In today’s News & Observer:

Although Triangle leaders haven’t figured how to cover the big cost of laying tracks and buying rail cars, a poll shows that many residents want commuter trains in the region’s future.

In surveys last week, almost 80 percent of those interviewed said the Triangle needed some form of improved mass transit. Roughly 39 percent said the Triangle needs rail. Bus service, carpooling and bike lanes drew less support. Only about 22 percent said none of those are needed. …

Asked whether they would use a commuter rail system if it were built, 55 percent of survey respondents in Wake and 58 percent in Orange said they were very likely or somewhat likely. In Durham County, 46 percent said they would ride the rails, while 50 percent said they were likely to use a regional bus system.

Apparently it needs to be said: Likelihood of use doesn’t equate at all to likelihood of use for daily commuting. A person who thinks it might be neat to ride on a train would say he’d likely use one if it were here, but that doesn’t mean he’d use it to commute, or use it very often.

The question doesn’t allow for likely frequency of use, and there’s a good reason for that: very, very few people use public transit options here. Bus ridership in Durham and Raleigh is 0.24 percent and 0.13 percent (not 24 percent and 13 percent; ZERO point those tenths of a percent); it’s “up to” 2.15 percent in Chapel Hill, largely because of the student population and the “free” buses supported by student fees.

And I have to wonder: Why aren’t people asked about adding more lanes and building more roads? That is the best way to alleviate traffic congestion, after all — and it’s also the most immediate, efficient and flexible.

I suspect they’re not asked that question for the same reason they’re not asked if they’d use rail transit to commute: we all know the answer already, and besides, this is about making rail transit look feasible — to the feds who hold the pursestrings.