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Look, I'm not going to go tit-for-tat with you on statistics. Ridership on the light rail in my county has gone down, the cost-per-mile is outrageous, and it largely is a wealth transfer (do a search on the San Jose Mercury's website for light rail). The APTA is an advocacy group and it's statistics need to be viewed from that viewpoint. I think the best piece I've seen on public transportation is from the Onion which "reported" that "98 percent of US commuters favor public transportation for others". It's hilarious how all these public transportation advocates ride their care everywhere and assume everyone else will suffer public trans.

>>It's hilarious how all these public transportation advocates ride their care everywhere and assume everyone else will suffer public trans.<<

Well, long ago, the automobile advocates ensured the destruction of the right-of-way for rail and other forms of public transportation to enrich themselves. And no one ever mentions how heavily we subsidize the necessities for travel by automobile.

What would you suggest we do to relieve the traffic congestion, which many people also consider a form of 'suffering'?

regards,
ris

You don't have to go tit-for-tat on his stats, just divide them by the appropriate population numbers. It's easy to get big sounding numbers in large metro areas, but when you actually start checking for the percentage of the population they're talking about it's usually a pitance. They refuse to grock one simple thing: Americans don't like public transportation. It's slow, it doesn't give door-to-door coverage, it's impossible to run errands on your way home from work, and while you're waiting for your connection your outside in the weather which sucks 4 months of the year pretty much everywhere in the country (different 4 months depending on where you are). We like our cars and everything they represent. I'm not against any of these systems per se, but I sure hell won't use them and any numbers check shows most Americans aren't and won't use them. If people were actually going to use them they should be built, but since they're not the money and space should be used on something they will, or better yet not even taken from the people in the first place.