According to a new poll by the Natural Resources Defense Council, three out of four Americans would prefer not to drive if they had public transportation capable of taking them where they needed to go. (Mitt Romney may want to rethink that plan to end federal support for Amtrak.)

Two out of three people polled want the government to improve and expand public transport, with the majority preferring those funds to support new modes of public transit – light rail, buses and trains – instead of highways.

Conducted by a bipartisan team of pollsters from Republican and Democratic backgrounds, the group asked 800 Americans about the current state of American transportation.

“Americans hate traffic and love transit,” said Peter Lehner, the NRDC’s executive director. “Investing in public transportation eases congestion but for too long most federal funding has limited people’s choices, leaving them sitting in traffic.”

As much as the car was once emblematic of so much that is American, many people these days would prefer to take the bus, if only there was a bus to take. Fifty-five percent of Americans want to drive less, but 74 percent say they have no other choice to get from point A to point B. And despite our national loathing for traffic jams, 63 percent would rather address the problem with better public transportation instead of building new roads.

The crucial question is: Are we willing to pay for it? Apparently, yes. In fact, many are willing to overpay for better public transport. Those polled guessed that their states spend an average of 16 percent of their transportation budget on public transport, and want to nearly double that number by bringing the percentage up to 28 percent. In truth, however, over the past three years, the average portion of transportation budgets spent on public transit was just 6.55 percent per state.

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The Democrats, however, call the Romney plan “short-sighted,” with U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) saying that it “would mark the end of the line for Amtrak service across the country, while punching a ticket to the unemployment line for thousands of workers.”

The question turns on what role the government has in providing public access to services like transportation even when they cost more money than they earn. Amtrak served 30 million passengers last year, but still lost more than $450 million. The government spent $562 million to keep the company afloat on the operations side, and $650 million on capital costs like track maintenance.

While the tea party activists call for less spending on Amtrak, the Democrats recognize the line’s important role in U.S. infrastructure, noting that more people travel via Amtrak than ever and dismantling it would have rough consequences for commuters. They also point to all the cars kept off the roads by the railroad and, therefore, all of the prevented pollution.

Vice President Joe Biden voiced his strong support for Amtrak last week. “I’m the biggest railroad guy you’ve ever known,” he said. “I have traveled round trip from Wilmington, Del., to Washington, D.C. – a 250-mile round trip – over 7,900 times.”

If Amtrak did lose federal funding, though, it probably would not affect Biden’s route. The Boston to New York to D.C. corridor is one of the busiest. More likely to be on the chopping block would be the long-distance routes connecting remote areas of the country. But congressmen – from any party – are not going to support cutting off their own districts, making the discussion, at this point, mostly political.

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