This report compares U.S. public policies, cultural attitudes, and preferences about urban form and transit and highways with those of other industrialized nations. (Although national policies affecting funding for transit and ancillary policies affecting transit use will be examined, the impact of those policies will be considered at the metropolitan level.) Through examples and comparative data, this study outlines why transit is more successful in other nations and identifies the policy changes that would be required to increase transit use in the United States. The policies compared include fuel taxes, operating and capital subsidies to transit agencies, public modal investment strategies, urban and regional planning, housing policy, auto-restraint policies, and land-use regulations. Public preferences and attitudes were studied by examining trends in travel patterns, development and land-use trends, income levels, and support for taxes and bond issues dedicated to public transportation.

Status: TRB Special Report 257, Making Transit Work: Insight from Western Europe, Canada, and the United States, was published in May 2001.