU_blog.html?wprss=rss_traffic http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/post/i-66-west-lane-blocked-before-beltway/2012/05/11/gIQAFKieHU_blog.html?wprss=rss_traffic http://www.washingtonpost.com/Fragment/SysConfig/WebPortal/twpweb/rss/mobile/blog-entry.jpp?id=1000.4.1253502969 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/post/i-66-west-lane-blocked-before-beltway/2012/05/11/gIQAFKieHU_blog.html?wprss=rss_traffic http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/post/i-66-west-lane-blocked-before-beltway/2012/05/11/gIQAFKieHU_blog.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/post/i-66-west-lane-blocked-before-beltway/2012/05/11/gIQAFKieHU_search.html 1000.4.1253502969 b8260bba-9b50-11e1-9ec2-4de43c2368e4 Commuting Fri, 11 May 2012 05:08:26 EST Fri, 11 May 2012 07:31:17 EST 20120511123117 The Washington Post /WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/dr-gridlock/201205/morningcommute511.xml /WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/dr-gridlock/201205/morningcommute511.xml BlogStory traffic.dwp:content_well/grid-local-traffic-well-2.dwc:col1/story-local-traffic-gridlock-blog.dwc:story BlogStory The Washington Post A problem near Silver Spring station on the third rail, which supplies the power for Metro trains, caused delays during Thursday morning’s commute.

The troubled piece of the rail was discovered about 5:30 a.m. by crews.

The incident, which transit officials described as “rare,” happened about 9 a.m. on a Shady Grove-bound train between the Van Ness and Tenleytown-American University stations. A passenger aboard the train took a photo of it, and the image was posted to unsuckdcmetro, a blog that is a sounding board for critics of the Metro system.

“I say, ‘You don’t need to get it, you don’t need to get it.’ ”

When she’s driving and her phone buzzes, she doesn’t always follow her own advice.

Union employees of the transit agency do not contribute to their pensions, which are fully funded by Metro, and some board members are urging a change in policy. In fiscal 2013, the cost of the pension program is projected to rise 34 percent to $150 million. The fiscal 2013 budget also includes spending $67 million to buy 95 new diesel hybrid buses to replace nearly 100 Orion VI buses, a model plagued by problems. Two of the Orion VI buses recently caught fire.

In January, it was three teens on their way home from a birthday party who headed in the wrong direction on a divided highway in Anne Arundel County in the middle of the night, colliding head-on with another car. Everyone died.

The rings are similar to a brake disc found on a car, and if a ring fails, it is considered a hazard.

Preliminary projections released by the federal agency showed that 32,310 people died in crashes last year, a decrease of 375 deaths from 2010. It is the sixth consecutive year of decline since 2005, when deaths reached a recent high of 43,510.

As Montero puts the girls through rehearsals of the zapateado, the Mexican-born folk dancer urges them to focus on staying in sync, on shaking their skirts and on smiling.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Virginia, and Loudoun and Fairfax counties are at a stalemate over pro-union labor deals, concerns about costs and an inspector general’s investigation of the authority.

Figure on about $9.4 billion a year if you’d like the toilet to keep flushing.

Or, for about $262 billion a year, you can get the whole package, salvaging the electrical grid, repairing water and sewer systems, overhauling decrepit highways and bridges, updating rail systems and expanding overcrowded runways.

The vote would follow six public hearings Metro held in February and last month, where riders expressed frustration about the poor service and delays they often encounter in the transit system, a stinging counterpoint to the prospect of paying more. Metro last put in place a broad fare increase in the summer of 2010.

The changes proposed by the Maryland Transit Administration were designed to alleviate concerns that riders voiced in December, after the state proposed reducing service at some smaller Montgomery stations as part of a plan to make trains run more efficiently. The changes include restoring the Gaithersburg stop on Train 881.

Stanley, who announced last week that he would be leaving the job he has held since 2008, will oversee a staff of 800. Calgary is Canada’s third-largest city, with a population of more than 1 million.

With long-term transportation funding measures languishing on Capitol Hill and infrastructure getting little notice in the presidential campaign, “the tradition of broad bipartisan support for investments in surface transportation has largely broken down,” the group said.

If the merger goes forward, the US Airways brand would go the way of Pan Am, TWA and Eastern Airlines, consigned to history as the merged carrier flies under the American banner.

Stanley told members of the Planning Board during their regularly scheduled meeting and then met with staff. He would not specify where his new job will be, saying that his new employer hopes to make a formal announcement next week.

The device at Pentagon station was insufficiently charged, according to a Metro statement Thursday, and General Manager Richard Sarles ordered the review.

Wednesday was that day.

With his plan for the nation’s transportation system shredded by attacks from both sides of the aisle, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) sought to free his party from the charge that they are “do-nothing Republicans” by orchestrating a clever move.

In both cases, there were no passengers aboard and the drivers were not injured, according to Metro spokesman Dan Stessel.

So anticipate the typical weekday traffic pattern on commuter routes that use reversible lanes. The District’s rush-hour parking restrictions will be enforced from 7 to 9:30 a.m. and from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Violators are subject to ticketing and towing.

That changed Friday as Bikeshare announced that monthly and annual members can buy helmets online for $16. The red helmets, branded with the same yellow “Capital Bikeshare” found on the bikes, are only available when you buy or renew a membership.

