The Good And Mostly Bad News About Transit

Transit advocates claim that recent increases in transit ridership is proof that Americans are turning away from the auto and that transit--especially rail transit--deserves more funding than ever. Yet transit gains are tiny relative to increases in auto driving. The tens of billions invested in transit in recent years have done little but leave surface transportation funding highly unbalanced: Though we travel nearly one hundred times as much by auto as by transit, we spend less than four times as much on highways as on transit.