Condensed from “Transportation for Livable Cities” by Vukan Vuchich

Myth: Rail travel does not reduce traffic congestion.

Transportation service in congested areas where there is a metro is considerably better than in congested areas with no alternative means of travel. All metro passengers travel free of congestion, and those who travel by car on congested streets have the option of switching to the uncongested mode. Street congestion recurs after a metro system has been built only when activity in the areas served by rail transit has intensified so much that the number of generated trips has increased by as many as rapid transit now carries.

Myth: Rail transit does not intensify land uses.

In most cases, rail transit stimulates intensification of land use. The impacts of rapid transit on land use, however, depend considerably on supporting policies. With good planning and/or strong market demand, metro stations have led to major investments in joint development and intensified land use around the stations.

Myth: Transit share of travel is decreasing; therefore, public assistance to transit should be decreased.

This is a misleading observation and an illogical conclusion. A decrease in the travel share of transit in most US cities is a consequence of the country’s housing, taxation, investment, and other policies affecting urban areas, as well as subsidies to highways and car travel, which are greater than subsidies to all other modes combined.

Myth: Auto users pay for their travel.

The idea that car users “pay their costs” arises because the Highway Trust Fund, which is financed primarily by highway user taxes, pays most of the investments in certain categories of highway. Used by highway-related organizations, this has become a widespread myth.

Myth: Car travel is private, paid by users, while transit is a public, subsidized system.

This statement, too, is highly misleading. Most transit systems are publicly owned and subsidized; but the highway-auto system, too, is largely publicly owned. Virtually all streets and highways and most other facilities – bridges, terminals, many parking garages, and vehicles – are publicly owned and operated. This public portion of the system has obtained far more public funds, especially in the US, than any other transportation system.

Myth: Construction of highways creates jobs.

This statement is correct, but not a valid argument for building highways if they are not justified for other reasons. All public projects create jobs, so the selection among them should not be based on construction benefits alone. Asachauer (Transportation Spending and Economic Growth – The Effects of Transit and Highway Expenditures, 1991) performed a study of the macroeconomic impacts of transit versus highway investments and found that transit has more than twice the potential to increase worker productivity, and that its benefits are more than twice the net benefits of highway investments.