Which Is Better for the Environment: Transit or Roads?
Which Is Better for the Environment: Transit or Roads?
By Randal O’Toole NCPA.org
Compared with driving, rail transit is slow, inconvenient and expensive. Although some rail lines may bypass congested roads, most people do not live and work right next to rail stations or transit stops, meaning door-to-door travel time for transit tends to be far longer than for driving.
The solution, say transit advocates, is to rebuild American cities to higher densities so more people can live and work close to transit stops. This means a higher percentage of people will have to live in multifamily housing instead of single-family homes. Planners in Portland, Oregon, for example, have set a target of reducing the number of households living in single-family homes from 65 percent to 41 percent.1
Even if this goal could be achieved, the benefits are questionable and the costs would be high. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, transit is not more environmentally friendly than automobiles, and when all subsidies are counted, it actually costs several times more per passenger mile than driving.
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