Courtesy of Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute: in 2008, US vehicle travel shrank (the yellow bar) for the first time in a decade, while transit ridership grew as fast as it had in a decade. Behold: 
Just as importantly, Litman points out, the growth in US transit ridership over the last decade substantially outpaced the growth in driving—a fact that should have some influence on the kinds of transportation investments we should be thinking about in the coming years.
