"Public transit offers a simple way for cities to lower greenhouse gas emissions, but the pandemic has pushed ridership, and revenue, off a cliff in many big systems."

"On the London Underground, Piccadilly Circus station is nearly vacant on a weekday morning, while the Delhi Metro is ferrying fewer than half of the riders it used to. In Rio, unpaid bus drivers have gone on strike. New York City subway traffic is just a third of what it was before the pandemic.

A year into the coronavirus pandemic, public transit is hanging by a thread in many cities around the world. Riders remain at home or they remain fearful of boarding buses and trains. And without their fares, public transit revenues have fallen off a cliff. In some places, service has been cut. In others, fares have gone up and transit workers are facing the prospect of layoffs.

That’s a disaster for the world’s ability to address that other global crisis: climate change. Public transit offers a relatively simple way for cities to lower their greenhouse gas emissions, not to mention a way to improve air quality, noise and congestion."

Somini Sengupta, Geneva Abdul, Manuela Andreoni, and Veronica Penney report for the New York Times March 25, 2021. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"Buttigieg Asks Congress for ‘Generational Investment’ in Infrastructure" (New York Times) [3]

"Biden Administration Prioritizes 'Crucial' Infrastructure Project That Trump Snubbed" (Yahoo! Finance) [4]

"Here’s How Biden’s Infrastructure Package Will Likely Tackle Climate Change" (CNBC) [5]

"Joe Biden’s Coming Infrastructure Push, Explained" (Vox) [6]

"Vehicle Mileage Tax Could Be On The Table In Infrastructure Talks, Buttigieg Says" (CNBC) [7]

"Infrastructure Bill Won't Include Mileage Tax: DOT Spokesperson" (The Hill) [8]