Transportation For America » Transit reaches new heights in 2008

Transit reaches new heights in 2008

March 9, 2009
By Andrew Bielak

Minneapolis, MN light rail photo by Metro Transit

For the millions of Americans who waited for a bus last year to find it filled to capacity or boarded the subway train and saw it packed with fellow commuters, one thing should come as no surprise: 2008 was an incredible year for public transportation.

The American Public Transportation Association now has the numbers to prove it, and if anyone is doubting that people across the country are looking for cleaner, cheaper, and more efficient ways to get around their communities, they should probably take a look at these figures:

Americans took nearly 10.7 billion trips on public transportation in 2008, a four percent increase over 2007 and the highest level since 1956.
Public transportation use increased 38 percent since 1995 — nearly triple the growth rate of the population of the United States.
Total vehicle-miles traveled dropped in 2008 by 3.6 percent, according to the U.S. DOT.

Incredibly, these record numbers are being met with one trend at transit agencies across the country — service cuts, layoffs, and fare increases — that’s hitting Americans in their pocketbooks as they look to lead the way on creating a 21st century transportation program. When tied to our preferences for more and better options and recent growth in the urban cores of our large metropolitan regions, the surge in transit ridership should sends an overwhelmingly powerful message to Congress and the Obama Administration.

David Goldberg, the communications director for the Transportation for America campaign, gave us a clear idea of what that message should be in a statement to the New York Times:

“This is the leading edge,” Mr. Goldberg said, “of a continuing surge in demand for public transportation and more walkable neighborhoods as the population ages, convenience and access become more critical and gas prices remain volatile.”

While heightened investment in our transportation system is absolutely critical to help us rebuild our economy and our infrastructure, money alone will not solve our problems. We need a commitment — from Congress and the White House — to move beyond the current, 1950s-era federal transportation program and build an American transportation system that will help us compete and thrive today and tomorrow.

Filed under: Campaign Blog
Tags: american public transportation association, driving, new york times, transit, transit cuts

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http://www.DetroitTransit.org Megan Owens

Quick correction – 10.7 billion trips, not million!
Lee Watkins

Also, scooter sales were up 41.5 percent in 2008 compared to the previous year. Here in Maryland the legislature responded by trying to ban all scooters (all power ranges) anywhere the speed limit is more than 30mph, which would mean you couldn’t take them outside a residential area to a business district.

Also bicycle use was up dramatically but was very difficult to track because many people dusted off old 3-speeds Raleighs and Schwinns from the basement rather than buying new “racing” or “mountain” bikes for commuting. The legislature responded to this in MD by trying to make helmets mandatory for all ages because mandatory helmet laws dramatically reduce bicycle use.

Also, here in downtown Baltimore, boarded-up rowhouses in this walkable city are absolutely selling like hot cakes. Rowhouses are getting gutted and renovated at a breathtaking pace – 10 on my block just this year already sold and moved in families. Building permit “development” numbers don’t reflect this because they only publish numbers on development of new units, not renovations of boarded-up rowhouses.

I am not sure at what point the legislature is going to get in touch with public sentiment.
Donna Cook

This from Chico, CA. CA recently cut part of the funds to transit for at least a 5-year period. The response of the local transportation agency is to make a slight cut this year, propose rate hikes in 6 months and 5-10% cuts in a year.

This is being proposed even though every year about half of the transit funds are being used for street and road repair, something that is only supposed to happen if/after ALL of the UNMET TRANSIT NEEDS are met. They are not proposing even 5-10% cuts to street and road repair, even say in public meetings that they are trying to continue having the same amount of money go for street repair.

But the majority of the stimulus money that could/should have been spent for road repair was used to modify the highway infrastructure–I believe so that they can keep the public demanding road repair, and not expand the transit service in an area with a higher than average veteran, senior and poor population, and a population that has expressed strong desire for better bicycle and pedestrian access.

When transportation bureaucracies are filled with people who want to build highways, we need to either replace those bureaucrats or bring legal action to re-direct them.
http://seattle.gov/spab Jon Morgan

I’m in Seattle, the biggest city without rail transit–until July. In King County (1.8M people) we saw bus fares go up by 25 cents February 1. They’d just gone up 25 cents last March, and they’re going up another 25 cents 1/1/2010. No one seems to see that fare increases are both regressive and anti-environment since they discourage ridership. Our base fare is now $1.75, with peak hour fares of $2.25 and $2.50. In Washington, DC buses are still just $1.25. King County Metro has an unusually low 22% farebox recovery ratio, in large part because we have a political allocation formula for new service that artificially caps Seattle at 20%, giving far-flung suburban and rural areas with less transit demand 80%. The regional transit agency that’s building our light rail network just set fares for the system opening this July, and made them similar to Metro bus fares. Rail will be a huge step forward for us, and Sound Transit deserves credit for adopting distance-based fares, but all the fares are too high.
Phil Gavitt

Count yourselves lucky in Seattle! In January fares in St. Louis went up to $2.00 for bus, $2.25 for rail, and $2.75 for a two-hour pass. For this increased expenditure, as of today, the st. Louis Metro area lost from a third to a half of its bus and light rail service–bus service to 2,300 bus stops is indefinitely suspended. These cuts have disproportionately affected minimum-wage workers who commute from St. Louis City to the tony western suburbs.
http://seattle.gov/spab Jon Morgan

Yeah, I know. I lived in STL 2 years, and my parents and other relatives are still there. WA by necessity supports mass transit more substantially. The MO legislature is dominated by rural, anti-tax, and social conservative interests.
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