17 minutes. That's how long Americans
had to wait on average to Get on public transit in
2020. To transit in the U.S. Is awful, with few
exceptions and a few Places it's infrequent. It's not all day. It's unreliable. Meanwhile, 45% of
Americans have no access To public transportation
at all. The real problem in the
U.S. is what I would call Transit deserts. I mean, these are just
places where it is just Complete and total
nightmare to try to get Anywhere on transit,
whether to work or to Play, to pick up your
kids. You just can't Depend on it. The U.S. spent $79 billion
on public transit in 2019, Yet most public transit
across the nation is Finding itself in a
fiscal crisis. In 2021, the U.S. Was $176 billion behind
in updating the poor Conditions of public
transit. That backlog is expected
to grow to $250 billion by The year 2029. Ultimately, it's the
riders who are paying for The deficit. The pandemic money is
going to run out. And so there will be, I
think there will be fare Increases. But even more,
I think because of the Politics of it, there
will be service reduction And many places have
predicted that. So just how did public
transit in the U.S. Get so awful and can it
be improved?
The U.S. government has
long favored cars over Public transportation. When we talk about money
for transit, we talk about Funding. But when we talk
about the same public Money for roads, we often
hear the word 'investment.' We're spending far more,
hundreds of billions more On road improvement and
infrastructure than we are On transit. For example. U.S. Railways combining
commuter heavy and light Rail grew by 945 miles
between 2010 and 2020. During the same period,
highways were expanded by Over 100,000 miles. In transportation, we very
often have no choices. If we're talking about
local or area Transportation, it's very
often only driving. History plays a big role
in this discrepancy. There was a time when the
U.S. Boasted a public transit
system that was the envy Of the world. Prior to 1920s, we had a
very good streetcar system In our cities. These were trams that were
running typically in the Middle of the street. You
would board them at your Convenience. They were
often so frequent that you Didn't have to plan
ahead. During its peak in the
1920s, Americans living in Cities averaged more than
250 streetcar trips per Year, but the electric
streetcar business was far From profitable. Inflation drove up the
operating costs, but Businesses were unable to
raise fares accordingly And services quickly
began to deteriorate as a
Result. When the streetcar
companies, which were Private, went to the
government and so forth And said, 'Please help
us,' city governments, State governments and of
course the federal Government wasn't
involved at all in this Period, basically turned
a blind eye. By the end of World War I,
a third of transit Companies were already in
bankruptcy, and America Had found its newest
obsession: cars. People who wanted to sell
more cars reframed the car As an all-purpose
transport necessity Instead of a special
purpose mobility tool. And when they turned it
into that, they really Convinced a lot of people
that you need this to go Everywhere and that
you're not living in a Modern, progressive city
until it's a city that Lets you drive
everywhere. And with the influx of
money and aid from Policies, cities began to
quickly transform around Cars. They forced private
transit companies, Whenever possible, to
strip out the streetcar Lines. They they created
all these one way streets To speed up automobiles. They built parkways, they
built highways. And when people said,
'Wait a minute, is this Really the right way to
do it?,' the answer was, 'Oh, it's just supply and
demand. It's a free market. Drivers are voting with
their gas pedals and we Need to build the roads
and streets for the people Who are paying for them.' There is a kind of a time
lag between public
Investment in highway
infrastructure versus Transit infrastructure in
our nation. There was at least 40 to
50 years of lag and the Federal government did
not get into public Transportation funding
programs until late 1960s. Today, that disparity is
more evident through Partizan differences. The ratio in which
funding is distributed Between highways and
public transit became the Main point of contention
over the 2021 Infrastructure bill. Democrats wanted just 20%
of the budget to go Towards mass transit,
while Republicans pushed For less. Democrats
eventually compromised to Pass the bill through the
Senate. We have identified the
automobile with personal, Individual liberty. We also associate
driving, particularly, With suburban and rural
America, while public Transit, we associate
with urban America. Those correlations then
bleed into political Correlations of similar
kinds, where fostering More driving tends to be
something that's favored In more conservative,
more Republican, more Rural areas. A study from 2021 revealed
that 77% of liberal Respondents believe that
transport policy should Shift more trips towards
public transit, walking And bicycling. While 53% of
conservatives believe that Transport policy should
make it easier for most People to drive. The discrepancy was even
higher with very liberal Or conservative
respondents.
