This page is all about the need for more adequate public transportation in the United States, as well as information to support the need for better means of public transportation.
Public transportation and infrastructure are essential to our functioning as a society. Without adequate public transportation, our entire economy would collapse. Public transportation, such as trains, railroads, streets, highways, tunnels, etc. are vital to our economy. They are needed in order to get people safely to their jobs as well as transporting goods from one place to another. According to an article published in 2021 by the Infrastructure Report Card, 45% of Americans have no access to public transport. If nearly half of Americans do not have access to public transportation, that means nearly half of Americans are unable to get their necessities or go somewhere essential to them. America is the wealthiest nation on Earth. There is no reason for people to be unable to access public transportation. Improving our modes of public transportation would improve a lot of aspects of society.
There are many uses for public transportation. Today, everyone uses some form of transportation in their lives to get to destinations they need to go. But there are many different ways that people get from place to place. Many people have cars that they use often to get to their destination while some don't have one. But there are problems associated with cars and other motor vehicles that have an impact on society and the environment. With cars in many areas they seem to have not that big of an effect on society like small towns and other areas where there are not many people. However when you start to get to bigger areas where it's more population dense the problems cars cause becomes more visible. In cities like New York City and Los Angeles there is lots of traffic and pollution caused by cars this in turn causes traffic congestion problems in society because of the way that it affects people's everyday lives. It causes people to spend lots of time going to their destination that normally should only take a small amount of time but instead takes a much longer time than necessary because of traffic congestion, as seen in the photo below. One way to solve the issue of traffic congestion is to have better access to public transportation.
It's estimated that 75% of people now shop online at least once a month.” ’’The labor scarcity issue is common across many market sectors. This issue has hit the transportation industry especially hard.
Cutting services means laying off employees like bus drivers, and anyone who loses a job may not be as easily enticed back when systems need them.
Transportation planning needs to include residents to ensure resources are allocated in ways most beneficial to those who have been historically excluded or who continue to suffer from legacies of residential segregation and neighborhood disinvestment. Addressing food insecurity must include creative ideas to reduce transportation costs and increase access to transportation. Those managing food programs and working in rural and urban development must consider resident experiences in managing food and transportation trade-offs, as well as their ideas for combating these challenges.
Since 2020, U.S. Hunger has received requests for food assistance from over 25,724 individuals living in food deserts (i.e. The nearest supermarket is more than 1 mile away in urban areas or more than 10 miles in rural areas).
Due to COVID, we will continue to see a reduction in retirees applying to drive school buses. And school bus drivers are the backbone of our transportation operations.
The American Public Transport Association have published a list of facts supporting the need for public transportation and the improvements we could make across the board with better public transportation. Provided in that list of facts was a study conducted by the National Academies’ Transit Cooperative Research Program on public transportation’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The study concludes that if we were to add more buses, subways, commuter trains, or light rails, we could heavily reduce our carbon emissions. Communities that invest in their public transit reduce America’s carbon emissions by 63 million metric tons annually. In 2021, America’s greenhouse gas emissions totaled 6,347.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. Though the 63 million metric tons may not make a dent in the 6.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, should several major cities across the country start improving their public transportation systems, the number of carbon emissions would fall drastically. 
This image published on March 23rd, 2023 by 8 Billion Trees, an organization dedicated to large-scale tree planting and environmental conservation, shows various types of transportation and how much of our carbon emissions those types are responsible for. It is visible that most vehicles that are meant to carry multiple passengers are better for the environment than vehicles that only carry a few passengers.
Adequate public transportation would also have a plethora of economic benefits. The American Public Transportation Association also claims that an investment in transit can yield 49,700 jobs per $1 billion invested and offers a 5 to 1 economic return. This not only creates more jobs for people in communities across the country but is also highly profitable. Every dollar invested in public transportation generates five dollars in return. Making that investment in public transportation is important for economic growth. Having access to better public transportation would also help people save money. On average, the average U.S. household spends 16 cents of every dollar on buying, maintaining, and using cars. Should a household live with one less vehicle, they could save close to $10,000 a year. Home values also yield a 24% increase if they were near public transportation systems.
Using buses, trains, or other forms of transportation is much safer than using cars. It has been reported that travelling by public transport is 10 times safer per mile than travelling using a car. You can reduce your chance of getting into a car accident by 90% if you use public transport as opposed to commuting via car. Not only are better forms of public transportation environmentally and economically conscious, but they are also a safer and more reliable alternative.
Development of additional road capacity- Changing our roads to accommodate bicycles, buses, and other means of transportation would make more room for public transportation. The photo below is a draft of what a shared bus-bike lane may look like. Photo provided by the National Association of City Transportation
Traffic management measures- Partial relief from road traffic would clear up our roads leading to less traffic jams
Effective use of bus service- Increasing the schedule reliability of bus services would benefit citizens needing transportation. They would be able to get to work, school, and other essential places.
Parking restrictions- It is not possible to provide sufficient space for all who might like to drive and park in the central areas of large towns. Parking this must be restricted and this is usually done by banning all-day parking by commuters or making it prohibitively expensive.
Promoting the bicycle- The bicycle is cheap to buy and run and is in urban areas often the quickest door-to-door mode. It is a benign form of transport, being noiseless, non-polluting, energy-and space-efficient and non-threatening to most other road users. A pro-cycling city would promote fitness among cyclists and health among non-cyclists. Cycling is thus a way of providing mobility, which is cheap for the individual and for society.
Promoting public transport- Transferring longer trips requires that a good quality public transport system is in place to ensure that the city can function efficiently.
