The folks writing our transportation bill may actually support transit:

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, announced today that the Committee will hold a major series of hearings, briefings, and meetings on ways to enhance our nation’s transit systems and expand transit options for all Americans. The series will focus on important transit issues such as the nexus between housing and transit, promoting economic growth through transit-oriented development, addressing energy and environment issues, building new transit systems and enhancing the capacity of our existing systems. Later this year, the Committee will play a critical role in writing a new national surface transportation law.

And of course, land-use is critical, as well. In Glaeser’s aforementioned post on green cities, he provides grist for transit sceptics:

While public transportation certainly uses much less energy, per rider, than driving, large carbon reductions are possible without any switch to buses or rails. Higher-density suburban areas, which are still entirely car-dependent, still involve a lot less travel than the really sprawling places. This fact offers some hope for greens eager to reduce carbon emissions, since it is a lot easier to imagine Americans driving shorter distances than giving up their cars.

No doubt. But left unsaid is that transit construction and transit-oriented development are crucial in facilitating denser development patterns; a focus on only the direct carbon reduction effects of transit ridership misses much of the story. Consider, for example, how Arlington has developed a dense, mixed-use corridor along the Orange Line (and plans to take similar steps along a forthcoming streetcar line). TOD in Arlington has led to a substantial increase in transit use and consequent reduction in per capita emissions. But it has also reduced driving distances for residents, and has replaced other trips with walking or biking. Similarly, Metro to Tysons will facilitate the wholesale remaking of the area into a mixed-use, walkable center of economic activity. Metro will reduce emissions by replacing many car trips, but it will also help by eliminating some trips all together and by shortening drives for others.

Greening our automobile fleet will be a key part of cutting greenhouse gas output. So, too, will be modal shifts, precisely because those shifts will help us build better.