Will transit riders be represented in the 113th Congress?

Bill Shuster, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has named the majority-party members of the committee, who will join the Democratic members announced a few weeks ago. With Chuck Marohn, I'm skeptical about what role the Federal government can play in achieving our goals, so take this for what you think it's worth.

I looked over the list of Republican committee members, and I thought, "wow, these guys (all but two of them are men) are really from the middle of nowhere. How many of their constituents even ride transit?" So I looked up the American Community Survey figures from Table B08141 for the percentage of carfree households, and the percentage of households where the primary commute is by transit.

Unfortunately, the ACS only has figures for the pre-2010 districts, but I tried to find districts that matched the ones that actually elected these representatives.

Name	State	District	Hometown	Previous district	Carfree %	Transit %
Sam Graves	MO	6	Tarkio		5.95%	6.51%
Frank A.  LoBiondo	NJ	2	Ventnor City		5.05%	4.23%
Richard Hanna	NY	22	Barneveld	24	5.89%	3.83%
Patrick Meehan	PA	7	Drexel Hill		2.71%	3.78%
Lou Barletta	PA	11	Hazleton		3.18%	2.03%
Gary Miller	CA	42	Diamond Bar	44	1.58%	1.82%
Duncan Hunter	CA	50	Lakeside	52	1.81%	1.69%
Daniel Webster	FL	10	Winter Garden	8	2.59%	1.64%
Don Young	AK	1	Fort Yukon		5.72%	1.46%
Trey Radel	FL	19	Fort Meyers		1.88%	1.44%
Thomas Massie	KY	4	Garrison		2.19%	1.30%
Shelley Moore Capito	WV	2	Glen Dale		2.80%	1.28%
Blake Farenthold	TX	27	Corpus Christi		3.04%	1.14%
Andy Harris	MD	1	Cockeysville		1.63%	1.08%
Steve Daines	MT	1	Bozeman		1.98%	0.93%
Roger Williams	TX	25	Weatherford	17	2.25%	0.90%
Jeff Denham	CA	19	Merced		2.13%	0.88%
Steve Southerland	FL	2	Panama City		2.39%	0.84%
Scott Perry	PA	4	Carroll	19	1.99%	0.79%
Reid Ribble	WI	8	Sherwood		1.77%	0.72%
Tom Rice	SC	7	Myrtle Beach	1	2.79%	0.67%
Rodney Davis	IL	13	Taylorville	19	1.61%	0.66%
Larry Bucshon	IN	8	Newburgh		2.40%	0.56%
John L. Mica	FL	7	Winter Park		2.19%	0.56%
John J. Duncan, Jr.	TN	2	Knoxville		1.73%	0.43%
Thomas E. Petri	WI	6	Fond du Lac		1.72%	0.41%
Candice Miller	MI	10	Harrison		1.56%	0.39%
Bob Gibbs	OH	7	Washington	18	4.52%	0.34%
Mark Meadows	NC	11	Cashiers		2.20%	0.32%
Bill Shuster, Chairman	PA	9	Hollidaysburg		2.67%	0.31%
Markwayne Mullin	OK	2	Westville		1.99%	0.27%
Rick Crawford	AR	1	Jonesboro		2.43%	0.21%
Howard Coble	NC	6	Greensboro		1.67%	0.17%
Average					2.67%	1.32%

Now the Democrats:

Name	State	District	Hometown	Old District	Carfree %	Transit %
Jerrold Nadler	NY	10	New York	8	63.66%	53.97%
Eleanor Holmes Norton	DC	1	Washington		26.03%	38.02%
Michael E. Capuano	MA	7	Somerville	8	25.75%	34.30%
Albio Sires	NJ	8	West New York	13	26.16%	33.29%
Donna F. Edwards	MD	4	Fort Washington		5.77%	17.82%
Elijah E. Cummings	MD	7	Baltimore		10.86%	13.51%
Daniel Lipinski	IL	3	Western Springs		3.50%	10.92%
Sean Patrick Maloney	NY	18	Cold Spring	19	2.93%	7.47%
Dina Titus	NV	1	Las Vegas		5.73%	5.46%
Eddie Bernice Johnson	TX	30	Dallas		4.98%	4.53%
Grace F. Napolitano	CA	32	Norwalk	38	2.86%	4.36%
Timothy H. Bishop	NY	1	Southampton		2.12%	4.10%
Janice Hahn	CA	44	Los Angeles	36	3.20%	4.03%
Rick Larsen	WA	2	Lake Stevens		2.01%	2.73%
André Carson	IN	7	Indianapolis		3.66%	2.39%
Steve Cohen	TN	9	Memphis		4.73%	2.37%
Elizabeth Esty	CT	5	Cheshire		2.87%	2.07%
Peter A. DeFazio	OR	4	Springfield		2.95%	2.06%
Timothy J. Walz	MN	1	Mankato		1.96%	1.48%
Lois Frankel	FL	22	West Palm Beach		2.10%	1.20%
Cheri Bustos	IL	17	East Moline		2.82%	1.11%
John Garamendi	CA	3	Walnut Grove	10	1.69%	1.08%
Rick Nolan	MN	8	Crosby		2.04%	0.97%
Ann Kirkpatrick	AZ	1	Flagstaff		2.87%	0.57%
Nick J. Rahall, II, Ranking minority member	WV	3	Beckley	4	2.71%	0.47%
Michael H. Michaud	ME	2	East Millinocket		2.01%	0.38%
Corrine Brown	FL	5	Jacksonville	3	1.56%	0.28%
Average					8.13%	9.29%

So what do we take away from this? Well, a lot of Democrats do represent cities, and transit-commuting suburbs, in contrast to the Republicans. But does that translate to actual support for transit? Jerry Nadler is the only member who represents a district with a majority of carfree, transit-riding households, and I like him a lot, but I haven't heard of much that Holmes Norton, Capuano, Sires, Edwards, Cummings or Lipinski have done for transit riders. Sean Patrick Maloney is definitely one to watch: if he can get an FRA exemption for Metro-North, that would be huge.

In terms of transit-commuting population, the top twelve districts are all here in New York City, including the 14th, where I live. There are seven districts with more transit riders than Nadler's, and twelve with more riders than Holmes Norton. They're not directly represented on the committee. Meanwhile, Howard Coble's district is in fact the district with the absolute lowest percentage of transit riders.