UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies

The report commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission says high-speed trains would reduce the airports' passenger load by 6 million people by 2035.

The Bay Area's independent electric car dealerships are in perilous shape, even as electric cars are being hailed as the next big thing by major auto manufacturers. Factors including a hurting economy, lower gas prices and, most notably, the cars' own limitations conspired to undo them.

It'll soon get a little harder to drive and park in San Francisco, but also a little easier to sit outside sipping coffee, thanks to an unusual plan by Mayor Gavin Newsom to convert patches of pavement and parking spaces into miniparks.

A report from the Government Accountability Office found that LAX had the most close calls among aircraft of any of the country's busiest commercial airports and the highest number of severe incidents....Last week, an academic panel working with NASA unloosed a flock of sea gulls into airline regulators' jet engines. After an 18-month study, it found that although moving the runways farther apart would improve safety, the risk reduction would be so minuscule that the project wouldn't be worth the cost.

So what exactly is California doing with that $2 billion, and who's making sure it won't be wasted on so many miles of track to nowhere? The money may be spent on upgrading existing tracks between San Francisco and San Jose or between Los Angeles and Anaheim. The upgrades could include electrifying the rails to eliminate slower, dirtier diesel engines, straightening the tracks to increase speed, or building tunnels or bridges for road crossings, which can raise speeds and also improve safety.

A report released today by the 

Government investigators are making an unprecedented push to use "black box" voice recordings to routinely monitor pilots' conversations and make sure cockpit crews are focusing on their jobs....The recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board (

Silicon Valley start-up Bloom Energy is unveiling a fuel-cell product Wednesday that can power a small office building. It expects to have home systems within a decade that are about the size of a loaf of bread, it says...Automakers have been working on fuel cells for vehicles for years. 

Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda came to Washington Wednesday to publicly apologize to Congress for safety lapses that led to the recall of 8.5 million cars. A House committee chairman said blame must be shared by both Toyota and U.S. safety regulators. Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) failed to follow through aggressively on thousands of complaints dating back a decade about sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles.