Bicycles are best for sustainability, but when pedaling is a problem, a good option is public transit—where it exists. Unfortunately, almost half of the North American population cannot take a public bus, trolley, or train. What can we do about that?

Here’s a “sustainable seven” list of practical steps we can take for public transit:

  • Learn why the United States and Canada don’t (and won’t) have the high-speed trains that Europe and East Asia have.

  • Understand ride-hailing networks—and how they affect public transit.

  • Study the transit systems of cities before you go.

  • Ride electric trains or subways whenever possible.

  • Bring along a bicycle if you can, to make public transit work better for you.

  • Plan for autonomous electric vehicles to replace buses.

  • Support public transit by voting for bond issues and buying bonds.

Weekly Poll: Public Transit Taker?

You Can’t Get There From Here

Ironically, while I was researching, the US Department of Transportation website kept reporting: “This site can’t be reached.” That sums up passenger train service in the United States. We built highways instead of high-speed rail, but what if we could do things differently?

First, trains could save energy. Using one gallon of fuel, trains can move 2,000 pounds of freight 520 miles, way more than trucks. Shell’s super-efficient Starship truck got to 178 miles—“a spectacular 2.48 times improvement” over a typical diesel truck. Why are trains more efficient?

Second, trains could save time. Downtown Los Angeles to San Francisco takes seven hours to drive or five hours to fly but might only take three hours by train.

Why aren’t we building a high-speed passenger train system for North America (except the $128 billion line from Los Angeles to San Francisco)? The short answer: we spent our money on interstate highways. Each state owns the highways within its borders, but not the train tracks, which mostly remain privately owned and used for freight. Public infrastructure budgets are stretched thin paying for roads and bridges that cars and trucks can use.

Hop In. Where To?

Uber and Lyft have changed the way people move around. We can hail a ride in 10,000 cities across 71 countries—and pay the fare without cash. A 2022 study found that 19% of adults reported using ride-hailing in the last month, compared to 16% who had ridden a bus and 10% who had ridden a subway or commuter train.

More than a third of 18- to 29-year-olds had used ride-hailing services, while only 4 percent of those 65 and older had. … Recent research on New York City finds that travel has shifted away from public transit towards ride-hailing. [There] is mounting evidence that ride-hailing is pulling more people away from public transit than towards it.
—Disruptive Transportation: The Adoption, Utilization, and Impacts of Ride-Hailing in the United States

Ride-hailing could be price competitive with public transit in the 2030s. With careful planning, ride-hailing could become a privately-owned way to provide public transit.

How Do We Get To…?

Today, buses and subways are more sustainable than an Uber, especially if we are

  • traveling alone or with one other person,

  • in a core urban area, and

  • during rush hours.

With a public transit app like Moovit, Transit, Citymapper, or Whiz and online maps like Google Maps, we can check our public options before summoning a private car. Planning a trip before we start makes it more likely we’ll take public transit.

Ride Electric (Where Available)

Although in America we can’t ride high-speed passenger rail, we can ride low-speed electric commuter rail, including:

“Third rail” in the specifications mean that a third rail in the the tracks supplies power, rather than an overhead catenary electric line like electric trolleys use. Our electric rail systems have not standardized on one voltage of direct current (DC) power; each one is engineered separately. The lack of a national standard for electric rail system raises costs, since train cars built for one system can’t be used by another.

Bike On, Bike Off

With a bike, we can use public transit even if we don’t live on a bus line.

Better Buses

We can encourage public transit systems to buy electric buses, support autonomous electric bus pilot projects, and start planning for the day smaller autonomous vehicles powered by clean energy can pick us up and take us exactly when and where we want to go. One company, Tesla, has sold almost two million electric vehicles, many of which may become part of a fleet of robotaxis. If electric robotaxis arrive, what are the sustainability benefits of operating an aging fleet of big buses burning fossil fuel?

Public Taxes for Public Benefit

Although in technical economic terms, public transit is not a public good, it does provide public benefits so public funding is appropriate. Most public transit systems can’t cover their costs with fare revenue. Taxes make up the difference.

We can think critically about which transportation options we want to have, then vote for bond issues and buy issued bonds to provide the capital that beneficial public transit systems need to survive and grow.

What’s Still Ahead on the Pathway…

Now that we’ve explored the full pathway to sustainable movement, we’ll start on the related pathway to sustainable energy. As we stop burning fossil fuel to move, what energy sources are we using instead? Stay with us on the journey to sustainability as we take action to have a positive impact on the world.

References and Further Reading