Study: Public Transportation Benefits

I recently ran across an interesting study, published just this June: Evaluating Public Transportation and Health Benefits. The study was done by the Victoria Transportation Policy Institute for The American Public Transportation Association. The overall findings of the study are that:

"High quality public transportation (convenient, comfortable, fast rail and bus transport) and transit oriented development (walkable, mixed-use communities located around transit stations) tend to affect travel activity in ways that provide large health benefits, including reduced traffic crashes and pollution emissions, increased physical fitness, improved mental health, improved basic access to medical care and healthy food and increased affordability which reduces financial stress to lower-income households."

The report is very readable, and available on the internet, so if you are interested, check it out. I've always been convinced that having a good, usable public transportation network is not only good for the riders, but good for the community as a whole.