STATEMENT OF NATIONAL PURPOSE A Vision for Public Transportation

We live in an age disturbed, confused, bewildered, afraid of its own forces, in search not merely of its road but even of its direction. There are many voices of counsel, but few voices of vision ...

Woodrow Wilson, Princeton University, 1907

America today urgently needs a new strategy to lay the foundation for its future economic competitiveness, sustainability, and quality of life. APT A believes that an extensive multimodal transportation infrastructure provides the basis for this strategy.

On the national level, public transportation supports America's goals and policies, including spurring economic activity, reducing its dependence on foreign oil and providing critical responses in emergencies. On an individual level, public transportation saves money, dramatically reduces CO₂ emissions, and provides people with choices, freedom, and opportunities.

Americans make their travel choices on the basis of smart and logical decision-making. In places where accessible, high quality public transportation services exist, a high percentage of the traveling public uses the service.

In 2006, people took more than 10.1 billion trips on public transportation, the highest ridership level in nearly 50 years. Much of this growth is attributable to the transportation infrastructure investments provided in the three most recent federal transportation bills, ISTEA, TEA 21, and SAFETEA-LU.

But many Americans do not have adequate transportation choices. A recent survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau, found that only 53 percent of American households have access to public transportation of any kind.

While America continues to boast the world's best overall transportation system, the system is showing signs of severe stress, so making investments in our nation's physical infrastructure will be critical to our ability to sustain strong economic growth in future years.

APT A's vision is that America leads the world in supporting and sustaining a pre­eminent transportation system.

The federal government must therefore continue to play its key' investment role in our nation's transportation infrastructure - as it has done since the early days of the nation.

To ensure that Americans have the public transportation choices they clearly want - and need - and to ensure that they can access the range of educational, vocational, social, and recreational opportunities awaiting them, a national transportation policy for the future must recognize several irrefutable facts.

Public transportation is an essential partner in our national strategy for energy independence and climate c:hange. New research calculates that current levels of public transportation service reduce petroleum consumption by 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline each year. This is the equivalent of 34 supertankers leaving the Middle East, one every 11 days. Currently, there are more than 6,400 providers of public and community transportation offering Americans freedom, opportunity, and the choice to travel by means other than a car.

Public transportation contributes to the growth of a strong economy. It is estimated that every $10 million in capital investment in public transportation yields $30 million in increased business sales, and that every $10 million in operating investment in public transportation yields $32 million in increased business sales. Further, every $1 billion of federal investment in the nation's transportation infrastructure supports and creates 47,500 jobs.

Public transportation dramatically reduces the effects of traffic congestion. Simply put, congestion results in lost time and wasted fuel. According to a 2007 Texas Transportation Institute report, congestion costs America $78 billion in lost time and productivity. Public transportation saved 541 million hours in travel time and 340 million gallons of fuel. Without public transportation, congestion costs would have been an additional $10.2 billion.

Public transportation is an invaluable partner in our central strategy for ensuring clean air and the health of our citizens. Reduced air pollutants and improved personal health and fitness are core American goals - and public transportation provides key contributions to making these goals a reality. A new APTA study prepared by Science Applications International Corporation found, for example, that it takes just one commuter switching from daily driving to using public transportation to reduce the household carbon footprint by 10 percent. If that household driver gives up the second car and switches to public transit, the household can reduce its carbon emissions up to 30 percent.

Public transportation delivers essential health and human services to people from all walks of life. Public transportation helps older Americans and persons with disabilities improve mobility, plus it provides lifelines to transit-dependent persons in rural areas. The reality is that two-thirds of rural Americans - 60 million people - are almost wholly unserved by public transportation.

Public transportation provides mobility for our aging society. Over the next two decades, America's baby boomers will reach retirement age, with the U.S. Census Bureau projecting the number of Americans age 65 or older to increase from 35 million today to more than 62 million by 2025. In a 2005 White House Conference on Aging, mobility for older Americans was ranked the third most important issue on a 50-item list - ahead  of Medicare. While the dimensions of this shift have been widely discussed, America remains ill-prepared to address the mobility needs of older Americans.

More than 50 percent of non-drivers age 65 and older stay home on any given day partially because they lack transportation options. Rural and suburban residents; African­Americans, Latinos, and Asian-Americans; and households with no cars are more heavily affected than other groups. Older non-drivers have a decreased ability to participate in the community and the economy, making 15 percent fewer trips to the doctor, 59 percent fewer shopping trips and restaurant visits, and 65 percent fewer trips for social, family and religious activities.

