No, it doesn’t mention cycling, but it’s eye opening as to why highways are so dominant and public (mass) transportation suffers for it. Quick takeaways:
- Mass transit accounts for 40% of transportation in areas that it serves, but only 1% of total trips by Americans.
- Half of Americans have access to public / mass transportation, and only half of those say it’s satisfactory.
- 80 years ago, the privately owned/operated railways began being taxed to subsidize the government run highways, leading to the current dominance of car-centric transportation.
- There is a misconception that transit requires subsidies, but in reality, both highways and public transit require about 50% of their operating costs to come from subsidies.
Kudos to Streetfilms.org and the other cycling bloggers for putting this out there.
