The number of passenger trips in 2022, reported by public transit authorities in the U.S., reached almost 6.19 billion. In 2020, the travel restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic deeply affected transit ridership, which fell from nearly 10 billion in 2019 to under five billion that year.
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Nationally, a 2016 Pew Research Center survey found that 11 percent of Americans take public transportation at least weekly, and 21 percent of urban residents use it regularly.
The United States is serviced by a wide array of public transportation, including various forms of bus, rail, ferry, and sometimes, airline services. Most established public transit systems are located in central, urban areas where there is enough density and public demand to require public transportation.
But the state of public transit in the U.S. is declining rapidly as transit across the nation faces a fiscal crisis. Philadelphia's SEPTA predicts a deficit of almost $269 million by 2027.
But did you know choosing public transportation over driving can also have significant financial benefits? According to the American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) Transit Savings Report, individuals who ride public transit instead of driving can save an average of $13,000 annually, or $1,100 a month.
Not only is the New York City public transportation system the most extensive in the country, but it's also one of the few that operates all night long. Both subway trains and bus services run 24/7.
The APTA's study – The Hidden Traffic Safety Solution: Public Transportation, concludes that public transit is essentially over 10 times safer than traveling by any other means of individual transport such as a car.
Since government-owned public transit is subsidized to the point where fares barely cover a fraction of the operating costs, it might be said that public transit is a failed market. Could a privately run transit company survive outside of highly populated, densely packed urban areas? Probably not.
The largest group of public transportation commuters (46.3 percent of all public transporta- tion commuters, or about 3.6 million people) reported the bus as their primary commut- ing mode (Figure 2).