Benefits of Transit

According to the Center for Transportation Excellence, public transportation plays an integral role in
improving our nation's prosperity, equity and mobility. An overview of the benefits provides a powerful
rationale for investing in its future. Learn about how transit helps build strong communities, good health and a robust economy.

Health Benefits

At a time of skyrocketing asthma, obesity and stress, more Americans are beginning to make the connection
between public transportation and their health. Public transportation has the potential to reduce health threats
for Americans by reducing polluting emissions, providing a safe alternative to automobile travel and contributing
to a stress-free commute.

Increased availability and use of public transportation dramatically reduces
motor vehicle emissions and improves air quality.

• Over 140 million Americans, 25 percent of whom are children, live, work and play in areas where air quality
  does not meet national standards. Harmful motor vehicle emissions account for between 25 and 51 percent
  of the air pollutants in these non-attainment areas. From 2000 to 2002, the number of recorded high-ozone
  days increased 18.5 percent.
• Compared with private vehicles, public transportation produces, on average, per passenger mile, 95 percent
  less carbon monoxide, 92 percent fewer volatile organic compounds, 45 percent less carbon dioxide
  and 48 percent less nitrogen oxide.
• During the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, expanded transportation services reduced morning peak auto use
  by 22.5 percent and reduced mobile source emissions. There was a 44.1 percent reduction in asthma-related
  medical visits among HMO enrollees.
• From 1980 through 1995, the asthma rate among children doubled from 2.3 million to 5.5 million, reaching
  epidemic proportions in the U.S. Air pollution is a primary cause.

Public transportation offers a safer alternative than personal vehicles:

• Public transportation trips result in 190,000 fewer deaths, injuries and accidents annually than trips by car,
  providing up to $5 billion in safety benefits, based on 1994 data.
• Riding the bus is 170 times safer than automobile travel, according to National Safety Council data.

Public transportation provides an opportunity to decrease stress and
its negative impacts on our health:

• Studies indicate that less travel time, more predictability, enhanced control and less effort required to make
  a trip reduces the stress levels and negative health effects associated with driving.
• The average American driver may spend over 450 hours each year—equal to nearly 11 workweeks—behind
  the wheel. The result: a mounting level of frustration, stress, anger and hostility that causes illness, reduces
  productivity in the workplace and degrades the quality of life at home.
• The stress of driving in congested conditions is linked directly to a long list of health problems, including
  cardiovascular disease, suppressed immune system functioning and strokes as well as more headaches, colds and flu.

As obesity rates rise alarmingly, public transportation encourages people
to get out of their cars and adopt more active lifestyles:

• Transit-friendly, walkable communities reduce reliance on motor vehicles and promote higher levels
  of physical activity. These more traditional urban settings may generate half the automobile trips of
  similarly sized modern-day suburbs. Studies show that a single mile of transit travel can substitute
  for five to seven miles of auto travel in such settings.
• Nearly 65 percent of U.S. adults are overweight; 30 percent are obese. Obesity makes people susceptible
  to illnesses and chronic health conditions, leading to less productive and less enjoyable lifestyles and
  increased healthcare costs. Obesity leads to 300,000 deaths a year, and direct healthcare costs of obesity
  and physical inactivity were estimated to exceed $117 billion in 2000. The U.S. Surgeon General has warned
  that obesity may soon result in as much preventable disease and death in the U.S. as smoking.
• Obesity and declining physical fitness can be associated with inactive, sedentary, auto-dependent lifestyles.
  In sprawling urban and suburban areas where few travel options are available, cars are now used for
  80 percent of trips less than one mile in length.