Mass Transportation

Mass transit systems have a number of obvious advantages over private means of conveyance, such as the automobile. In the first place, they are a far more efficient way of moving people than is the private automobile. For example, a subway system operating on two tracks 36 ft (11 m) wide can transport 80,000 passengers per hour. In comparison, an 8-lane freeway 125 ft (38 m) wide can carry only 20,000 passengers per hour. The cost of operating an inter-city bus line typically runs about two cents per vehicle mile, about one-tenth the comparable average for a private automobile.

Mass transit systems also take up much less space than do the highways needed for the movement of automobile A New York City subway train above ground in Brooklyn. Photograph by John Madere. Stock Market. Reproduced by permission. traffic. Most urban landscapes today are a vivid testimony to the amount of space required for our automobile-dominated transportation system. Streets, highways, bridges, overpasses, and parking lots occupy as much as a third of the land available in some urban areas.

Mass transit systems are also more environmentally "friendly" than is the private automobile. A single bus filled with 80 people uses only slightly more fuel than does a single private automobile, yet is capable of carrying many times more passengers. The amount of air pollution produced per passenger, therefore, is much less.