As of September 2023, the number of full-size zero-emission transit buses (ZEBs) placed in operational service and actively running in service in the United States amounted to 6147 units, representing an increase of more than 11 percent from the previous year. California remained the state with the highest number of active ZEBs, with 1,946 units, followed by New York with 742 units.

Graph and download economic data for Public Transit Ridership (TRANSITD11) from Jan 2000 to Aug 2025 about public, transportation, and USA.

In 2022, the percentage of workers in the U.S. who used public transportation to travel to and from work amounted to a scant *** percent, down from over five percent in the mid-2010s. The public transport share has, however, increased from 2021, when only *** percent of commuters travelled by public transport.

DESCRIPTION This table contains data on the percent of residents aged 16 years and older mode of transportation to work for ...

SUMMARY This table contains data on the percent of residents aged 16 years and older mode of transportation to work for California, its regions, counties, cities/towns, and census tracts. Data is from the U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial Census and American Community Survey. The table is part of a series of indicators in the Healthy Communities Data and Indicators Project of the Office of Health Equity. Commute trips to work represent 19% of travel miles in the United States. The predominant mode – the automobile - offers extraordinary personal mobility and independence, but it is also associated with health hazards, such as air pollution, motor vehicle crashes, pedestrian injuries and fatalities, and sedentary lifestyles. Automobile commuting has been linked to stress-related health problems. Active modes of transport – bicycling and walking alone and in combination with public transit – offer opportunities for physical activity, which is associated with lowering rates of heart disease and stroke, diabetes, colon and breast cancer, dementia and depression. Risk of injury and death in collisions are higher in urban areas with more concentrated vehicle and pedestrian activity. Bus and rail passengers have a lower risk of injury in collisions than motorcyclists, pedestrians, and bicyclists. Minority communities bear a disproportionate share of pedestrian-car fatalities; Native American male pedestrians experience four times the death rate Whites or Asian pedestrians, and African-Americans and Latinos experience twice the rate as Whites or Asians. More information about the data table and a data dictionary can be found in the About/Attachments section.

ind_id - Indicator ID ind_definition - Definition of indicator in plain language reportyear - Year that the indicator was reported race_eth_code - numeric code for a race/ethnicity group race_eth_name - Name of race/ethnic group geotype - Type of geographic unit geotypevalue - Value of geographic unit geoname - Name of a geographic unit county_name - Name of county that geotype is in county_fips - FIPS code of the county that geotype is in region_name - MPO-based region name; see MPO_County list tab region_code - MPO-based region code; see MPO_County list tab mode - Mode of transportation short name mode_name - Mode of transportation long name pop_total - denominator pop_mode - numerator percent - Percent of Residents Mode of Transportation to Work,
Population Aged 16 Years and Older LL_95CI_percent - The lower limit of 95% confidence interval UL_95CI_percent - The lower limit of 95% confidence interval percent_se - Standard error of the percent mode of transportation percent_rse - Relative standard error (se/value) expressed as a percent CA_decile - California decile CA_RR - Rate ratio to California rate version - Date/time stamp of a version of data

View monthly updates and historical trends for US Public Transit Ridership. from United States. Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Track economi…

The National Transit Map - Agencies dataset was compiled on September 02, 2025 from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). The National Transit Map (NTM) is a nationwide catalog of fixed-guideway and fixed-route transit service in America. It is compiled using General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) Schedule data. The GTFS Schedule documentation is available at, https://gtfs.org/schedule/. The NTM Agencies dataset represents the physical addresses of participating transit agencies. Regarding data coverage and licenses, starting in Report Year 2023, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has required National Transit Database (NTD) Reporters to submit General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data. Reporters will submit GTFS during their reporting period, which is determined by their fiscal year end date. All GTFS data submitted to the NTD will enter the public domain. Prior to the GTFS requirement, transit agencies voluntarily participated in the NTM and granted the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States (CC-BY-3.0) license. The CC-BY-3.0 license is available at, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/legalcode. A data dictionary, or other source of attribute information, is accessible at https://doi.org/10.21949/1529047

United States - Public Transit Ridership was 616783.00000 Thous. of Unlinked Trips in January of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Public Transit Ridership reached a record high of 993437.00000 in May of 2007 and a record low of 171450.00000 in April of 2020. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Public Transit Ridership - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on December of 2025.

