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According to the USDOT, 4.3 per cent of Americans used public transit to commute to and from work in 2006.  This was down from 4.6 per cent in 1989.  This may not be an overwhelming majority for some people, but it is for most of the statisticians I know. As I have stated in previous posts, the percentage of the population using public transit in major urban areas is greater than in medium and small urban areas as well as rural areas.  It is also higher in areas that have had good transit (rapid, convenient, dependable, safe, etc.) for decades and there is a culture of using it. Transit may be able to pull a decent market share as long as it is heavily subsidized, but if it had to collect its resources through the fare box, it would have a difficult time pulling any market share.  In Dallas the fare box covers 10 per cent of the cost of the system, whilst in Charlotte it pulls 13 per cent of the cost of the system. In Dallas approximately 30 per cent of the people commuting into the central business district ride the train or a bus.  But for the Metroplex as a whole, only 3.5 per cent of the population over 18 rides transit.  In many instances, as has been stated, they are commuting from one suburb to another, and there is no viable transit.  Or they are poor and have no other wheels.  In Dallas, according to numbers furnished to me by Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), approximately 43 per cent of the people who use DART's buses do not have a car or alternative transport.  And approximately 15 per cent of those on the light rail system have no alternative, although there is an overlap in the figures here because a significant percentage of the light rail users are fed into the system by connecting buses. Following WW II people turned to the car, and they moved to the new suburbs that were being developed all over the country.  They did so for a variety of personal reasons.  As a result, they demanded good highways.  And they got them.  Yes, in many respects the country over reached for the suburban lifestyle, and there are some signs that the process is being reversed.  But it was the people, not a bunch of social engineers, who opted for the car and suburban living.  The car and the house in the suburbs were better options than crowded, slow moving public transit and crowded neighborhoods.
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