The most conspicuous collection of forgotten bikes in one photo comes from the well to do Upper East Side at Lexington Ave and 67th Ave

We’ve received more the 400 photos of bike blight around New York City in our mapping project. That’s about 10 times the total number of abandoned bikes the city has removed in the past 18 months.

Tomorrow we submit them all to the city for inspection and potential removal. We’ll ask you to you check back and see how many of these rusted frames (or saran wrapped beach cruisers) are actually removed. For now, have a gander below at our favorite busted bikes chosen for photographic merit, level of “abandonedness,” fun factor, and just because we liked them.

Pick your favorites from the full gallery here. See the map, and read all about derelict bikes, the laws and stats here.

THE MOST ABANDONED BIKES:

Some parts remain, mild street trash tumbleweed factor. Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Bent frame, creeping rust, sun bleached belly. Pretty abandoned at Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.

BEST PILE OF KIDS BIKES:

We've found many piles of bikes -- which we fear tell sordid (or at least hoarding) stories. This was the most flagrant from Central Park North.

UNIQUE CASTOFFS:

Part art project, part bulletin board, this Williamsburg fixture hosts flyers, string, saran wrap and a teddy bear. Does that make it less abandoned or more?

That's a twofer. Photographer comment: "I mean? This also has been here for over 6 years." From 9th Street and Ave C, Lower East Side.

More wheels does not always mean less abandoned. 10th street and 6th Ave, Brooklyn.

How long does it take to grow a few feet of vines? Tribeca.

 BEST PHOTOGRAPHY:

Deceptively unrideable in Midtown.

We call this one: arsty arcs. From Downtown Brooklyn.

BEST COMMENT:

Though far less abandoned than other bikes, this one comes with a standout caption. "If NYC can also remove the dudes selling crack at this location, that would be great, too!" 167th Street, Manhattan

If the Department of Sanitation of NY finds a bike to be abandoned it is tagged for seven days, then removed.

Though it does not contain the force of law, the vote pushes local governments to:

“create or adapt transportation facilities that safely and appropriately accommodate motorized and non-motorized users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, freight vehicles, emergency vehicles, and transit riders of all ages and abilities.”

Only one member of the 35-member board voted against the recommendation.

Lewis Miller, a board spokesman, says some initial opposition fell away after board members, who are appointed by the local governments, realized the proposal was a best practices recommendation, not a mandate.

The Belle Tones, following their audition for the Music Under New York program (photo by Kate Hinds)

Seventy musicians lined up in Grand Central Terminal on Wednesday to audition for the New York MTA’s “Music Under New York” (MUNY) program.

(Listen to WNYC’s All Things Considered this evening for an audio tour of the auditions. And to contribute photos of your own favorite subway musicians, visit WNYC’s culture page.)

Each act had five minutes to convince the judges it merited the right to legitimately perform in the subway system under an MTA-approved banner.

While many talked about how important it is to bring music to the masses, 14-year old Queens resident (and classical pianist) Jason Cordero was more pragmatic when asked why he wants to play Mozart on a subway platform. “I practice at home. When I practice in the subway, I … get donations.”

Shae Fiol, a musician with the all-female group Mariachi Flor de Toloache, said MUNY is “a great program.” Plus, she said, since they’re already playing in the subway, they might as well make it official. “We want to have our own banner that says our name on it and be able to call up and schedule a location and a time and be legit.”

Members of the Mariachi Flor de Toloache, prior to performing (photo by Kate Hinds)

Musicians in the MUNY program don’t get paid, but they are allowed to solicit donations from their underground audience.

One of the judges is David Spelman. His day job is as the director of the New York Guitar Festival. But as a judge, he’s listening with the perspective of a subway commuter – not a music professional. “This may not be what I want to hear at 7:30 in the morning,” he says of one steel drummer performer, “but I could definitely handle this after work.”

The MTA holds auditions for the MUNY program annually. There are currently about 350 individual performers and groups taking part; Wednesday’s auditions were expected to add another 20 names to the pool.The MTA said it will announce the names of the new musicians who have been accepted into the program after Memorial Day.

a livery cab (photo by Kate Hinds)

(Ailsa Chang — New York, WNYC) The city has settled a federal lawsuit charging that the New York City police department has been unlawfully detaining, questioning and searching passengers for weapons in livery cabs as part of a city livery cab inspection program.

The two passengers who filed the lawsuit last May, Terrence Battle and Munir Pujara, are both men of color. They alleged they were pulled out of their cabs and searched for weapons even though the officers did not suspect either them of criminal activity.

Neither of them was charged with any offense after their encounters.

As part of the settlement, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has committed to retraining officers and instructing them that passengers riding in livery cars participating in the Taxi/Livery Robbery Inspection Program, or TRIP, can only be removed on certain conditions: if the officer fears for his safety, or if he suspects the passenger is armed or has committed a violent crime.

Kelly issued a new operations order commanding all officers to follow these rules. Although the department issued a similar operations order detailing this policy about a decade ago, criminal justice advocates said too few officers heeded the rules.