In 2021, the federal funding for public transit in the U.S. amounted to almost **** billion U.S. dollars. This represented the highest annual funding from 2016 to 2021 under the FAST Act bill, passed by Congress in the Obama administration and included **** billion U.S. dollars in COVID-19 relief funding. In November 2021, the new Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill was passed with a five-year total authorized budget for public transit of more than *** billion U.S. dollars. Under this new law, the approved funding for U.S. public transportation reached **** billion U.S. dollars in 2022.

This dataset lists the number of public transit stops per United States ZIP code tabulation area (ZCTA) based on data from the National Transit Map (NTM). Each observation represents the count and density of transit stops within a ZCTA, as voluntarily reported to NTM by one of 270 regional transit agencies choosing to participate between 2016 and 2018.A curated version of this data is available through ICPSR at https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/studies/38605/versions/V1

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Public Transportation in U.S. City Average (CUUR0000SETG) from Mar 1935 to Sep 2025 about public, transportation, urban, consumer, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

In November 2021, the U.S. Congress passed the new Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill with a five-year total authorized budget for public transit of more than ** billion U.S. dollars for all the states and other jurisdictions. From 2022 to 2026, the state with the highest public funding for public transportation in the U.S. will be New York with an authorized budget of around **** billion U.S. dollars, followed by California and New Jersey with a budget of **** and *** billion U.S. dollars respectively. Buses dominate U.S. public transport In 2021, the U.S. public transit network generated **** billion U.S. dollars in operating revenue, marking a slight decline from the previous year. Buses remain the primary mode of public transport, making up nearly half of all trips in 2023, with heavy rail accounting for ** percent of unlinked trips. By 2022, only about ***** percent of American workers used public transportation for their commute, a drop from roughly **** percent in 2015. New York’s public transportation system is leading in the United States The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) runs the New York City metropolitan area public transportation system, and it is the largest transit authority in the United States. In 2023, New York's heavy rail transit system was the busiest in the United States, recording more than *** billion passenger journeys annually. That year, the New York subway transported almost more than ** times as many passengers as the second-largest network in the U.S. in Washington, D.C.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), part of the Department of Transportation (DOT) is the preeminent source of statistics on commercial aviation, multimodal freight activity, and transportation economics, and provides context to decision makers and the public for understanding statistics on transportation. BTS assures the credibility of its products and services through rigorous analysis, transparent data quality, and independence from political influence. BTS promotes innovative methods of data collection, analysis, visualization, and dissemination to improve operational efficiency, to examine emerging topics, and to create relevant and timely information products that foster understanding of transportation and its transformational role in society. The Bureau’s National Transportation Library (NTL) is the permanent, publicly accessible home for research publications from throughout the transportation community; the gateway to all DOT data; and the help line for the Congress, researchers, and the public for information about transportation.

Government Transportation Financial Statistics is no longer being updated by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics as of June 2024! It is being replaced by our new product, Transportation Public Financial Statistics (TPFS) which provides more granularity by expanding the categories of revenues and expenditures. The new dataset can be found: https://data.bts.gov/Research-and-Statistics/Transportation-Public-Financial-Statistics-TPFS-/6aiz-ybqx/about_data Further information about the TPFS can be found at: https://www.bts.gov/tpfs The government plays an important role in the U.S. transportation system, as a provider of transportation infrastructure and as an administrator and regulator of the system. The government spends a large amount of funds on building, rehabilitating, maintaining, operating, and administering the infrastructure system. Government revenue generated from several sources including user fees, taxes from transportation and non-transportation-related activities, borrowing, and grants from federal, state, and local governments primarily supports these activities. Government Transportation Financial Statistics (GTFS) provides a set of maps, charts, and tables with information on transportation-related revenue and expenditures for all levels of government, including federal, state, and local, and for all modes of transportation. Related tables can be found in National Transportation Statistics, Section 3.D - Government Finance (https://www.bts.gov/topics/national-transportation-statistics). For further information, data definitions, and methodology, see https://www.bts.gov/gtfs