It was the board’s first official step following recent public hearings on fare hikes that average about 5 percent. The actual amounts would vary widely depending on the distance that a rider travels. The changes would go into effect July 1.

The buses, part of a fleet of 50 Navistar diesel vehicles purchased by Montgomery, had problems with electrical panels and parking brakes that caused the fires, officials said.

“This is a weird thing that got put into the sidewalk,” wrote Vince Morris, who was a newspaper reporter before he became a Senate spokesman and has retained his appreciation of the weird.

Within a few years, cars whizzing down the highway will begin chatting among themselves. Once they all are equipped to join the conversation, every car will know the speed, distance and direction of every other car close enough to pose a risk.

The new pass, which would be available only on electronic SmarTrip cards, would cost $230 and would allow a user to travel the breadth of the system at any time of day.

County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) is pushing for an ambitious plan to build as much as 800,000 square feet of office space, a hotel and a mixed-used development with a town square that would capi­tal­ize on Wheaton’s location as a transit hub.

Though strategically located with easy access to a highway and within walking distance of three Metro stops, the neighborhood has had its share of problems with drug dealing and prostitution.

The Reston 2020 Committee, which is part of the Reston Citizens Association, predicts weekday traffic on “corridor area roads,” including Route 7 and the east-west streets in Herndon and Reston, could increase by at least 30,000 vehicles in 2014 — the first full year Phase 1 of the new Silver Line is in operation. Tolls are expected to rise to $4.50 each way by that year.

It’s a problem they face every day at Dupont Circle station, where the south entrance remains closed for more than eight months while contractors replace the unreliable escalators there.

Adrienne was 79 then and had been battling the illness for about four years. Charles, her husband of nearly 60 years, was her primary caretaker at their home in Fogelsville, Pa. She was an accomplished fine arts photographer; he was prominent in Republican circles and had recently stepped down as chairman of the authority overseeing Reagan and Dulles airports and the construction of Metro’s new $6 billion Silver Line.

Forty-seven buses are to be repaired because of a “potential for an electrical short within the energy storage system,” said Dan Stessel, Metro’s chief spokesman.

The final spike in the transcontinental railroad had been hammered down just 26 years earlier, and with railroad companies in hot competition, a tunnel was built under the heart of Baltimore to serve one of them.

I have been riding Metrorail since 1976, when the Red Line opened. In general I have been pleased, given that mechanical and personnel problems will always exist in this world of ours.

Unless mobile communication devices are integrated into vehicle systems designed to minimize their potential distraction, drivers who want instant access to the data they provide will allow their eyes to stray from the road, said Robert Strassburger, vice president for safety at the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

“Unfortunately, this has turned into a political ‘gotcha’ game,” said House Transportation Chairman John L. Mica (R-Fla.), whose own transportation bill stalled in the face of bipartisan opposition. “I’ve done everything I can to move this forward.”

But tucked into the details of the government’s crash test results was another rating that Milito said she never saw, which now has her wondering about her own safety. The front passenger seat on Milito’s Sienna received two out of five stars on the frontal crash test, a fall from the top five-star rating for that seat on the Sienna’s 2010 and older models.

With 10 days left until current transportation funding expires, House leaders said they plan to introduce legislation on Thursday that would continue transportation funding at current levels for 90 days. If approved, it would be the ninth such extension since the last long-term funding plan expired more than two years ago.

The PreCheck program operates at 11 airports nationwide. National is the only airport where members of the military on active duty or drills can participate.

More than 20 professional cyclists and chief executive officers participated in the second annual Ride on Washington, an invitational 530-mile bike ride that began Friday in Massachusetts and ended Tuesday on Capitol Hill. The trek, a fundraiser for the Bikes Belong Foundation, aimed to protest rising gas prices and promote biking.

Horace Dexter McDade, 58, of Bowie, a revenue technician, and John Vincent Haile, 54, of Woodbridge, a Metro Transit Police officer, stole the money and hid it in a spot near the Capital Beltway. They would collect the bags of coins and bills when their shifts were done. According to court documents, Haile would use bags of stolen money to buy lottery tickets.

“They want to pick on bike funding as an issue in which they’re going to draw a line in the sand,” said Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, which hosts the summit. “We think it’s perverse and we’re not sure why we are in the crosshairs, but we are and we’re responding in kind.”

Passengers complain that they are too quick to close. Someone jams an arm, a foot, a briefcase or a stroller into the space and it gets stuck as the doors snap shut. Worst of all, a door malfunctions, and, unable to fix the problem, the operator offloads the train.

Workers are in the final phase of the $6.5 million project, which officials hope will be finished by early summer. City officials said once complete, it will make Adams Morgan a greener, more pedestrian-friendly community.

“When a device or feature is integrated into an automobile’s driver-vehicle interfaces, it is designed to be used in a way that helps the driver keep their eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel,” Rob Strassburger, vice president for safety at the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in prepared testimony.

Users of the Dulles Toll Road are worried because they face higher rates to help pay for more than 50 percent of the rail extension’s cost. Nearby residents express concern that the higher toll rates could push drivers onto already-clogged secondary roadways.

A mistake by a security gate agent at a small Hawaiian airport has launched mother’s milk into the news.

It would be too expensive and risky to rebuild the trail — along with the light-rail line — inside the trail’s existing tunnel beneath Wisconsin Avenue, officials said.