Improve the economy, help the environment, and trim the fat

Lost in all the talk of improving the environment and the economy in the U.S. is the idea of improving America's public transportation infrastructure. While I have heard that the new economic stimulus package will push for green energy technology, I haven't heard anything about encouraging and improving a very green mode of transportation. Investing in improved public transportation could have several benefits for the American economy, environment and for American people.

Developing railroads, mono-rails and subways would obviously create many jobs in major cities all over the U.S., just as the stimulus package plans on creating jobs in the construction field through improving current infrastructures and also improving and retrofitting buildings to be greener. While these are all beneficial for either providing Americans with jobs or encouraging a greener America, it relies on and promotes the use of automobile transportation, one of the leading problems when it comes to green house gas emissions. I'm confident that just as many jobs for the same or an even more diverse group of workers could be created by investing in improved public transportation. And what of those jobs after roads are improved? The workers move on looking for another area or company to fit in with and come back in another 5 to 10 years. As for public transportation, at least some workers remain employed for the long haul.

Public transportation is not perfect, there can be only so many stations and stops so there would have to be some walking involved. While this may be one of the reasons public transportation hasn't caught on it could conceivably help trim the waistbands of the average American. Looking at the 25 "fattest" cities and the 50 cities with highest rates of public transportation ridership you'll see only one city overlaps, Chicago (fantastic deepdish?). Whereas for healthy cities, several overlap with cities with high public transportation ridership rates, most notably Baltimore, America's healthiest city in 2008, as well as San Francisco, Seattle and Boston . Commuters would have to probably spend 5 to 10 min at most each way from home to the station and from the station to the office. We're talking only 20 to 40 mins of walking each day, sounds like something most Americans could benefit from.

My two final closing remarks. First, I know that developing an efficient public transportation system is more costly than improving a bunch of roads and bridges down highway#. However by stretching the cost using city, state and federal money (the government has been handing out so much of it) the cost could be reduced, and as toll highways pay themselves off in a number of years, so too could effective public transportation. Secondly, I am aware that our chosen mode of transportation doesn't effect our waist line as much as our everyday food and health choices, but have you ever seen a train, subway, or any other type of public transportation stop at a McDonald's drive thru?