"A new analysis from Transportation for America found that a $4.6-trillion "moonshot" over the next 20 years would be enough to bring the transit networks in most American cities up to par with world-class communities like Berlin, Paris, Oslo and Buenos Aires, which all have more than 115 transit vehicles on the street and underground per 100,000 residents - not to mention excellent service and dedicated rights-of-way to match."
"Since the Federal Highway Act of 1956, the country's already spent $9.6 trillion more on moving drivers than moving people on shared modes, creating a massive network of autocentric roads that many experts agree is already so badly overbuilt that many states cannot afford to maintain it, with little to show for it besides stratospheric road deaths, stubborn congestion, and dangerous levels of air pollution."
"As the balance of the Highway Trust Fund continues to plummet - and with Congress due to pass a new federal transportation law that could replace that broken system in September - the study authors say the moment is ripe to put all the "America First" rhetoric to use and reclaim our place at the top of the global hierarchy of transit-building nations."
A $4.6 trillion "moonshot" over 20 years could expand U.S. transit networks to match world-class cities that have more than 115 transit vehicles per 100,000 residents and dedicated rights-of-way. The average U.S. city currently has just 27 buses and trains per 100,000 people. Tripling the national transit budget over two decades would still cost less than projected additional highway spending of $6.3 trillion. Since 1956, the U.S. has spent $9.6 trillion more on moving drivers than on shared modes, producing an overbuilt highway network that is costly to maintain, deadly, congested, and highly polluting. A declining Highway Trust Fund and an upcoming federal transportation law create an opening to rebalance investment toward transit.
Read at Streetsblog
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