What are the effects of public transportation?

Investments in public transportation have potential traffic safety, air quality, active transportation, and accessibility benefits, thus improving associated personal health outcomes. Public transportation has substantially lower crash rates and lower crash severity than automotive travel.



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Public Transportation Reduces Air Pollution Approximately 85% of the greenhouse gas emissions that come from transportation are due to day-to-day commutes. By leaving the car at home, a person can save up to 20 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions every day.

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Access to public transportation may also reduce health disparities and promote health equity by increasing access to healthier food options, medical care, vital services, and employment for communities that do not have equal access to these fundamental daily necessities.

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Transportation also leads to noise pollution, water pollution, and affects ecosystems through multiple direct and indirect interactions. With the continuous growth in transportation, increasingly shifting to high-speed transportation modes, these externalities are expected to grow.

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Public transit is a vital force for the American economy. The American Public Transportation Association estimates that 87% of trips directly benefit the local economy, with $1 invested in public transit believed to generate $5 in economic returns.

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Many do not realize that transportation is a socioeconomic issue just as much as it is about pollution or traffic congestion.

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Investments in public transportation have potential traffic safety, air quality, active transportation, and accessibility benefits, thus improving associated personal health outcomes. Public transportation has substantially lower crash rates and lower crash severity than automotive travel.

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Cost-cutting and poor design. Low ridership is sometimes given as a rationale for not investing in public transport. But when transport doesn't make sense, people won't ride it. The Brookings analysis in Chicago highlights one common commute, which would take 20 minutes by car and 60 minutes on public transit.

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Buses come in at 299 grams per mile, second-worst only to cars at 371 grams. Building out passenger rail capacity would probably be a carbon-intensive process for the years of construction, but would then allow for generations of low emission travel.

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