Table 1
Overspending on Transit?
Transit's MTP*
Share of
Transit's MTP*
Share of
Metro Area
Funds (%) Commuters (%)
Metro Area
Funds (%)
Commuters (%)
Minneapolis-St. Paul
70
4.8
Tucson
25
2.5
San Francisco
68
9.6
Savannah
25
2.5
Miami
68
5.5
Dallas
24
1.9
Hartford
67
3.0
Sacramento
23
2.4
Honolulu
57
8.7
Baltimore
23
7.6
New York
56
39.9
Cleveland
21
4.9
Boston
55
11.6
Little Rock
21
0.9
Philadelphia
55
9.7
Madison
19
4.9
Ft. Lauderdale
53
2.6
Portland ME
19
2.1
Springfield
49
1.5
El Paso
18
2.4
Denver
47
4.3
Tampa
18
1.4
Portland OR
43
7.6
Bridgeport
17
9.3
Atlanta
38
4.0
Jacksonville
16
1.4
Houston
37
3.2
Richmond
13
2.1
Seattle
36
7.0
Bakersfield
13
1.6
Phoenix
34
2.5
Austin
12
3.8
Albany
33
2.9
Akron
11
0.9
Durham
33
4.9
Detroit
11
1.7
Ft. Collins
32
1.0
Oklahoma City
11
0.7
San Diego
31
3.1
Charlotte
10
2.6
Washington
31
14.7
Cincinnati
10
2.8
Albuquerque
28
1.5
Las Vegas
10
3.5
Memphis
28
1.6
Milwaukee
10
3.5
Buffalo
28
3.6
Birmingham
9
3.2
Los Angeles
27
4.5
Anchorage
5
1.5
Salt Lake City
27
3.9
St. Louis
0
2.8
Source: Transit's share of metropolitan transportation plan funds from the most recent draft or final metropolitan trans-
portation plans for each region. Transit's share of each regions' commuting from 2005 American Community Survey,
Table GCT0804, Percent of Workers 16 Years and over Who Traveled to Work by Public Transportation for urbanized
areas or for counties in cases (such as New York) where metropolitan regions do not coincide with urbanized areas.
Note: Regions not shown on this list, such as Chicago and Pittsburgh, did not include enough data in their plans to cal-
culate this number.
*Metropolitan transportation plan.
funds.73 "Instead of providing funding for
projects is that transit provides a balanced
transportation system," said the council.75
both road and transit projects which are essen-
tial to congestion relief," noted the auditor,
The council was also unfazed by a report
The Utah Transit
planners "used almost all of the funds for
issued at about the same time finding that
Administration
transit projects."74
Salt Lake City's transit agency has systemati-
admitted it had
cally overestimated light-rail ridership by
On reviewing the auditor's report, the
about 20 percent.76 If existing light-rail lines
council of governments decided to ignore the
overestimated
new ranking and continue funding the transit
carry fewer people than the agency has
transit ridership.
projects. "The reason for selecting the same
claimed, then new light-rail lines are likely to
15