No it seems like a developer have to integrate with Project Astoria some how to replace the Google APIs with the Microsoft ones and then submit the app to the store. I doubt end users will have access to that capability.
Prior to today I had seen this anecdotally on the Keystone Corridor. I live outside Harrisburg, PA and have seen traffic increase dramatically once they upgraded the track to Philadelphia to dedicated "high speed" rail (110mph max) with free WiFi. Looking at the map both Harrisburg and Lancaster have seen half a million new riders in the past decade, all bound in the direction of Philadelphia. Unfortunately the Pittsburgh leg is shared with freight traffic and turns a 3.5 hour journey by car into an impractical and relatively expensive 6 hour train ride. There's a plaque in Pittsburgh commemorating the first rail line from Philly in the 1860s which shaved travel time from 7 days to 8 hours and all I thought upon seeing it was what a shame it was that so little has changed since then.
This is incorrect. The article you cited refers to an 8th Circuit case which does not apply to Colorado (which is in the 10th Circuit) or any state outside that circuit. It is important to note what happened with the author of this article is known as a Terry Stop. Terry Stops are brought about by reasonable suspicion which is a much lesser standard than probable cause and they must end once the basis of the reasonable suspicion is denied.
The Supreme Court in Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada, 542 U.S. 177 (2004) upheld a Nevada statue which required anyone detained during a Terry Stop to comply with a demand for identification. Colorado has a statute similar to Nevada's which allows an officer to "request" identification rather than compel. However a failure to produce identification most likely would not deny the basis of the officer's reasonable suspicion may cause the individual detained to run afoul of other laws like obstruction. This is an unsettled area of law in many states so there is no hard and fast rule for what happens when a person refuses to identify themselves nationally.
Nevertheless in this case the officer seems to have specifically detained the author under the reasonable suspicion that he solicited an illegal vehicle for hire. Once the passenger told him that he was in an Uber cab (a lawfully hired vehicle in Colorado) the basis for that suspicion was denied and the author should have no longer have been detained or asked for personal identification.
Overly cheap parking is a problem for sure, but so is overly expensive parking. The articles you cite say that an 80-85% occupancy rate for parking spaces is most desirable, a figure I've seen before. Say the city determines that for every dollar parking is increased demand drops 10% and at $2 an hour demand is the optimal 80%. That means that the market is most profitable when parking spaces are actually $5 an hour and demand is 50%.
In the closed world of parking spaces $5 an hour is the optimal rate, but in reality this could be disastrous for traffic and business who are now dealing with increased congestion and reduced customers respectively. Taking the ability to set pricing out of the control of the city and placing it with independent/selfish actors might have unforeseen ripple effects on the wider community. Therefore it should well within the city's right as an actor who is responsible to the community to direct the use of its property as best suits the public good.
Sorry but I think your premise is flawed here. You can patent rules for board games (http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2011/12/22/patenting-board-games-1...) afterall they're just processes. It's copyright (which you linked to) which precludes getting protection over game rules.