Two national interest groups hoping to sway federal policy in favor of public transportation have released a poll showing overwhelming support for it.

The poll of 800 registered voters found that 82 percent believed that the nation would benefit from expanded public transit; 59 percent think transit can do more to reduce congestion than new or expanded roads; and 51 percent would support a small tax increase to pay for more transit.

"Federal spending priorities are out of line and out of touch with today's needs," said John Robert Smith, co-chair of Transportation for America, one of two groups that commissioned the poll.

Currently, 80 cents of every federal dollar spent on transportation goes to highways and 17 cents to transit. The groups want to increase transit's share in the new federal surface transportation law that will be debated this year.

"We have a transportation program that is rooted in the 1950s," said Geoff Anderson, the other co-chair of Transportation for America, which bills itself as the largest transportation reform coalition in the nation, with 450 members.

The poll showed that most Americans have no choice but to drive, and would prefer more options, including transit, walking and biking. Some 73 percent said they had no choices other than car travel; and 57 percent said they would like to spend less time in their cars.

Of those who said they had not used public transit in the preceding month, 82 percent said it was either not available or not convenient to where they live, while only 8 percent said they eschewed transit because they prefer to drive.

The findings come as the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee prepares to take up a new long-term transportation bill to replace the one that expired in September.

The poll showed strong support for transit in urban and rural areas -- 89 percent of city dwellers and 79 percent of rural inhabitants said expanding it would benefit the United States.

"In small towns and big cities alike, Americans are saying loudly and clearly that their lives would be better, and their nation stronger, if we had world-class public transportation and more options for walking and bicycling," Mr. Anderson said.

"If Americans themselves were crafting the transportation bill, we would see a doubling of the share for public transportation; an ironclad system of accountability for restoring existing roads and bridges before simply building more of them; and a strong commitment to making all our streets safe enough for kids to bicycle to school or so seniors can walk to nearby restaurants or the drugstore," he said.

The survey was conducted by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz and Associates, a Democratic firm; and Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican firm, and had a theoretical margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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