The U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) released the report, Public Perceptions on Transportation Characteristics of Livable Communities.  The special report presents the findings of a 2009 national survey, which asked participants about the importance of different transportation features for their communities.  The most important of the eight characteristics defined in the survey, supported by 94 percent of respondents, was major roads or highways, followed closely by adequate downtown parking, pedestrian-friendly downtown streets, safe sidewalks, and easy access to airports. Reliable long-distance bus or rail transportation, bike lanes, and local transit were found to be important by over two-thirds of respondents.  BTS surveyed about 1,000 households for this report.

One interesting finding of this survey is the variation of the importance of some transportation facilities by age.  Of respondents aged 18 to 34, 91.5 percent found sidewalks “somewhat important” or “very important,” declining to 73.0 percent of respondents aged 65 and above.  Bike facilities were “somewhat important” or “very important” for 73.8 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34, declining to 51.9 percent of respondents aged 65 and above.