More and more Americans turn to public transit mainly due to the economic crisis, according to figures released on Monday.
With an increasing number of Americans trying to save money to cope with the economic crisis, about 10.7 billion trips were taken on mass transit in 2008, a four per cent increase from 2007, said figures provided by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).
The use of public transportation across the United States hit a 52-year record high since 1957 when more than 10.4 billion rides were taken, according to APTA, a group that represents transit agencies and manufacturers of transit products.
Locally, nearly every agency saw gains last year. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority saw a 0.8 per cent increase to nearly 486 million riders, according to the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
APTA has a good reason to trumpet the numbers. With transit funding threatened in so many places on the local and state level, the group is making a push to get as much money as possible in the federal transportation bill that is set to be negotiated in Congress this year, the paper said.
The bill sets funding levels for the next several years.
Mass transit use in the US peaked in 1946 with almost 23.5 billion rides and then began a long descent -- as freeway and suburban construction exploded -- before bottoming in 1972 with about 6.6 billion rides, said APTA.
Transit use then began steadily climbing, coinciding with the fuel crisis of the 1970s.