Perfect case in point:
Over the past hundred years the clearest cause is this: Transit providers in the U.S. have continually cut basic local service in a vain effort to improve their finances.
Over the past hundred years the clearest cause for declining transit ridership has been the migration of people to lower-density areas that simply aren't served well by mass transit. This began in earnest in the 1950s as a result of two landmark pieces of legislation: the G.I. Bill and the Federal Aid Highway Act (also known as the "Interstate Highway Act").
By the 1980s transit systems were under even more pressure because we started to see growth in a commuting pattern that is built entirely around a single-occupancy vehicle: suburb-to-suburb commuting. This is why some of the most God-awful congestion in the U.S. these days isn't in urban centers, but in suburban areas along circumferential highways like the D.C. Beltway.
The Atlanta Circle is pretty gruesome in the summer. You can burn up your motor parked in the fast lane for an hour.
Living in the DC metro area since the 1970’s there are a few things I know.
1. Traffic in the Suburbs or around the Beltway is worse than being downtown. There are simply fewer roads/routes/choices to go from point a to b.
2. The Metro or Subway will almost always take longer than driving and it’s not cheap.
3. Young DC residents love Uber and this has actually put more cars in the downtown areas.
4. They have reduced what was three lanes on a number of city streets to two lanes to make room for a bike lane.
5. They have given pedestrians the “Right of Way” in the middle of a block and in some areas at every intersection at all times.
6. The traffic lights used to be timed on most of the major cross town and north/south streets that allowed you to cover ten or more blocks without stopping and that is no longer the case.
I currently live inside the Beltway and one of the biggest reasons I don’t want to move outside the Beltway is the traffic. Not just the traffic getting in and out of the city but the traffic suburb to suburb.