Why doesn t america have more public transportation?

With the expansion of the national highway network after the Second World War, urban areas in the US were increasingly built to support road rather than rail travel. City centres were places to get in and out of, rather than move in and around. This led to housing sprawl out to ever-expanding suburbs.



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Unfortunately, federal infrastructure policy and programs have not modernized to meet the five major challenges facing the U.S. transportation system: major injuries and fatalities, climate change, congestion, unequal economic opportunity, and crumbling facilities.

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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.

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Unfortunately, 45% of Americans have no access to transit.

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According to Statista Consumer Insights, 73 percent of American commuters use their own car to move between home and work, making it by far the most popular mode of transportation. Meanwhile, only 13 percent of the 7,649 respondents use public transportation while 11 percent ride their bike.

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Europe's public-transit systems are so good that many urban Europeans go through life never learning to drive. Their wheels are trains, subways, trams, buses, and the occasional taxi. If you embrace these forms of transportation when visiting cities, you'll travel smarter.

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Public transport in Hong Kong routinely ranks high among the best in the world, and for good reason. The network is extensive, to say the least, and the city is proud of the fact that 75 percent of the population lives within one kilometre of a metro station – that's less than 15 minutes' walk.

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Some 21% of urban residents use public transit on a regular basis, compared with 6% of suburban residents and just 3% of rural residents.

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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.

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The list was topped by the reliable, safe and comfortable public transport in Berlin.

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The ranking
  • Luxembourg (100 points),
  • Malta (88 points),
  • Austria (81 points),
  • Germany (69 points),
  • Cyprus (63 points),
  • Spain (62 points),
  • Switzerland (58 points),
  • Hungary (54 points),


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In most European cities, public transport systems will take you through or to famous attractions. It's easy to access bus stops and stations as there are extensive road and subway networks within cities. Europe has a wide inter-state road and subway routes that make it easy to travel from one country to the next.

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Rail systems are so popular in Europe because they can get loads of passengers to their respective destinations en masse — with much less of an impact on the environment. National governments, looking to reduce carbon emissions and put pro-environmental policy into practice, subsidize or own entire rail networks.

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Overall, the United States ranked second behind Singapore, but it falls somewhat behind when it comes to transportation and utility infrastructure. On transportation, the forum's score takes into account eight measures, rating the United States No. 12 globally.

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Thanks to public transit, walkable sidewalks, bike lanes and easy access to car sharing, you can get around Chicago pretty well without actually owning a car. However, you may need to use one for a longer trip outside of the city.

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