McIlheranJust Doesn't Want Us To Save Money

Preview McIlheran regularly tries to convince us that it makes more sense to spend billions on new and unnecessary highway expansions instead of on beneficial mass transit systems. No real money savings in his recommendations, but by golly, he's sticking to it.

Excuse me if I don't hold my breath waiting for him to mention that mass transit also saves people billions of dollars in gas money alone:

A new report says record-high public transit ridership in 2008 saved Illinois huge amounts of gasoline.

The report from the advocacy group Environment Illinois says overall ridership increased by more than six percent last year compared to 2007.

The report concludes that effectively saved nearly 260 million gallons of gasoline. It says that's equal to the amount of gas consumed by more than 450,000 cars in Illinois last year.

Nationally, Environment Illinois says transit ridership saved more than 4 billion gallons of gasoline. That's what more than 7 million cars burn in gasoline each year.

Brian Spranger of Environment Illinois cites the figures in arguing that more transportation funds should be spent on mass transit rather than on roads.