Includes New York City MTA Subway, San Francisco BART Rail, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Bus and Rail

This web map integrates two powerful datasets to explore the intersection of public transit access and vehicle availability across the United States. The first layer features the National Transit Map – Routes, by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). This nationwide dataset illustrates fixed-guideway and fixed-route public transit services and is built from General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) Schedule data. It merges information from routes.txt, trips.txt, and shapes.txt files to display detailed route alignments and associated trip data. To enhance spatial accuracy, BTS refines route geometries using source data and other public information. The National Transit Map is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD) and provides a consistent, national view of transit systems.

The National Transit Map - Routes dataset was compiled on September 02, 2025 from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). The National Transit Map (NTM) is a nationwide catalog of fixed-guideway and fixed-route transit service in America. It is compiled using General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) Schedule data. The NTM Routes dataset shows transit routes, which is a group of trips that are displayed to riders as a single service. To display the route alignment and trips for each route, this dataset combines the following GTFS files: routes.txt, trips.txt, and shapes.txt. The GTFS Schedule documentation is available at, https://gtfs.org/schedule/. To improve the spatial accuracy of the NTM Routes, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) adjusts transit routes using context from the submitted GTFS source data and/or from other publicly available information about the transit service. A data dictionary, or other source of attribute information, is accessible at https://doi.org/10.21949/1529048

Monthly Transportation Statistics is a compilation of national statistics on transportation. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics brings together the latest data from across the Federal government and transportation industry. Monthly Transportation Statistics contains over 50 time series from nearly two dozen data sources.

NOTE: Columns are jumbled Column name | Type | Description -------------------------------------------------------|-------|--------------------------------------------------------------- Date | date | Date of the dataset Highway Fatalities | numeric | Number of highway fatalities U.S. Airline Traffic - Total - Seasonally Adjusted | numeric | U.S. airline traffic - total, seasonally adjusted U.S. Airline Traffic - International - Seasonally Adjusted | numeric | U.S. airline traffic - international, seasonally adjusted Air Safety - General Aviation Fatalities | numeric | Air safety - general aviation fatalities Highway Fatalities Per 100 Million Vehicle Miles Traveled | numeric | Highway fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled U.S. Airline Traffic - Domestic - Seasonally Adjusted | numeric | U.S. airline traffic - domestic, seasonally adjusted Transit Ridership - Fixed Route Bus - Adjusted | numeric | Transit ridership - fixed route bus, adjusted Transit Ridership - Other Transit Modes - Adjusted | numeric | Transit ridership - other transit modes, adjusted Freight Rail Intermodal Units | numeric | Number of freight rail intermodal units Freight Rail Carloads | numeric | Number of freight rail carloads Highway Vehicle Miles Traveled - Total Rural | numeric | Total highway vehicle miles traveled in rural areas Highway Vehicle Miles Traveled - All Systems | numeric | Total highway vehicle miles traveled in all systems Highway Vehicle Miles Traveled - Other Rural | numeric | Total highway vehicle miles traveled in other rural areas Transit Ridership - Urban Rail - Adjusted | numeric | Transit ridership - urban rail, adjusted Highway Vehicle Miles Traveled - Rural Other Arterial | numeric | Total highway vehicle miles traveled in rural other arterial areas Highway Vehicle Miles Traveled - Rural Interstate | numeric | Total highway vehicle miles traveled in rural interstate areas State and Local Government Construction Spending - Breakwater/Jetty | numeric | Construction spending on breakwater/jetty projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Dam/Levee | numeric | Construction spending on dam/levee projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Line | numeric | Construction spending on line projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Pump Station | numeric | Construction spending on pump station projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Conservation and Development | numeric | Construction spending on conservation and development projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Water Treatment Plant | numeric | Construction spending on water treatment plant projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Water Supply | numeric | Construction spending on water supply projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Line/Drain | numeric | Construction spending on line/drain projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Line/Pump Station | numeric | Construction spending on line/pump station projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Sewage Treatment Plant | numeric | Construction spending on sewage treatment plant projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Waste Water | numeric | Construction spending on waste water projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Waste Water Treatment Plant | numeric | Construction spending on waste water treatment plant projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Sewage and Waste Disposal | numeric | Construction spending on sewage and waste disposal projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Rest Facility | numeric | Construction spending on rest facility projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Bridge | numeric | Construction spending on bridge projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Lighting | numeric | Construction spending on lighting projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Sewage / Dry Waste | numeric | Construction spending on sewage/dry waste projects State and Local Government Construction Spending - Highway and Street | numeric | Construction spending on highway and street projects State and Local Government Construction Spendin...

