Question

read the passage. american transit blues compared to europeans, americans are relatively infrequent users of public transit. in a recent report on transit systems in various u.s. cities, researchers from the university of minnesotas center for transportation studies attempted to address this issue. although underuse of public transportation is a complex problem with many contributing factors, the reports authors noted one significant factor: when cities limit how tall their buildings can be, they tend to end up with more of what urban planners call sprawl. sprawl is the uncontrolled expansion of a citys population away from an urban center into suburban areas. sprawl makes public transit impractical for many residents because they must travel long distances. although the authors recommend that cities pass laws to encourage people and businesses to cluster together in centralized areas. the idea is that the resulting high - density areas will be easier to serve with public transit. what is the main, or central, idea of the passage? encouraging cities to become denser would likely result in increased public transit use in america. american residents of urban areas tend to use public transportation less frequently than europeans do. urban sprawl must be controlled in order to provide usable public transportation.

Explanation:

The passage starts by noting Americans' infrequent use of public transit. It then discusses how urban sprawl (caused by limiting building height) makes public transit impractical. The solution proposed is for cities to encourage clustering in centralized areas to make public - transit service easier. The main idea is about how densifying cities could increase public - transit use.

Answer:

Encouraging cities to become denser would likely result in increased public transit use in America.