Public transportation inves1tments are critical to America's homeland security and civil defense. The interstate highway system was begun by President Eisenhower in 1956 as a national defense program. Today, transit systems often provide the only opportunity to avoid or flee potentially catastrophic events, and regularly provide critical support to first responders by delivering emergency equipment and supplies, ferrying emergency response personnel, and controlling access to and from disaster sites. A prime example of this occurred on September 11,2001, when public transportation in New York City, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. helped evacuate citizens to safety.

AMERICA'S TRANSPORTATION FUTURE

America's population is growing at an unprecedented rate. A 2006 cover story in USA Today that asks: "Where will everybody live?" noted that the U.S. added 100 million people in the past 39 years, and by 2040, will add another 100 million, with a population total of over 400 million.

If we Americans are to have a true transportation choice that accommodates this extraordinary growth, then we must design a long term investment and policy strategy to provide that choice. APTA's vision? Nothing less than this:

America is a thriving nation whose multi-modal, environmentally-responsive transportation system is the envy of the world.

But to achieve this goal, partnerships are critical.

Public transportation programs are funded by federal, state and local governments, partnerships that have successfully helped expand public transportation and make a positive difference throughout the country.

There is a critical need, however, for both continued and increased awareness of the benefits of public transportation among our public and elected officials - so that all Americans will have greater access, mobility, and quality of life in the years ahead.  

There is an equally critical need for these officials - particularly federal officials - to continue their investment role in provide the funding necessary to public transportation and its infrastructure.

As we have seen, among its many benefits, public transportation:

·         Reduces our dependence on insecure and expensive foreign oil - transit use saves the equivalent of 300,000 fewer automobile fill-ups each day.

·         Improves public health and helps the environment - public transportation fosters a more active lifestyle, encouraging more people to walk, bike, and jog to transit stops.

·         Promotes affordable travel - a two-adult household using public transportation saves $6,251 annually as compared to a similar household with no access to transit.

·         Improves safety -- fatality rates for travel on public transportation vehicles are about 1/25th that of private passenger vehicles.

INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

America must expand the number of cities with light rail and streetcar service, commuter rail, bus rapid transit, fixed route bus service, and paratransit services. We can improve the quality of rail systems struggling with system delay because of aging infrastructure and heavy passenger loads, and we can enhance the quality of bus systems in numerous cities. We can also ensure that those in rural communities receive public transportation service, service that more often than not serves as a lifeline to those without access to an automobile. In short, we can - and we must - provide the public with a quality system that allows for real choices.

For example, in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, officials invested in changes that made high-quality public transportation options widely available. As a result, Portlanders' per capita use of public transportation today is over 50% higher since the investments began 25 years ago.

When federal, state, and local governments provide for public transportation funding, they will receive a 6-fold return on their investment, in both public and private benefits.

CONCLUSION

Investment - in any area - is always productive, always cost-effective, and always the best choice. Experience tells us, therefore, that investing in our nation's transportation infrastructure is vital to maintaining our mobility, our quality of life, and our economic competitiveness.

Forty years from now, future generations will salute our foresight in discussing, planning, and investing in the future of public transportation.  

The decisions we make about our transportation system must of necessity be bold and forward thinking, very much like those 50 years ago that led to the national interstate system.

The American Public Transportation Association therefore strongly promotes the following principles:

·         By 2015, a fully fhnctioning, high capacity, high quality regional transit system should be in place in every metropolitan region in America, and a choice of travel options should be available for all Americans.

·         Investments in public transportation should provide the capacity and availability to enable transit ridership to double or triple in 20 years.

·         Transit should become an active partner in the establishment of a national strategy for energy independence and climate change, providing mobility choices, and as a leader in the use of green technologies.

·         Transit should continue its role as a strong national defense partner in providing for our homeland security.

As we look to the future, towards a strong, healthy, prosperous America, we see that vital, capable, comprehensive public transportation systems are - and must remain - an integral part of our country's mobility strategy.

Such systems contribute to an enhanced quality of American life - from conservation of energy and resources to improved air quality and health to critical support during emergencies and disasters.

Public transportation is on the move in the 21 st century, and more and more of our citizenry each day move with it, discovering the many diverse benefits of traveling on our nation's buses, trains, subways, trolleys, and ferries.