On the Road Again: Driving Decline Ends
Oh great, driving is up, mass transit being slashed, more congestion, funding for car centric roads coming from general funds and Senator "Car Tax Credits While Transit Burns" Mikulski is seeking reelection. What more can an American want?
Economic recovery is good, but increased driving and congestion is not. How can we have both at the same time? Photo: A*censored*er Village Newbie, flickr.
It’s official – the historic decline in driving we’ve seen for the past two years has ended. From 2007 up to a few months ago, the economic crisis and high gas prices combined to produce some of the largest decreases in driving since the 1970s. We know that recessions lead to reduced driving, but still, these numbers along with the increased transit ridership we saw gave sustainable transportation advocates hope that we were witnessing a paradigm shift. The drop in miles driven even continued as gas prices plummeted in the fall of 2008. As the Boston Globe reported at the time:
“The fact that the trend persists even as gas prices are dropping confirms that America’s travel habits are fundamentally changing,” Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said.
…
While driving declined, subways, buses, commuter rail, and light-rail systems have reported record increases in ridership. Amtrak, the nation’s intercity passenger railroad, said it carried the highest number of passengers and brought in the most revenue in fiscal 2008 in its 37-year history.
The hope of a fundamental travel behavior shift faded a little with the release of INRIX’s 2009 National Traffic Scorecard today.
Driving Decline Ends
Transit cuts will mean gridlock every day:
Congress supports cars not paying for road improvements
Mikulski Fiddles with Car Tax Credits While Transit Burns
Mikulski 'not retiring,'