Data Source: Open Data DC and American Community Survey (ACS) 1-Year Estimates.

Why This Matters

Public transportation is critical for connecting people to work opportunities and basic services such as groceries and healthcare. For some, public transportation might be the only option for getting to these destinations.

The availability of frequent transit also benefits traffic safety. Traveling by bus is over three times safer than traveling by car, while also reducing the number of collisions with pedestrians and cyclists.

Nationally, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities disproportionately rely on public transit. In many U.S. cities, these communities also disproportionately face less frequent service and longer public transit commute times, which can create barriers to essential opportunities and services and negatively affect health and quality of life.

The District Response

The District Government provides significant funding to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA or “Metro”) to provide rail and bus services. Metrorail provides over 600,000 trips a day and is the second busiest rail system in the United States. Metrobus provides over 400,000 trips a day and is the sixth busiest bus system in the United States.

The District Department of Transportation’s Kids Ride Free Program allows District residents who are ages 5 through 21 and enrolled in a school within the District to ride free on Metrobus, Metrorail, and the DC Circulator while traveling within the District

The District Government is currently replacing all bus shelters to improve safety and comfort while waiting for the bus to arrive.

As of 2022, commuter rail was the most expensive mode of public transportation in terms of the median cost for a monthly pass in the United States, costing ***** dollars. The next most expensive modes of transportation were the commuter bus, trolleybus, and heavy and hybrid rail with about ** down to about ** dollars respectively. The rest of the modes had quite comparable prices with the bus having the lowest cost, among the priced options, with ** dollars.

United States US: Road Passenger Transport: Passenger Cars data was reported at 5,286,161.874 Person-km mn in 2022. This records a decrease from the previous number of 5,586,348.601 Person-km mn for 2021. United States US: Road Passenger Transport: Passenger Cars data is updated yearly, averaging 4,298,629.006 Person-km mn from Dec 1970 (Median) to 2022, with 37 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 6,060,622.152 Person-km mn in 2019 and a record low of 2,817,796.000 Person-km mn in 1970. United States US: Road Passenger Transport: Passenger Cars data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.OECD.ITF: Passenger Transport by Mode of Transport: OECD Member: Annual. [STAT_CONC_DEF] Road passenger transport: any movement of passengers using a road vehicle on a given road network. National road passenger transport: road passenger transport between two places (a place of loading/embarkation and a place of unloading/disembarkation) located in the same country irrespective of the country in which the road motor vehicle is registered. It may involve transit through a second country. International road passenger transport: road passenger transport between a place of loading/embarkation or unloading/disembarkation in the declaring country and a place of loading/embarkation or unloading/disembarkation in another country. Such transport may involve transit through one or more additional countries. Road passenger: any person who makes a journey by a road vehicle. Drivers of passenger cars, excluding taxi drivers, are counted as passengers. Road passenger-kilometre: unit of measurement representing the transport of one passenger by road over one kilometre. [STAT_CONC_DEF] Since 2000, the definition of passenger car is determined by the size of the wheel base. In 2009, there was a change in passenger car occupancy factor, that creates a break in the series. Transport by buses and coaches by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). [COVERAGE] Data should include urban transport.