No one likes getting a traffic ticket. Speeding, running a red light, rolling through a stop sign, it doesn’t matter. The increased heartbeat and dry mouth that comes when you see those police lights in the rearview mirror are never welcome.

A motorist in Virginia probably felt that  way, and more, after he (or she; I don’t believe it was specified) got stopped recently. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that a motorist who violated the high-occupancy vehicle law got slapped with a $1,000 ticket.

To be fair, it was the driver’s fourth violation. And police said drivers violating the HOV lane law…

It’s been nearly a year since work on “The New I-64″ (more commonly known here as Highway 40) began with the shutdown of all driving lanes between I-270 and I-170/Brentwood Boulevard.

Now, the western portion of the highway is open and the section between I-170 and Kingshighway is closed.  That will most likely cause more headaches for St. Louis drivers and residents – and probably is.

I’ve recently driven the new 5-mile section of roadway going west from I-170 to I-270, and had the feeling that I was in another city. Four lanes in each direction and five lanes in places, but was…

 Metro is about to double the number of fare inspectors checking our ride tickets and passes on MetroLink trains. A story in last week’s Post-Dispatch, MetroLink to double number of fare inspectors claims that transit officials don’t think that very many people are riding the trains for free. But many riders think otherwise.

Metro also said it would add security guards at some stations and beef up the number of uniformed law enforcement officers riding trains and buses.

According to the story, the moves come seven weeks before Metro faces a critical vote in St. Louis County to raise the transit sales tax…

Jeffrey Knight, a 49-year-old trucker from Muscle Shoals, Ala., flew back to Alabama on Wednesday while police in St. Louis County continue to investigate the crash he caused on Highway 40 Tuesday afternoon. Two people died and 16 were injured when Knight’s big rig barrelled into a line of stop-and-go traffic on eastbound Highway 40, just west of Interstate 270.

The Missouri Highway Patrol says Knight was inattentive. (You can read our report from today’s Post-Dispatch here.)  Investigators won’t be more specific yet. They say their full report will be turned over soon to county prosecutors.

There’s plenty of dangers out on the…

Post-Dispatch transportation writer Elisa Crouch is breaking the news that Missouri and Illinois leaders have reached an agreement on a new Mississippi River bridge.

Her early story says:

It has been more than two years since Congress authorized $239 million for a new bridge, which would redirect Interstate 70 traffic from the congested Poplar Street Bridge. Officials from both sides of the river, however, struggled to agree on the scale, cost and financing of the project.

One stumbling block was overcome last spring, when Missouri officials dropped their insistence on tolls as a way to finance the bridge. Illinois was adamantly opposed to…