Rail, rapid buses and other forms of public transit must play a more prominent role in America’s future transportation system.  If you currently do not live in a major metropolitan city, it is likely you have no access to public transit.

• In 2006, transit saved an estimated 3.4 billion gallons of gasoline in the United States-enough to fuel 5.8 million cars for a year. In monetary terms, transit saved more than $9 billion that would otherwise have been spent on gasoline.
• Transit reduced global warming emissions by nearly 26 million metric tons in 2006. In New York state alone, transit avoided 11.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution-more than was produced by the entire economies of Rhode Island, Vermont or the District of Columbia.
• Public transportation ridership reached 10.1 billion trips in 2006, a growth of 30 percent since 1995. A recent study by ICF found that these levels of public transportation usage reduce U.S. gasoline consumption by 1.4 billion gallons each year. More recently, U.S. residents took more than 2.6 billion trips on public transportation in the first three months of 2008. This is almost 88 million more trips than the same time period for 2007.

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