But in much of the developing world, public transit use is high mainly because most residents can’t afford cars.
But in much of the developing world, public transit use is high mainly because most residents can’t afford cars. Fast-growing countries from Kenya to Colombia to the Philippines have a chance to build on a culture of public transit to keep emissions from transportation low even as their people grow wealthier. In China, the swift economic growth of the past 40 years has been paired with investments in the world’s largest rail and high-speed rail networks, keeping large numbers of riders in the public transit system even as more and more of them can afford their own cars.7