Putting Transit to Work in Main Street America: How Smaller
Cities and Rural Places Are Using Transit and Mobility
Investments to Strengthen Their Economies and Communities Public
transportation plays a critical and expanding role in rural
America. Just as it does in urban environments, public
transportation in small towns and rural areas provides mobility
choices and promotes sustainable economies. Across the country,
small towns and rural communities are developing partnerships to
build intermodal transit centers, creating circulator buses to
catalyze private investments in their downtowns, and improving
connections between people and jobs. Small towns are using
public transportation investments to help address the challenges
of limited resources, populations both shrinking and growing
older, industrial decline, and the loss of farmland. Through
strong partnerships and creative funding mechanisms, rural
America is creating stronger and healthier communities through
transit1 investments. Connie Garber, a pas