In the last few years, we've seen an explosion in understanding of the need to rethink our transportation priorities at the national level.  In February, Congress promoted transit at an unprecedented scale when the economic stimulus bill included $8.4 billion for rail and transit services. 

But we still need systematic reform rather than occasional injections of funding.  The federal transportation spending bill (commonly called "the highway bill") is being considered by a House committee. The Obama administration has proposed to steer more money to transit, but the fate of that proposal is far from certain.

Despite massive investment, our automobile-centered transportation system increasingly fails to fulfill its basic purpose of getting people where they need to go quickly and efficiently.

The average rush hour driver in the Washington region now loses 62 hours per year due to traffic congestion, compared to just 16 hours per year in 1982. Wasted time in Baltimore has grown from 11 to 44 hours per year.  Many people who need to commute during rush hour times have no choice but to inch along in bumper-to-bumper traffic. This costs consumers and businesses $87 billion per year.

Pouring more money into our highway system will not significantly alleviate congestion, and in the long run may make things worse. Numerous studies have shown that new or expanded highways generate new trips that quickly reduce or eliminate the congestion-fighting benefits of the expansion. At the same time, those highway expansions increase automobile dependency, promote sprawling growth patterns, and divert funds from transportation alternatives. 

Road capacity was able to keep up with our needs until recently, but we just can’t build our way out of congestion at this point with more highways that will also be congested almost as soon as we build them.  Transit systems, in contrast, will be better able to keep pace with growing demand because they offer lots of new capacity.  Adding a lane to a highway only gives you one lane, which quickly fills up with new traffic; adding a rail line gives you the ability to add many new rail cars as demand increases.

The federal government spends nine times more on highways and roads than it spends on transit.  With gas prices on an ever upward march and cars and trucks causing one third of our global warming pollution, it's time to focus on transit.