According to DC.Streetsblog:
A majority of rural and urban voters alike believe their home towns would gain from a local transit expansion, according to a new poll released by Transportation for America (T4A) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
When asked if increased transit investment would help their community, 69 percent of poll respondents answered in the affirmative, including 74 percent of suburbanites and 55 percent of rural residents.
Other interesting poll results:
- Numbers decreased when asked whether transit should get more federal funding, but a majority of voters from both suburban (59 percent) and rural (50 percent) areas remained supportive.
- When asked what share of federal transport dollars should go to transit, the mean answer was 37 percent. Transit’s actual share is about 19 percent.
- Asked if they would support a transit expansion in their community that required tax increases, 51 percent of poll respondents expressed either strong or moderate support, with 46 percent either strongly or moderately opposed. The share of voters strongly opposed to local taxation for transit (32 percent), however, topped the share that strongly supported those taxes (24 percent).
The pollster told reporters that its conclusion was clear: "Americans want more transportation options than they have today," he said. "The vast majority of Americans say they have no choice but to drive as much as they do and that they would like to drive less."