The report also shows that taxpayers support increased public investments in transit service. The battle centers around whether the country will decrease or increase funding for more public transportation. Some transit critics have called for abolishing the federal transit program altogether. States across America are beginning to recognize that intermodalism creates economic opportunity. Transit attracts and focuses economic development at transit stations and in strategic corridors by creating jobs, increasing sales, producing spin-off industries, enhancing property values, etc.
Rural economies depend on people being able to get to jobs reliably and safely.
So public transit in Canyon County, Idaho for example, provides essential access to jobs, shopping, education and health care for 91,000 residents dispersed over 583 square miles. In Sweetwater County, Wyoming, transit provides services to 44,000 residents spread over 10,000 miles. The nation contains nearly 4 million miles of interstate highways, urban freeways, local roads and streets. The report argues for more investment in public transportation citing a growing demand. Cities, local communities and taxpayers were bound by decisions in which they had little input.