Why We Should Quit Starving Amtrak

Derrick Jackson has a ringing commentary in Tuesday's Globe about Amtrak, the Bush administration's punching bag for the past eight years -- and now, with gas nearing $4 a gallon, a sudden ridership success story.

Beginning with a Barack Obama photo-op with an Amtrak worker who feared a layoff, Jackson concludes Obama must "get on board for the rail service America needs for a green economy, less urban congestion, and a more civilized future. ... Nothing would symbolize a break from this past more than a whistlestop tour in the presidential campaign, to promote trains themselves.''

The Times's Paul Krugman is having similar thoughts, writing from Berlin that Americans may have to start living like Europeans -- driving fuel-efficient cars, and driving a lot less.

That's hard in the United States, though, where people associate high-density living with high crime, and only 5 percent of Americans regularly take public transit to work.

"It’s hard to justify transit systems unless there’s sufficient population density,'' Krugman writes, "yet it’s hard to persuade people to live in denser neighborhoods unless they come with the advantage of transit access.''

What do you think? When was the last time you took public transit? Is it even an option for you where you live, or given your job or family duties?