Transit Not Traffic In The News

While many Americans have exciting ideas for how to use money they're getting through President Bush's economic stimulus plan, most have ultimately used it for one thing: gas.

That's the opinion of the Maryland Public Interest Research Group, which estimates that since the stimulus package giving tax rebates of at least $600 was passed Feb. 13, the average household has spent $1,500 on gas.

Maryland PIRG and transportation advocacy group One Less Car used those figures Wednesday to push for increased federal funding of public transportation.

"If Congress wants to do something long-term about high gas prices, it will give people more alternatives to driving," Maryland PIRG Director Johanna Neumann said in a statement. "Unless we make it easier to drive less, Maryland families will be stuck in neutral as they spend more at the pump."

The average weekly cost for gas per household has gone from just over $60 in February to nearly $100 today, according to Maryland PIRG research. The group estimates that public transportation saved 3.4 billion gallons of oil across the country and 132.3 million gallons in Maryland in 2006.

With the slow economy, as well as high gas prices, tightening finances, many Americans were expected to spend their stimulus checks on bills and other needs. A National Retail Federation Survey released in May found that 17 million people said they would spend some of their checks on gas, compared to 12 million people who said the same thing in February. Twenty-one million people said they would use a portion of the check at the grocery store, up from 20 million people in February.

That group estimated that the checks would pump $42 billion into the national economy.

Meanwhile, many readers of the blog at howispentmystimulus.com said they put the money toward things ranging from car payments to vacations to guns.