Transportation is responsible for more than two-thirds of
our nation’s oil consumption and nearly a third of our carbon dioxide emissions.
To make us more energy independent and reduce pollution, we need to build a
transportation system that uses less oil, takes advantage of alternative fuels,
and shifts as much of our travel as possible from transportation modes that
consume a lot of energy to those that consume less.
Public transportation meets this need by getting people to
work and school using less oil and creating less pollution than driving. Last
year, people drove fewer miles and replaced many of these trips by using more
public transportation—record growth that has largely carried over to 2009. Many
states saw dramatic, record-breaking growth in annual transit ridership last
year, as detailed in Table 1.
Nationwide, in 2008 transit ridership rose by 4 percent and
people drove nearly 4 percent less than they did the year before. Overall, Americans
took approximately 10.7 billion trips via public transportation last year,
saving more than 4 billion gallons of gasoline. This is equivalent to the
gasoline used by more than 7.2 million cars a year—nearly as many cars as are
registered in Florida,
the fourth largest state. While this is a major step towards reducing our
dependence on oil, our country needs to make long strides in advancing more
efficient transportation in order to achieve energy independence. In 2008, the U.S. spent more
than $700 billion on oil, of which nearly $400 billion was spent on petroleum
from other countries. If we doubled the nation’s current ridership of public
transportation, we could reduce oil usage in this country comparable to what we
import each year from Saudi
Arabia.
In terms of global warming, public transportation reduced
carbon dioxide emissions, the leading cause of climate change, by 37 million
tons in 2008. The latest science indicates that we need to reduce global
warming pollution 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 to stave off the most
severe impacts of climate change. Meeting this goal will require emissions
reductions from all sectors of the economy, especially the transportation
sector, which is the second largest and fastest growing source of carbon dioxide
pollution.
This report details the dramatic growth of public
transportation in 2008, and the corresponding energy and environmental benefits.
These details are viewed in light of fewer miles driven in most states last
year. It also documents transit growth across the country continuing into this
year, highlights future potential benefits and outlines ways to improve the
state of public transportation.
