Americans Want More Public Transit Options, Not More Highways, Study Finds

 
A bipartisan poll of 800 Americans shows that most want more transportation options, think their community would benefit from improved public transport, and support local investment in public transit. Who wants to spend hours alone in their car, burning expensive, dirty gasoline? Fewer and fewer of us.

Americans sound like they are ready and willing to support public transport, according to these stats:

• 59 percent of Americans feel the transportation system is “outdated, unreliable and inefficient.”
• 63 percent think traffic should be addressed by improving public transit.
• 68 percent support local investment in public transport improvements, including 39 percent supporting it “strongly.”
• 64 percent say their community would benefit from an expanded and improved public transportation system, such as rail and buses.

And they when compared to driving and roadbuilding options, citizens clearly favor transit:

• 59 percent would like more transportation options so they have the freedom to travel other than by driving.
• 63 percent (more than three in five Americans) would rather address traffic by improving public transportation (42 percent) or developing communities where people do not have to drive as much (21 percent) – as opposed to building new roads, an approach preferred by only one in five Americans (20 percent).
• 67 percent favor setting new standards for local planning that guide new development into existing cities and or near public transportation.

The poll was conducted via telephone and with focus groups in Charlotte, Raleigh, Philadelphia, and Cleveland.

Source: NRDC
Image: Alan49 via Shutterstock

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