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Public Transportation in the USPublic transit agencies in the United States provided 7.7 billion passenger trips—across buses, trains, and subways—in 2024, or roughly 21 million per day. Total public spending on transit was approximately $79B in 2019, with the federal government accounting for about one-sixth of that amount. Streetcar networks expanded rapidly in American cities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries before the widespread adoption of the automobile. Following World War II, federal highway investment and suburbanization drew riders away from transit, and many cities dismantled their streetcar systems entirely. The Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 established federal funding for public transit and created the framework for modern transit agencies. Today, the United States has hundreds of transit systems, ranging from the large subway networks of New York and Chicago to bus-only systems in smaller cities. The availability and access to reliable public transportation remain an issue in the United States compared to other developed nations: Between 10% and 20% of urban commutes in Western Europe rely on public transit, compared to just 2% in the US.Explore Public Transportation in the US

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