Survey finds Americans want more public transport

A recent survey by the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a pro-transit environmental-advocacy group, found Americans favored more local government spending on buses, trains, and light rail by a wide ratio: 68 percent to 25 percent. But when asked how to pay for improvements in transit and highways, Americans said no to higher fuel and sales taxes, preferring systems that require developers and commercial landowners to foot the bill
September 17, 2012 Read time: 1 min
A recent survey by the Washington-based 6572 Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a pro-transit environmental-advocacy group, found Americans favored more local government spending on buses, trains, and light rail by a wide ratio: 68 percent to 25 percent.

But when asked how to pay for improvements in transit and highways, Americans said no to higher fuel and sales taxes, preferring systems that require developers and commercial landowners to foot the bill, although they did agree with highway tolls.
Rob Perks, transportation-advocacy director for the NRDC, said voters more often supported specific tax increases for specific local projects than general tax increases.

The NRDC survey of 800 likely voters nationwide and 150 likely voters in Philadelphia found wide support for increasing public transit rather than building more roads to relieve congestion and reduce pollution.

But the survey also found many people resistant to using public transit because they liked driving or because they have found transit inconvenient.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Slow moving US road user charging programme
    July 18, 2012
    Bern Grush recently attended the Mileage-Based User Fee Conference in Austin Texas where the fledgling American landscape for Road User Charging is beginning to take shape. When I was a kid I liked to poke sticks into the ants' nests in sidewalk cracks. Ants would scatter in every conceivable direction. They ran in circles, they ran over and through each other. They screamed without logic. I was fascinated.
    Read More
  • Congestion pricing - no such thing as a free ride
    October 2, 2018
    The widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles is likely to increase congestion, many experts believe. But Wes Guckert of Traffic Group believes that tolling could provide the answer. While it is still hard to wrap your head around the idea of getting into a vehicle without a driver, the industry is now used to hearing, reading, participating in the advancement of autonomous vehicles (AVs). Those in the industry have heard about Uber delivering a shipment of Budweiser, or the convoy of driverless trucks
    Read More
  • US braces itself for congestion pain
    February 6, 2020
    Mary Scott Nabers, author of Inside the Infrastructure Revolution: A Roadmap for Building America, looks at how different US states are embracing the need for public transport investment
    Read More
  • Commuting habits come under scrutiny
    March 28, 2017
    Cities have a moral responsibility to encourage the smart use of transportation and Andrew Bardin Williams hears a few suggestions. Given the choice of getting a root canal, doing household chores, filing taxes, eating anchovies or commuting to work, nearly two-thirds of Americans said that they wouldn’t mind commuting into work—at least according to a poll conducted by Xerox (now Conduent) over its social media channels at the end of 2016.
    Read More

Highlighted Content