The number of Americans hopping buses and grabbing subway straps has climbed to the highest level in half a century as soaring petrol costs push more commuters to take mass transit.
US mass transit ridership began to surge when petrol hit the US$3 ($3.80) a gallon level in2005 and has continued to rise steadily as pump prices top record after record, according to a report released yesterday by the American Public Transit Association (APTA).
"As people are struggling with the increase in fuel prices, they have to make adjustments, and one of the ways they are doing that is driving less and taking public transportation more," said William Millar, the president of the APTA.
Mass transit use increased by more than 2 per cent in 2007 to the highest level in 50 years, with Americans taking more than 10 billion trips on public transport while the number of vehicle miles travelled was flat in the first 10 months of the year.
Even when petrol prices dipped last year and some people returned to driving, others appear to have switched to public transport permanently, according to Millar.
"We started seeing gas prices consistently go above US$3 a gallon (in 2005) and we noticed that overall transit ridership was going up," Millar said.
"When gas prices moderated, some of those people said, `Hey, this works pretty good for me, I'll stick with it'."
The largest area of mass transit growth was in light rail use, which includes trams, with a 6 per cent increase during 2007.
Commuter rails were second with an increase of 5.5 per cent in ridership and subway ridership had an increase of 3.1 per cent.
Cities with less than 100,000 people also saw a large increase _ 6.4 per cent _ in public transportation use.
With many analysts predicting US$4 petrol this northern summer, mass transit use is likely to become even more popular.
"If past experience is any indication, as the price of fuel goes up ... I would expect that we would see a spurt in ridership," Millar said.
