No Better Time to “Dump the Pump”

While public transportation plays second fiddle to the auto whenit comes to mileage traveled in the U.S., it plays a crucial role in our metropolitan areas, the largest 100 of which host two-thirds of ourpopulation and most of our GDP. Regions across the country would begridlocked without it. It saves 300,000 barrels of oil a day, much morethan the Deepwater Horizon wreck has been spewing into the Gulf, and itcuts heat-trapping pollution by 37 million metric tons a year.

And it’s making a comeback this century, as we all come to gripsanew with the perils of our massive addiction to oil (we consume almost20 million barrels a day of the black stuff). From 1995-2008, whiletraffic on our roads grew 21 percent, transit ridership grew almosttwice that much (38 percent). And new

analysis from the Department of Transportation shows that withadequate investments ridership could rise faster, which when deployed as part of a comprehensive strategy to increase travel efficiencyincluding road pricing, intelligent transportation technology, morecompact land development and other measures could reduce greenhouse gasemissions by 5-17 percent by 2030.

In short, public transportation currently makes us more energysecure, and boosting its share of travel can and must be a key component in any strategy to drive our oil dependence down in the future. I hopeyou will join me in taking advantage of bus or train service in yourarea, and if you don’t have easy access I urge you to lobby your city,county and state to do a better job of providing it.