Car Commuting Rates Decline in 99% of America's Large Metros

"In 99 of the nation’s 100 largest regions — the cities and suburbs that are home to more than half the U.S. population — fewer people got to work in a private vehicle in 2010 than in 2000," writes Tanya Snyder. "In the vast majority of those areas, households are shedding cars while more people are getting on the bus and taking up biking."

These are among the key findings of a new report from U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group that details Americans' changing transportation habits.

Because a paucity of data prevented apples-to-apples comparisons for some categories that the researchers investigated, Snyder argues that "states and cities need to monitor [transportation behavior] far more closely to get a grip on how to set policy."

"More importantly," she adds, "they need to change how they plan and build transportation systems, before they waste too much more money on antiquated infrastructure."