It's very hard politically
to get that kind of Momentum. Cities are a
little bit easier, but States, very hard to get
that suburban voter who is Very powerful in almost
every state legislature, Very hard to get federal
officials behind this, Because, again, the
payoff politically, Because it's a relatively
small number of users, Very small. It can be 1%,
2%, 3% in most cities. That's not the loud
voices. The loud voices are going
to be the drivers. Funding is one of the main
reasons behind the poor State of public transit
in the U.S. Right now, the federal
money that goes to transit Services is largely
limited to the capital Costs, that means
building the Infrastructure or buying
the vehicles. But the operating costs
are where the transit Services are really
pinched. Public transit relies
heavily on subsidies Because it's still far
from a profitable Business. Take the MTA,
the nation's largest Public transit, for
example. In 2022, less than a
quarter of the MTA's Revenue came from rider
fares. By comparison, revenue
from dedicated taxes and Subsidies from local
governments made up 40% of Its total revenue. The cost of living, the
cost of operations, the Cost of construction, all
of that over the last 40, 50 years has far exceeded
what is collected in Fares. Current subsidies simply
aren't enough to cover the Costs. The MTA's finances
were hit hard by the Pandemic, resulting in
temporary aid from the
Federal government. Yet
it still reported a budget Deficit of $1.9 billion
in 2022. This problem extends
beyond New York City. Philadelphia's SEPTA
predicts it will see a Deficit of almost $269
million by 2027. Chicago's RTA predicts a
budget gap of $730 million By 2026, while LA Metro's
budget gap expects to Reach $1 billion by the
end of 2026. These financial deficits
lead directly to Deteriorating services. If a transit system
doesn't have enough money, We can limit the hours of
service, we can limit the Frequency of service, we
can limit the extent of The network. But all of
those things also deter Ridership and encourage
people to depend on their Car. In a 2022 survey on
incentives around public Transit, Americans chose
accurate and reliable Arrival times as the
second biggest reason that Would encourage them to
use public transit more Often, right behind lower
fares. Public transportation is
so expensive to run in the United States is because
of the lack of usage. Mass transit needs mass
to be successful. Ridership has continuously
declined since 2015, and After seeing a steep drop
during the pandemic, Ridership has failed to
recover to its previous Levels. It's a vicious cycle,
right? If we have less users,
less riders, it's Difficult to justify
significant public Investment in that system
and therefore it's become More difficult to provide
quality service. And because you have a
lack of quality of
Service, you will
continue to have a lack of Users and riders. If the riders are either
insufficient in number And/or do not provide a
fare that covers those Costs, you have to make
up that money in public Subsidies. And in the
United States, the Structure of funding for
public transit is Insufficient to basically
really make up for that Missing enormous chunk of
money to fund operations And capital. But a thriving public
transit system is Beneficial for all
Americans. The American Public
Transportation Association Estimates that 87% of
trips on transit directly Benefit the local
economy, with nearly $42 Billion in transit
spending going directly to The private sector. A dollar invested in
public transit is believed To generate $5 in
economic returns. I mean, look what happened
with Amazon. Where did where did
Amazon locate its new Second headquarters? Right? Right where one of
the better mass transit Systems operate. Transit is really great
for an employer because it Gives them more options in terms of labor. We can connect people to
employment opportunities, Including people who
can't necessarily afford An automobile, which is a
very expensive thing both To buy and to operate and
maintain. When you don't have
transportation, everything Else becomes a domino
effect. You may end up with not
able to connect with your Family and friends, not
able to go to a doctor
Appointments and not able
to have a good income to Sustain your house. And in the end, it can
even benefit the drivers Themselves. The more we attract people
into rail or busses or Other forms of public
transit, the fewer people Are driving on the roads. And that makes driving
better for people who want To drive. Ultimately, the future of
public transit relies on Whether it can receive
the proper investment Needed to improve
services. To break the vicious
cycle, we need a Significant investment
from the federal Government. I mean, I
don't think just waste of Local innovation so we
can solve this problem of This magnitude. We'd have to spend a lot
of money upfront in order To get systems that cost
a lot less to operate Because you'd have more
robust ridership. Cities can also be
reimagined and redesigned To better serve public
transit. The kind of density levels
that most American suburbs Have, very difficult to
serve effectively by Transit, even busses. You have to create more
dense neighborhoods, and Particularly, this is
really important, you have To change the zoning and
the density around Transit. I conceptualize public
transportation as a public Space. If you think about
in a city how much space We have really help
people with different Backgrounds come
together. There is a diminishing
number of places that we
Have in our city. If we have good public
transportation system, It's like the core spaces
for people with different Backgrounds, different
class, different gender, Race, ethnicity to
interact and to encounter. And I think that's very
important for the future Of our society.
