It's one of the cheapest ways you can help your most vulnerable people while fighting climate change.
Corrected that. So long as we think of, or even imply, that transit is for the poor only we will never fix things.
The other mistake people commonly making around transit is thinking it is for getting to work at your 9-5 job downtown. If you don't work downtown, or work odd shifts downtown, are going shopping/to eat/church/the ball game... - you should be driving a car like "normal people" (not walking or riding a bike either).
We need to change how transit is viewed, both by society and by those in power in transit. Transit should be able to cover the vast majority of trips in any city. However most transit is setup for people going to work and isn't useful for other trips. Things are a little better in Europe or Asia, but they have plenty of problems too and should working fixing their issues not making themselves feel good because at least they are better than North America.