U.S. mass-transit use jumped 5 percent in the first quarter of the year as high gasoline prices and a rebounding economy put more people on buses and trains. More than 2.65 billion trips were made using trains, buses, ferries, or street cars in the first quarter of 2012, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) said Monday, up from 2.5 billion trips in the same period a year earlier. The increase was one of the biggest quarterly increases on record and follows a 2011 mass-transit ridership rate that was the highest since 1957, when the suburbanization of the United States and the widespread use of the automobile sharply reduced the use of mass transit. High gasoline costs were a major factor in the first three months of the year. Gasoline prices rose to almost $4 a gallon (3.8 liters)—a record high for that time of the year—as an expanding economy and concern over Iran drove up crude prices. Currently, however, gasoline prices have fallen to near $3.60 a gallon and likely will decline further in coming weeks. Crude prices hit a 7-month low last week. Despite lower fuel prices, APTA president Michael Melaniphy said people will continue to use mass-transit. “Once people try transit, they tend to stay,” he said, noting that ridership rates did not fall nearly as much as gasoline prices did after the 2008 financial crisis. People like the ability to read a newspaper or book, check e-mails, or sleep, he added. While mass-transit use has risen recently, the United States remains a nation of automobile drivers. Only 5 percent of the population commutes to work using public transportation, according to the Census Department.
