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The fatigue is palpable, but the battle over BART''s Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) is nowhere near its conclusion. That's the message coming out of yet another marathon hearing today at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the region's transportation planning body, over the merits of the airport connector, which I would argue has now become the second most controversial regional transit proposal behind the California High Speed Rail Peninsula alignment.

The Federal Transit Administration has increased the likelihood the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the Bay Area's regional transportation planning and funding body, will undergo a full civil rights investigation after it sent a letter last week [PDF] insisting the MTC turn over documents detailing its protocols for monitoring civil rights practices of the government agencies and private groups it gives federal money. Civil rights and transportation advocates are confident the MTC doesn't have those protocols in place and argue the FTA investigation will show a pattern of discriminatory funding of transportation projects in the Bay Area that dates back decades.

TransForm's annual Car-Free Challenge is coming up in a few weeks and they've produced this video to get you in the spirit. If you'll remember last year we profiled several inspirational participants who demonstrated that you don't need a ride to raise a family and the mystique of a driver's license as personal ticket to freedom doesn't hold sway for some teenagers in the East Bay.

I'm guessing some of you might share my distaste for the once-a-year gaga over the Earth, especially when it takes the form of NBC changing its logo color or Chevron touting its environmental record. I'm not saying we shouldn't be thinking about cutting greenhouse gases or leaving the car at home to walk, bike, or take transit to work today, but I am cynical about the political and media frenzy that kicks in around Earth Day, and then conveniently disappears for all the un-Earth Days (can you hear the Mad Hatter singing it now from the front seat of his H2?).

California transit operators are poised to receive a temporary infusion of $400 million in cash from the state for operating funds, a move that could defray immediate shortfalls and set up a steady stream of state money for the foreseeable future.

AC Transit announced today it plans to cut service on 108 of 113 lines across the East Bay on March 28th, amounting to an 8 percent overall reduction.

As transportation planners and transit agencies around the country celebrated the announcement of the $1.5 billion in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER grants, yesterday, BART received more troubling news that could hurt the feasibility of its planned Oakland Airport Connector (OAC).

With the continued raids on voter mandated transit funding sources to plug holes in California's general fund, representatives from the state's many transit agencies and locally elected officials are pushing for a sweeping ballot initiative this November, one which supporters say would finally put an end to the raids, and force lawmakers in Sacramento to come up with solutions to their fiscal nightmare that don't come from the backs of transit riders.

In a stern letter to BART [PDF], Federal Transit Association (FTA) Administrator Peter Rogoff informed the agency that it would not be able to develop a suitable action plan by March 5th to comply with equity and race requirements for the $70 million in stimulus funds for the Oakland Airport Connector (OAC), a move that may kill the project.