Transit funding hits record highs as ridership languishes, new report questions return on billions

FIRST ON FOX: A new report is raising fresh questions about whether billions in federal transit spending are delivering results, as funding climbs to record highs while bus and rail commuting remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Released by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, the analysis argues the disconnect reflects structural flaws in how federal transit dollars are allocated — particularly as remote work reshapes commuting patterns and budget pressures intensify.

Wendell Cox, a senior fellow with the group and the report’s author, traces the federal transit program to its 1960s origins, when it was intended to expand mobility for low-income residents and reduce traffic congestion and air pollution.

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Since then, federal support has grown steadily — but transit’s commuter share has moved in the opposite direction, according to the report.

"Transit’s commute market share in the U.S. has dropped from 12% in 1960 to under 4% in 2024," Cox told Fox News Digital.

Today, roughly 3.8% of American workers — about one in 25 — commute by mass transit, according to Cox’s analysis of federal data. By comparison, three times as many Americans now work from home.

While transit use has edged down, 88 million more Americans drive to work than in 1960, the report notes, alongside a 17 million increase in remote workers.

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Cox argues transit struggles to compete with the automobile on speed and access. "Generally, transit travel times are slower than commuting by car," he said. The average one-way commute is about 26 minutes by car, compared with 48 minutes by transit.

The report also highlights disparities in job access.

Researchers examined how many workplaces a person could physically reach in a 30-minute commute. Because cars offer direct, door-to-door travel, drivers can typically access far more job locations than transit riders, whose trips may involve walking to stops, waiting, and making transfers.

Across the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas, workers can reach 58 times as many jobs by car as by transit, the report finds — a gap that persists even in New York, which has the country’s most extensive public transport network.

Those findings, Cox writes, underscore what he sees as a need for a broader reassessment of federal transit policy.

With federal debt at historic highs and remote work reshaping how Americans commute, Cox argues it may be time to rethink how Washington funds public transit. The question, he suggests, is not whether public transport has a role — but whether federal spending is aligned with how Americans actually travel today.