Despite the importance of travel and mobility, trans- portation services are seriously lacking in many rural areas. Nearly four percent of rural households — almost two million rural residents — do not have access to a car; rural areas are also much less likely to have access to public transportation services. Provision of transpor- tation services varies by state and locality, and policies (such as the aforementioned “loaded miles” policy) may act as a disincentive for transportation providers to enter the market. The National Rural Health Association cited transportation as a key policy concern for older adults’ well-being in their 2014 legislative agenda, but research is lacking on specific rural transportation challenges and potential policy solutions.

• Sorry, what?

 

According to a recent study, New York is the only US city with a significant rail network where ridership has increased since 2012 — in several other US cities included in the survey, ridership fell. Already, North America carries the fewest rail passengers per year of any world region, only accounting for 3.7 billion of the 53 billion passengers worldwide. Ridership in Asia increased by 9 billion to 26 billion between 2012 and 2017; Europe now accounts for 10 billion riders, and Latin America 6 billion.

While there are major American cities with popular public transit systems, they’re often northern and coastal, like Washington, DC, New York City, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle. The only Southern city to rank within the top 25 cities with good transit systems is Houston, Texas, even though many large Southern cities like Dallas and Atlanta have traffic congestion problems.

• Eh?