News Roundup: Rumors

• ST escalators keep failing ($).
• Car2Go rolls out 200 4-door Mercedes vehicles, increasing options for multiple passengers.
• Erica on where HALA went wrong.
• Rob Johnson spearheading a badly needed upzone.
• KCDOT hiring a position in public engagement.
• As promised, ST tightens rules about ordering stops in Link service.
• 450 more spaces for Kent Sounder by 2024, at $73,000 per space. Auburn would get 500 more.
• $1.6m federal grant (thanks Patty Murray) will help PT buses avoid collisions.
• King County will operate the Kitsap fast ferries.
• Lynnwood Link progress.
• I have no idea why "schools and [elevated] trains don't mix", but Mark Twain Elementary has a deal with Sound Transit to move the school away from the tracks.
• The fundamental issue is that driving is often faster than transit. One cause is lack of priority, but land use is more important.
• Why Pronto died.
• Bills to remove I-405 tolling dead this session ($).
• Ideas to fix the Ash Way P&R approaches.
• Trains testing the new Point Defiance Bypass.
• Rumored Trump budget is awful for transit and passenger rail. But other rumors put SeaTac on the short list.

This is an open thread.