“The problem was no one knew about that operations order and there had never been any training on it, so police officers around the city mistakenly believed that they could frisk and search passengers without suspicion,” said Chris Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which represented both plaintiffs.

Dunn said they interviewed more than a dozen livery car drivers who claimed they were getting stopped routinely and their passengers were getting pulled out without any reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.

TRIP is meant to protect livery drivers from crimes perpetrated by passengers, especially robberies. Drivers who voluntarily participate in the program consent to being pulled over by a police officer at any point to check on their safety. Participants display a decal in their windows stating, “This vehicle may be stopped and visually inspected by the police at any time to ensure driver’s safety.”

The plaintiffs didn’t challenge the actual vehicle stops in their lawsuit — only the manner in which they were treated after the officers pulled the livery cabs over.

In addition to promising the retraining of officers, the city paid Battle and Pujara $10,000 each.

City lawyers called the TRIP program “entirely constitutional” and noted that the program itself was not challenged in the lawsuit.

“The police department remains committed to ensuring that the program is run correctly and to ensure the continued safety of livery cab drivers and their passengers,” said Mark Zuckerman of the city’s Law Department.

Dunn said, as with the the stopping and frisking of pedestrians, TRIP resulted in unwarranted frisks and searches that disproportionate impacted minorities.

“Yellow cabs just aren’t available in the outer boroughs, the communities where blacks and Latinos primarily live,” said Dunn. “Really the targets — and the victims — of this practice wer blacks and Latinos.”

Dulles Airport (photo courtesy of Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority)

A federal audit of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority  — which operates Dulles and Reagan National Airports and is building the Metrorail Silver Line –  found faults in agency’s policies and practices on financial disclosures, contracting, travel and transparency. Example: board members spent $238 on two bottles of wine and $9,200 on one plane ticket to Prague. And awarded $6 million worth of contracts without board approval. (Washington Post)

But: US DOT head Ray LaHood says he has confidence in the new MWAA leadership. (The Hill)

Now that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s transit agenda has been repudiated, “he has been freed to turn the rest of his term into an extended campaign about…an inanely simplistic choice: subways versus streetcars.” (Toronto Life)

San Francisco’s transit agency has given the green light to bus rapid transit on Van Ness Avenue. (San Francisco Examiner)

Felix Salmon: I’ve taken another look at the numbers, and I still think NYC’s bike share is really expensive. (Reuters)

Atlanta’s airport is opening its new international terminal today — six years behind schedule and twice the price cited in preliminary plans. (Marketplace)

The city of Moscow plans to spend over a trillion rubles (some $33 billion) by 2020, adding 90 more miles and 67 more stations to its city subway system. (RIA Novosti)

A plane carrying France’s new president, François Hollande, was struck by lightning en route to Germany. (Christian Science Monitor)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway now owns 10,000,000 shares of General Motors stock. (Bloomberg)

Meanwhile, GM stopped buying ads on Facebook. (Wall Street Journal)

After decades of urban evolution, the world’s major subway systems appear to be converging on an ideal form.  (Wired)

London aims to open its new cable car across the Thames in time for the summer Olympics. (video at BBC)

Training wheels don’t work. What does? Balance bikes. So “skip the training wheels and get rid of the pedals instead.” (Slate)

Why do terrorists go for planes when there are easier targets? (NPR)

Delaware’s House passed a bill that would penalize drivers going below the speed limit in the left lane of a Delaware highway. (News Journal)

Cheaper gas prices aren’t enough to get many more Americans on the road this summer. (AP)

The mild winter means states like West Virginia are sitting on a surplus of road salt — and now have to figure out how to store it until next winter. (Daily Mail)

Senator Barbara Boxer

The chair of the congressional conference committee trying to get agreement on a transportation bill is cheerleading its chances, but she admits negotiators haven’t yet touched the hard stuff.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) took some time Tuesday to tell reporters how optimistic she is that House and Senate negotiators can find common ground on highway and surface transportation funding by a June 30th deadline. The conference kicked off last week.

“The process has been very inclusive and I expect that to produce a result,” Boxer said. The Environment and Public Works Committee Chair said she’s exercising an “open-door” policy with Republicans and Democrats so that everyone feels heard as the conference marches toward its deadline.

That includes, apparently, a meeting with the conference vice-chair Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) scheduled for Thursday, where Boxer says other members are invited to attend.

Still, for all the enthusiasm, Boxer acknowledged that tough, partisan issues like GOP demands to repeal EPA’s new coal ash rules and to include completion of the Keystone XL oils sands pipeline have not yet been discussed.

“We haven’t gotten to the areas of disagreement,” Boxer said. “We will.”

Boxer has set about making her best case for the Senate’s MAP-21 highway bill, which passed with 74 votes back in March. She’s got a lot of Senate Republicans, and probably nearly all House Democrats on her side up against a House Republican position demanding program reforms, lower spending, Keystone, and the coal ash provisions. One big question is whether, in the end, Republican leaders’ price for supporting the bill–likely to include Keystone–can get by Senate Democrats in a politically-charged election-year environment.

