Since 1970, the number of US workers roughly doubled, increasing from 77 million to more than 150 million. But over the same period, the number of transit commuters increased by only about 1 million. Just 5 percent of workers now get to work by bus or train nationwide, compared with almost 9 percent a half century ago. Most people are driving instead.

This trend is partly the product of the federal government’s decision to keep land-use development planning and transportation separate. This choice has encouraged suburban sprawl, inequitably distributed public services, and an ever-growing reliance on automobiles. Increasing public transit ridership, which is more sustainable (PDF) and more affordable than driving, can help construct a more environmentally friendly and equitable society.

But national trends tell just one part of the story. Changes in metropolitan-area commuting show more varied patterns, some of which offer lessons for the future. Communities where transit use is growing show that, to expand ridership, urban regions must prioritize accessibility and concentrate land-use development around transit service.

To understand changes, I developed a database of commuting patterns in all US metropolitan areas between 1970 and 2019 (the most recent, prepandemic information), using US Census Bureau data on the primary transportation mode workers use to commute to and from jobs.

Even though the most populous metropolitan regions now account for a much smaller share of the national workforce than they did in 1970, transit use in those regions has remained consistent. In 1970, about 38 percent of US transit commuters lived in the New York City metropolitan area, while about 9 percent of employees nationwide did. Today, the area’s share of the nation’s transit commuters is roughly the same, at 38 percent, while its share of employees countrywide is down 50 percent to 6 percent. But other metropolitan areas have experienced significant changes in terms of people commuting by transit.

Read the full article about public transit in the U.S. by Yonah Freemark at Urban Institute.