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Transit
Information Mass transit can include motor buses, light rail, heavy rail, trolley buses, commuter rail, and ferry boats. Compiling transit statistics can be complicated by the range of transit types found in various combinations and the possibilities for multi-modal trips that incorporate driving, walking, and bicycling. Transit Users Since 1995, transit ridership has increased by 21 percent to the highest level in 40 years, outpacing the growth in population (4.5 percent) and highway use (11.4 percent). In the next 15 years, transit use is expected to increase by 60 percent. Despite these increases, opponents of transit funding have claimed it is a poor investment, pointing to transit ridership representing less than 5 percent of all trips. A 1999 study by the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation refutes this argument, saying the appropriate question is not what percentage of total trips is carried by transit, but rather what percentage of transit-competitive trips transit carries. Transit can compete with automobiles only where high-quality service is available. In 1993, just 55 percent of American households had access to transit at all, and far fewer had clean, safe, reliable transit service within easy walking distance - estimated at between 1,000 and 2,000 feet - from their homes. The study found that competitive transit systems such as Chicago's Metra carry from 50 to 60 percent of trips. Moreover, if Metra's 182,000 daily riders chose instead to drive on the parallel Dan Ryan/Kennedy Expressway, the doubled volume of traffic would bring it to a halt. Transit Benefits A study by Cambridge Systematics, Inc., found that every $10 million of transit capital investment creates 314 jobs and increases business sales by $30 million. The Texas Transportation Institute has calculated the nation's annual cost of congestion at $40 billion for time and fuel wasted in traffic. Without transit, this figure would increase by $15 billion. The Center for Transportation Excellence estimates annual transit expenses at $26 billion, but totals transit benefits for reduced congestion, livable communities, reduced auto emissions, and increased mobility at $60 billion, for a net benefit of $34 billion a year. Transit Costs The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that maintaining and improving transit systems and performance requires an annual investment of $17 billion. Proposed transit appropriations for fiscal 2002 fall far short of that sum. The Senate bill would provide $6.8 billion, $100 million more than President Bush's request and $573 million over this year's budget; the House bill would provide $6.7 billion. This compares with approximately $33 billion for highways. Household transportation expenditures mirror the federal investment. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 1998 the average American household spent 19 percent of its total expenditures on transportation - $6,616 a year. Of this, $6,187 or 93 percent was devoted to private vehicle purchases, fuel, and maintenance, and $429 was used for public transportation. Transit Financing In a landmark policy shift, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and its successor, the Transportation Equity Act (TEA-21), for the first time provided states with flexible federal funding that could be used for transit or highway projects, depending on locally defined goals. From fiscal 1992 through fiscal 1999, $33.8 billion in highway funds were available for transfer from the Surface Transportation Program (STP) and the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) to the Federal Transit Administration. However, a recent
Brookings Institution analysis found that only 12.5 percent of these
transferable funds were "flexed" to transit, and excluding the extraordinarily
high transfers in California and New York the total is just 8 percent.
This may be attributed in part to the fact that federal funding
for public transit system construction generally provides a 50 percent
match, but federal funds for highway projects offer an 80 percent
match. Transportation Mode | Transportation | Transportation/Trade | Home
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