It looks like the latest transportation trend involves catching a train or a bus.
Just out this week was the news that the number of people taking public transportation is at a 52-year high.
Ridership in 2008 increased across all modes of public transportation, including light rail (8.3 percent), commuter rail (4.7 percent), subways (3.5 percent), bus service overall (3.9 percent), and bus service in communities with populations under 100,000 (9.3 percent).
This meant a 4 percent rise in the number of trips on public transportation in 2007, and a 3.6 percent drop in vehicle miles traveled by road in 2008, says the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Why is this? Those who took trains or buses saved money. At least that’s the opinion of William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association, which released the report. “Given our current economic condition, people are looking for ways to save money, and taking public transportation offers a substantial savings of more than $8,000 a year. That’s quite a savings.”
I’m not sure how he figured his math, but when you consider a couple hundred bucks a month for parking and 55 cents per mile, his price seems plausible for those with longer commutes.
What are the other, non-green benefits of ditching your car? You don’t have to fight traffic–or circle endlessly for a parking spot. Instead, you can read a good book, or listen to your iPod, or text your friends, or take a nap.
Of course, I also like the idea for environmental reasons. Millar had some good stats on that: “Every year, public transportation saves 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline and reduces our nation’s carbon emissions by 37 million metric tons. ” This could help in efforts to stave off the worst effects of climate change.
And saving fuel puts us closer to weaning ourselves off foreign oil, which ultimately would help the economy and increase our national security.
What do you think? Have you jumped from the station wagon to the bandwagon and started taking public transit?
