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The demand for transit in the U.S. has never been greater, with ridership at its highest levels in 50 years and almost 400 new rail, streetcar and bus rapid transit projects proposed in large and small regions from Massachusetts to Hawaii, according to a new report by Reconnecting America. Americans took 10.1 billion trips on transit in 2007, saving 1.4 billions of gallons of gasoline -- the equivalent of a supertanker leaving the Middle East every 11 days.

"Jumpstarting the Transit Space Race: How the New Administration Could Make America Energy-Independent, Create Jobs and Keep the Economy Strong" documents the interest in transit projects around the U.S., and calculates the investment required to build all the proposed new lines. The report concludes that a transit building program not unlike the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act after World War II would help address many of the challenges facing this country -- from rising gas prices to climate change -- and it would create jobs.

"There is so much interest in transit that 78 regions in 37 states have proposed 400 projects worth $248 billion," says Shelley Poticha, CEO of Reconnecting America. "The increased interest in transit has opened a window of opportunity to make an investment that would reduce dependence on foreign oil, enhance national and economic security, and create jobs. But at the current rate of federal transit investment, building these projects would take 77 years."

Read the full Reconnecting America story here >.   The full report can be downloaded from the link above or from the file attchment link at the bottom of this post.  The full sized image of National Demand for Transit Expansion is also attached at the bottom of this post.