Public 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.
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Most US transit was built on a monocentric design, funneling riders into a downtown center. But today's most common commute is from suburb to suburb, meaning the system is built for a work pattern that no longer exists.
Explore the rise and fall of American mass transit, from the horse-drawn omnibus era through the streetcar age to the automobile's dominance. In the 1920s, streetcars carried 12 to 13 billion riders per year. By 1963, that number had shrunken to 300,000.
In 1870, Alfred Ely Beach secretly tunneled under Broadway in 58 nights, disguising his pneumatic subway as a mail tube to fool Tammany Hall, the corrupt political machine that ran New York City. Nearly half a million New Yorkers rode it before politics, and a stock market crash killed the project.
A century ago, Los Angeles had one of the greatest urban transit networks in America. Today, driving in LA traffic can still be faster than taking the train. The city's rail design, which funnels traffic through a single point, fails to support a city with such a spread-out population.
Free public transit boosts economic opportunity and social mobility and is better for the environment. So why do we charge for it? Opponents of free transit cite revenue losses threatening service quality and data showing that free fares don't translate into reduced car use.
Created by the Urban Mass Transportation Act in 1964, the FTA funds and oversees the roughly 2,200 transit systems that receive federal support across the US, covering everything from subway capital investment to rural bus service.
The MTA's FY2026 budget is $21.3B, and the system carried 1.6 billion riders on buses and subways in 2024, making it by far the largest transit network in the country.
The omnibus, a large horse-drawn stagecoach that ran a fixed route and carried a dozen riders at an affordable fare, was different from a private carriage because it carried everyone, not just the wealthy.
By the end of the 19th century, nearly 400,000 people were packed into less than a square mile of downtown Boston, with 8,000 horses pulling trolleys through streets choked with noise, manure, and congestion. This prompted the city to pursue a then-controversial subway system.
Manhattan's congestion pricing program has quietly become a success story. WNYC reporter Stephen Nessen examines why the original backlash to the concept has faded, how New Yorkers adjusted, and what the city's experience shares with similar policies in Stockholm and London.
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