“I didn’t hear anybody draw a line in the sand,” Boxer said.

Congress has temporarily extended highway legislation nine times since it expired in 2009.

Follow Todd Zwillich on Twitter @toddzwillich

photo: Armando Trull

(Washington, DC — Armando Trull, WAMU) You’ve heard of Kiss and Ride and Park and Ride, but now Metro has opened its first Bike & Ride facility. At least 100 bikes can be stored in a covered, enclosed and secure location.

It’s secure because there’s steel doors and steel grates. And you can only get in using an electronic card, which is tied to a person’s picture ID.

Deputy General Manager Carol Kissle. “It helps us attract riders to our system in a cost-effective and environmentally-sustainable way. That’s really important for us, to give riders that flexibility in our system.”

By next summer, secured bicycle parking facilities will built at the Vienna and King Street stations. Over the next five years, Bike and Ride will be rolled out in the District as well as more Virginia and Maryland locations.

Rates for Bike & Ride are 5 cents per hour between the hours of 8 a.m. and midnight and 2 cents an hour all other times.

(Photo Andrea Bernstein)

WNYC listeners had questions about New York City’s impending bike share program — and TN’s Andrea Bernstein had answers. Cost? Liability? Docking station locations? Length of ride? She fielded phone calls on Tuesday’s Brian Lehrer Show on all of these topics.

And want to hear her response to Miriam in Greenwich Village, who complained that “bicycle riders are not very good about following traffic rules — they don’t stop for red lights”? Listen to the segment below.

And go to the Brian Lehrer Show web page as well to read the healthy conversation in the comments section.

Oil Drill Rig, Montana

Some 26 million acres of offshore areas currently under lease for oil and gas development are inactive, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Department of the Interior. A DOI press release touts the finding, and pushes oil companies to, um…drill, baby, drill.

The report comes as President Barack Obama pushes his so-called “all-of-the-above” energy strategy, which includes development of alternative fuels but also more vigorous oil drilling.

Here’s an excerpt from the release.

According to the report, more than 70 percent of the tens of millions of offshore acres currently under lease are inactive, neither producing nor currently subject to approved or pending exploration or development plans. Out of nearly 36 million acres leased offshore, only about 10 million acres are active – leaving nearly 72 percent of the offshore leased area idle.

In the lower 48 states, an additional 20.8 million acres, or 56 percent of onshore leased acres, remain idle. Furthermore, there are approximately 7,000 approved permits for drilling on federal and Indian lands that have not yet been drilled by companies.

“These lands and waters belong to the American people, and they expect those energy supplies to be developed in a timely and responsible manner and with a fair return to taxpayers,” said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. “We will continue to encourage companies to diligently bring production online quickly and safely on public lands already under lease.”

(photo by Kate Hinds)

Transit backers have given up on a comprehensive highway bill this go-around, hoping instead that whatever passes Congress this year lays the table for 2013. And, they say, whatever comes in 2013 must put public transportation on equal footing with roads.

That was the message today on a conference call given by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), which released a report predicting that volatility in gas prices would spur an additional 290 million passenger trips on public transportation this year.

APTA says transit systems nationwide are groaning under the weight of additional passengers and less funding. “More than 80% of our members have had to either raise fares, cut service, or do both as a way to manage their economic challenges,” Michael Melaniphy, APTA’s president, said. “At the same time, we had our second-highest ridership since 1957 last year.”

Ed Rendell, the former governor of Pennsylvania and a co-chair of the infrastructure group Building America’s Future (which co-sponsored the report), was asked about the likelihood of transportation funding reform in the current political climate.

“I don’t think we’re going to get a five or a six-year bill. I think we’ll get something that will carry us into 2013, and I think the best that we can hope for at this point is to do no harm,” Rendell said. “But in 2013, it seems to me that Congress and the administration have to come to grips with the problems facing not only our transportation infrastructure, but our entire infrastructure.”

Which, he said, “is in desperate shape,” adding that he’s hoping for “a ten year, long-term infrastructure revitalization program.”

Rendell said he had been “horrified by the original proposal floated by the House” that would have stopped gas-tax revenues from being used to fund transit systems. Republicans had said instead that transit funding should come out of a general fund. But that provision was not included in the extension passed in March, which kept things more or less status quo.

Curtis Stitt, the president of the Central Ohio Transit Authority, offered a cautionary tale about general revenue funding — which, he said, is how public transit is funded in Ohio. “Ten years ago,” he said, “the entire state got — for about 42 transit agencies in the state — we got about $43 million.” In the aftermath of the financial crisis, he said, “this year we’re getting $7 million.”

APTA officials urged Congress to look at the transportation system holistically — because that’s how Americans see it. Gary Thomas, who runs Dallas’ transit system and is also APTA’s chairman, said “they view our transportation network as one system. Which is why both public transportation and the road network should continue to receive funding from the highway trust fund.”