The American people need a dependable and affordable means to get to work and back each day; roughly half of all Americans have any transit available to them and a still smaller number have the high quality transit available that would be utilized versus an automobile. One of the principal arguments against mass transit is the "one percent argument" -- the assertion that transit carries only about one percent of total trips. But this paper argues that the central problem is not the answer but the question. Total trips is a poor yardstick with which to measure the effectiveness of public transit. Instead, the authors propose a new measurement: transit competitive trips. If we ask what percentage transit carries of the trips for which it can compete, we get a very different picture, one that accords much more closely with the real importance of mass transit in urban areas. The study goes on to apply this new measurement to three transit systems, each of which represents high quality transit: Chicago's Metra commuter rail system and the Light Rail systems in San Diego and St. Louis. In each case, the system does far better than the transit critics suggest.
On July 11, 2011, StarMetro, the local public transit agency in Tallahassee, Florida, restructured its entire bus network from adowntown-focused radia...
Rail transit represents a family of modes ranging from light rail to regional rapid transit systems and it can be utilized in a number of different ci...
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving a Bureau of Transportation
Statistics (BTS)/National Transportation Library (NTL)
Web-based service.
Thank you for visiting.
You are about to access a non-government link outside of
the U.S. Department of Transportation's National
Transportation Library.
Please note: While links to Web sites outside of DOT are
offered for your convenience, when you exit DOT Web sites,
Federal privacy policy and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act (accessibility requirements) no longer apply. In
addition, DOT does not attest to the accuracy, relevance,
timeliness or completeness of information provided by linked
sites. Linking to a Web site does not constitute an
endorsement by DOT of the sponsors of the site or the
products presented on the site. For more information, please
view DOT's Web site linking policy.
To get back to the page you were previously viewing, click
your Cancel button.