On use of public transport.

From Treehugger:

I complain about my city a lot (but I complain about everything) but it has subways, streetcars and buses galore (could have more) and a growing bike lane infrastructure (which they could plough in winter) but I was shocked by the statistics in Spacing that showed how many people rely on cars to get to work in Toronto, and how the number has barely budged in five years. Over all, 71.1% drove, 22.2% took transit, 4.8% walked and only 1% biked.

I live near Detroit, and was surprised at the high value of 2% that the Motor City got. One major thing that the study didn't account for was the penetration of non-bus public transportation. Here's my reasoning for why this is important: bus systems rely on the same roads that cars and trucks rely on (save for a very small handful of cities worldwide). Therefore, riding on a bus doesn't provide as much of a time-savings (especially when commuting through traffic) as riding the rails. Further, if the primary public transport is a bus system, there is less incentive to not own a car (especially if that system doesn't really provide good coverage throughout the city). However, if there is a dense non-bus public transport system (or a bus system operating on exclusive roadways), there is little reason to drive in order to live in your city.

Therefore, to return to Detroit - a city with a very limited non-bus transport system - I was surprised with the number of 2%. The only non-bus system in D-town is the People Mover - a one-way automated elevated tramway loop of only 2.9 miles through the downtown area - and with its limited service area, it's surprising that it has a reported 7,300 riders per day (quite possibly from parking garages).