Without Public Transit, Travelers Would Have Suffered 785 Million Hours Of Delay On Our Roads

Wilmington -- The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) today released its highly regarded congestion report, 2010 Urban Mobility Report, which looked at road congestion in 439 United States urban areas. As in past years, the data overwhelmingly shows the importance of public transportation in relieving congestion. In fact, the s improved methodology of the report indicates that public transportation has an even greater role in reducing congestion than previously thought.

The 2010 Urban Mobility Report makes clear that without public transportation services, travelers would have suffered an additional 785 million hours of delay and consumed 640 million more gallons of fuel. Had there been no public transportation service available in the 439 urban areas studied, congestion costs for 2009 would have risen by nearly $19 billion from $115 to $134 billion.

There is no doubt that expanding public transportation use is the key to reducing traffic congestion, said American Public Transportation Association (APTA) President William Millar. Clearly, even if you do not ride public transportation, it is still in your best interest to support investment in public transit. Better public transportation in your community means less congestion on the roads.

In addition to its proven record of reducing congestion, public transportation offers economic benefits. Public transportation plays an important role in helping people commute to work; nearly 60 percent of all trips on public transportation involve travel to and from job sites. Also, every $1 billion invested in public transportation creates and supports 36,000 jobs.

U.S. public transportation use also produces significant energy-savings benefits. Each year 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline are saved because our citizens use public transportation.

The Report ranks the Philadelphia-DE-NJ-MD area as 7th out the 35 top urban areas in the nation that had the highest savings in hours of delay due to public transportation use in 2009. In the Philadelphia-DE-NJ-MD area the hours saved totaled 26,377,522 and gallons of fuel saved were 18,954,700. The total congestion cost savings from public transportation use in Philadelphia-DE-NJ-MD area is $633,001,381.