Transportation Policy: Public Transit, Settlement Patterns, and Equity in the United States

Public transit policy is based on two objectives: to provide basic mobility for the transportation of disadvantaged, and to serve broader social and environmental goals by reducing car use in metropolitan areas of the United States. Planners, policy makers, and environmental advocates view better public transit as a means to achieve urban planning objectives. This article discusses the outcomes of the past four decades of transit policy. It begins with presenting a short history of transit policy to reveal the evolution of public transit's objectives. It then explores two areas of transit outcomes: impacts on low-income households and impacts on metropolitan spatial structure. Furthermore, it reveals how transit's dependence on public support creates barriers to achieving its societal goals. Finally, the article presents suggestions for designing more effective transit policies. Transit is critical to the economic well being of the cities, it is therefore important that public support for transit continues.