Last week, the Public Interest Research Group in Michigan (PIGRIM) released a study titled "A Better Way to Go: Meeting America's 21st Century Transportation Challenges with Modern Public Transit" that explores how public transit can reduce fossil fuel usage, improve the environment, and lessen commuting times. The study primarily addresses transit at the national level, but does include some information specific to Michigan. It reports that overall, transit saves Michigan 4.5 million gallons of gasoline (a cost of $11.8 million) and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 18,200 metric tons. Additionally, at a press release announcing the study, a PIGRIM representative said that recent public transportation improvements in Grand Rapids have decreased highway congestion by about 2%. It has also reduced the total length of "rush hour" by twenty minutes.
For those interested in public transit, the entire study is worth reading, but there are a few facts that stand out:
* Two out of every three barrels of oil the United States consumes each year are used to fuel our transportation system. Personal cars and trucks account for 40 percent of our oil consumption. The United States remains by far the world's largest consumer of oil.
* The average American living in an urban area spent 38 hours--nearly a full work week--stuck in traffic delays in 2005, twice as much t ime as in 1982. Traffic congestion costs America's economy approximately $78 billion and results in 4.2 billion lost hours each year.
* America's transportation system produces more carbon dioxide--the leading global warming pollutant--than the entire economy of any other nation in the world, except China. America must reduce emissions from its transportation system if the world is to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of global warming.
* The extraordinary expense of building and maintaining highways, which requires more than $150 billion in government expenditures each year, and the cost of owning and operating private vehicles, which costs American households $900 billion annually.
* The extraordinary expense of building and maintaining highways, which requires more than $150 billion in government expenditures each year, and the cost of owning and operating private vehicles, which costs American households $900 billion annually.
* In 2005, transit prevented 540.8 million hours of traffic delay, according to the Texas Transportation Institute, equivalent to more than 61,700 people sitting in traffic for an entire year. The monetary value of those savings was $10.2 billion.
* Transit reduced global warming emissions by nearly 26 million metric tons in 2006.
* Highways have received the vast bulk of public investment over the last half century. Since 1956, federal, state and local governments have invested nine times more capital funding.
* State funding is even more out of line with 21st century transportation priorities. In 2004, state governments spent nearly 13 times more public funds on highways than on transit.
