PROVIDENCE – Expanding the regional mass transit system would yield big savings in energy, time, money and greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report released this morning by the Rhode Island Public Interest Group.

The downtown train station was the setting for the announcement by RIPIRG analyst Phineas Baxandall, co-author of “A Better Way to Go: Meeting America’s 21st Century Transportation Challenges with Modern Public Transit,” sponsored by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund. Joining him for the 10 a.m. news conference were government and environmental leaders including Mayor David N. Cicilline; R.I. Sen. Daniel P. Connors, D-Cumberland and Lincoln, co-chair of the Special Legislative Committee to Study Public Transit in Rhode Island; and Chris Wilhite, director of the Sierra Club’s Rhode Island Chapter.

“America’s automobile-centered transportation system was a key component of the nation’s economic prosperity during the 20th century,” but it “is increasingly out of step with the challenges of the 21st century,” Baxandall and co-authors Tony Dutzik and Joshua Hoen of Frontier Group declare in the report’s executive summary.

“Rising fuel prices, growing traffic congestion, and the need to address critical challenges such as global warming and America’s addiction to imported oil all point toward the need for a new transportation future.

“This report shows why rail, rapid buses and other forms of public transit must play a more prominent role in America’s future transportation system,” they say. It shows how “every American can benefit if we expand the reach and improve the quality of transit in the United States.”

In 2006, the nation’s existing mass transit systems saved an estimated 3.4 billions of gasoline, with a retail value of more than $9 billion, and reduced global warming pollution by nearly 26 million metric tons, the report states. In 2005, the Texas Transportation Institute found, mass transit prevented 540.4 million hours of traffic delays, a savings worth $10.2 billion.

In the Ocean State alone – between the R.I. Public Transportation Authority’s bus service and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s commuter rail – RIPIRG said public transit yielded estimated 2006 savings of 1.57 million gallons of oil, $4.11 million in fuel costs and 9,769 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Mass transit in the metro Providence region also saves commuters some 976,000 hours per year in traffic delays, a savings of about $17.3 million, the Sierra Club said.

“For every dollar invested in transit, America saves nearly two dollars in avoided costs on top of the economic development benefits,” the new report found. “In 2005, federal, state and local governments spent $30.9 billion to provide transit services,” not including money collected as fares. “These investments yielded at least $60 billion per year in benefits from reduced vehicle expenses, avoided congestion, global warming emission reductions, reduced road expenditures, reduced spending on parking and avoided traffic accidents. In other words, investment in transit more than pays for itself even before accounting for its direct economic stimulus.”

Yet, they found, “Despite transit’s many benefits, America has historically underinvested” in such programs, the report states. It lays out a plan for expanding the nationwide mass transit network, financing the expansion “by more efficiently allocating costs among those who will reap the benefits.”

Cicilline said the new report highlights the need to move forward with the conclusions of his Transit 2020 Working Group.

The city advisory panel, formed in 2006, issued a report last March that called for a dramatic expansion of the regional mass transit system and suggesting the revival of streetcars in Providence to supplement the existing RIPTA bus and MBTA commuter-rail service. (READ MORE)

The Rhode Island Public Interest Group is a nonprofit research, advocacy, litigation and activism organization that aims to protect consumers, foster responsiveness in government and promote a fair and sustainable economy. Additional information, including the full text of today’s report, is available at www.RIPIRG.org.

R.I. Public Transportation Authority information, including RIPTA bus schedules, is available by calling 781-9400 or visiting ripta.com.