With debate underway over the next multi-billion dollar federal transportation bill, U.S. PIRG has called on Congress to double the nation’s investment in public transit.

“We have a chance to help bring America’s public transit systems into the 21st century,” said Phineas Baxandall, a U.S. PIRG policy analyst with expertise on budget issues. “With a 21st century system, we can take a big dent out of our worsening traffic jams, our nation’s oil dependence, and global warming.”

Doubling the federal investment in public transit would provide funds to accommodate record numbers of transit riders with reliable service and could move promising transit projects off the drawing board.

Since 1956, when the Interstate Highway Act was passed, state and federal governments have invested nine times more on highways than on public transportation. The Interstate Highway System was completed decades ago, but our transportation system is still biased toward building new highways.

New, big highway projects have never gone begging for friends on Capitol Hill, thanks in part to the political influence of the automobile and road-building industries, as well as other interests that stand to reap huge profits if the right projects receive a congressional green light.

Yet with public concern growing over traffic and global warming, and with public support for public transit on the rise, the political winds are starting to shift.

“Our advocates and activists have stood up for public transit in California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania, winning hundreds of millions of dollars for transit systems,” said Baxandall. “Now we’re mobilizing grassroots support for action on the national level.”