The Public Shift to Rail Is A Very Big Deal

Americans are turning to public transportation and, for the most part, that means rail: public transit and commuter trains. Amtrak, too, has experienced a big increase in ridership. Make no mistake: there are big societal benefits to this trend – large and small, short term and long term.

Think it’s a good idea to reduce our dependence on foreign oil? Well, people taking public transit are saving the equivalent of 300,000 full tanks of gas every day.

Concerned about global warming? By not driving their cars, those people taking transit are reducing carbon emissions by 7 million metric tons every year.

Transit also means people can live comfortably and conveniently in denser development. In other words, more transit means less urban sprawl. And less urban sprawl means fewer cars on the road.

The stimulus package being put together by the Obama team will include huge investments in the country’s infrastructure. Let us all hope that a substantial chunk will go into new transit systems, and adding new equipment and more frequency on existing systems.

The best thing any of us can do now is contact our senators and representatives in Washington expressing support for public transportation, which means everything from street cars to commuter rail to Amtrak. Personal letters are best, phone calls are good, email comes in third.

Thanks!