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Public transportation plays an important role in confronting environmental challenges. Public transportation can:
Improve air quality
Public transportation can help metropolitan areas meet national air quality standards by reducing overall vehicle emissions and the pollutants that create smog. [More]
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Transportation accounts for 28 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. By moving more people with fewer vehicles, public transportation can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. [More]
Facilitate compact development, conserving land and decreasing travel demand
Public transportation can support higher density land development, which reduces the distance people need to travel to get to their destinations, meaning fewer emissions from transportation. [More]
Save energy
Sharing rides through public transportation can save fuel. It also decreases the need for constructing more transportation infrastructure, manufacturing new vehicles, and extracting more fossil fuels, meaning further energy savings and fewer environmental impacts. Congestion relief from transit also saves fuel as vehicles stuck in gridlock waste fuel and generate emissions. [More]
Other benefits
In addition to its environmental benefits, transit serves several other public purposes, including affordable mobility, congestion relief, and economic development. [More]
Minimizing impacts
In addition, FTA grantees are working to minimize the impact of their operations and construction through environmentally sound practices. [More]
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