Transit
Basics
How Transit Pays for the Automobile’s Sins
Tony Dutzik is a senior policy analyst with the Frontier Group.
March 25, 2014
Making Transit Better Isn’t Enough. Driving Needs to Be Worse.
So transit ridership is up. Everybody knows that. It’s at its highest point since 1956. Right?
March 21, 2014
Moody’s: Future Is Bright for U.S. Transit Sector
Yes, federal funding for transportation is expected to go negative before Congress is even due to pass a new bill. And yes, transit systems had a tough few years, cutting service and raising fares as the recession took a bite out of revenues. But guess what? In a credit outlook report released this week, Moody’s credit rating service says the outlook for the transit sector is positive.
March 19, 2014
Dramatic Shift Away From Driving Continues in California
In the first major travel survey since 2009, evidence grows that Americans are changing their transportation habits rapidly. The news from Caltrans' 2012 California Household Travel Survey is dramatic: Californians are making far more trips by walking, bicycling, and transit than they were in 2000. The survey found the percentage of trips by these modes doubled in ten years and make up nearly 23 percent of all trips in the state.
March 17, 2014
Talking Headways Podcast: Taking Transit Numbers for a Spin
What a week! Transit ridership skyrocketed (ahem, by 1.1 percent) to levels not seen since 1956 (depending how you look at it). Radio Shack is shutting down 20 percent of its stores. Is brick-and-mortar retail collapsing -- and is it just as well, if getting delivery from Amazon is more efficient than driving to the store anyway? Plus, there's a new video game for transit nerds to stay up all night obsessing over!
March 13, 2014
With Ridership on the Rise, Will Congress Step Up and Invest in Transit?
Yesterday the American Public Transportation Association reported that Americans made more transit trips in 2013 than in any other year since 1956. Of course, per capita ridership is still low compared to the 1950s, and we're nowhere near the ridership peaks of the 1940s. But when transit trips increase 1.1 percent while population rises 0.7 percent, you know change is afoot.
March 11, 2014
American Transit Ridership Hits 57-Year High
The last year transit ridership was this high in the United States, Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act. Not since 1956, according to the American Public Transportation Association, have Americans logged as many transit trips as they did in 2013: 10.7 billion. It was the eighth year in a row that Americans have made more than 10 billion transit trips.
March 10, 2014
For Children New to Obamacare, Transportation May Be a Barrier
As more provisions of the Affordable Care Act take effect, children across America whose access to health care has been limited by lack of insurance stand to benefit. But transportation to medical appointments could be a major obstacle that will reduce the impact of Obamacare, according to a letter from children's health experts printed this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association this month.
February 27, 2014
Talking Headways Podcast: Hug This Streetcar
Jeff Wood of the Overhead Wire (now working with NRDC's crack transportation team) and I talk to Randy Simes in this week's podcast about the streetcar movement in Cincinnati -- and how they finally grabbed the long-elusive gold ring.
February 20, 2014
Indiana Transit Bill Moves Forward With Only Some of Its Worst Provisions
Opponents had a field day inserting “poison pills” into the bill to allow transit expansion in the Indianapolis area. But so far, they haven’t been able to slow down the bill’s progress. It passed the Indiana House Transportation Committee yesterday, 11-1.
February 13, 2014