These days, especially as a contentious presidential election heats up, it can feel like there’s little common ground on public policy. But over the years, we have found that there is significant bipartisan interest — from Capitol Hill to city halls across the country — in providing better public transit solutions.
We wondered if this bipartisan appeal would show up if we looked at what parts of the country are using innovative tech to expand and improve public transit. Via partners with hundreds of transit agencies, cities, and other government entities across the country, and we plotted those partnerships against the 2020 presidential election results broken down by congressional district. Remarkably, we found that tech-enabled transit is split nearly equally across Democrat- and Republican-won congressional districts.
Why? Republican and Democratic leaders alike want to provide Americans with cost-effective ways to reach jobs and other opportunities, as well as to access healthcare, grocery stores, and educational institutions. Good public transit is a driver of economic growth, attracting development and increasing property values. According to the American Public Transit Association (APTA), every $1 invested in transit yields $4 in financial returns and 87% of transit trips directly benefit the economy by getting people to work and connecting them to local businesses.
For many decades, public transit was widely viewed as being useful and effective only in America’s biggest cities. But that perception has changed over the last decade as new technologies help expand and improve public transit across the country. For example, when implemented smartly, on-demand microtransit can provide effective mobility in communities of all sizes. That’s why Mayors Couvillon (Gainesville) and Matheson (Valdosta) in Georgia from opposing parties together called it a “game-changer” for their respective communities.
More recently, mayors in California and South Dakota have given public remarks about the success of tech-powered transit in their communities. Mayor Martha Guerrero of West Sacramento highlighted how investments in microtransit have bolstered her city's tax revenue and improved job access, with over half of riders saying they would spend more locally as a result of the service. In Sioux Falls, Mayor Paul TenHaken spoke of the tech-driven overhaul of his city's transit network in glowing terms: "This could not be going better." He highlighted the story of Rosa, a rider who was able to maintain her job and kept her daughter in her preferred school despite losing her car to an accident.
We don’t expect you’ll hear much about public transportation between now and November 5, and of course some significant divisions remain in terms of how best to advance the country’s transportation system. But at a time when political divisions are often stark, effective and innovative transit stands out as a bright spot of bipartisan consensus.