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 which 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.(i) This represents a direct transfer of wealth from
American consumers to oil companies and foreign governments. 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.
i United States Energy Profile, U.S. Energy Information
Agency (U.S. EIA), 18 August 2009:
tonto.eia.doe.gov/country/country_energy_data.cfm?fps=US; How Dependent Are We
on Foreign Oil? U.S. EIA, 23 April 2009: tonto.eia.doe.gov/energy_in_brief/foreign_oil_dependence.cfm
