> So what would you say if a right-wing organization did the same for the true costs of riding
> bicycles? Trains get the same fuel economy as cars (and take it with the CBO if you disagree),
> and on a btu-per-passenger-mile basis, cars are better than transit buses. Only long-distance
> buses quite well.
>
> As for bicycles, you should pay for your own private roads with a $500 per year bicycle fee.
Unless you are a *misanthropist*, cars don't make sense (most of the time)...
"The best option is to have options"
"The bottom line is this: investment in public transportation makes dollars, and it makes sense. The
benefits to motorists, to businesses, to transit riders, and to American society as a whole far
outweigh the costs."
Something to Think About The Economics of Public Transportation: Three Major Findings :
While transit is clearly a boon to the people who use it, even larger benefits accrue to motorists,
businesses, and society in general. Given flexibility in how they develop their transportation
investment strategies, more and more areas — central cities, suburbs, and smaller towns and villages
— are choosing to make public transit an essential component of their strategic transportation
investment portfolio. In those areas where such strategic investments in transit have been made,
ridership has grown, and the economic benefits to those communities have risen accordingly. The
market for transit is there, but the Nation's transportation strategies must be geared to tap into
that market.
If you feel like you've been spending more time in traffic jams, you've got lots of company. All
across America, in big cities, in suburbs, and in smaller towns, traffic is up, and congestion is up
a lot more. And it's going to get worse, since relatively small increases in traffic can cause
really huge increases in congestion. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, in 50
metropolitan areas the number of hours per capita that people spend delayed by traffic congestion
increased 95% from 1982 to 1993, 1 even though the number of trips that people made increased by
only 16.9%. 2 (see "How Congestion Works" )
In Los Angeles, that amounted to an annual cost (again, per capita) of $710. One might say, "Come
on, that's Los Angeles, what did you expect?" Well, it's also Houston ($680), Seattle ($720),
Atlanta ($590), Boston ($520) and Miami ($560). If you live in Nashville, you spent 2.2 times as
many hours stuck in congestion in 1993 than you did in 1982. In Kansas City and Sacramento, 2.85
times as many. In Columbus, 2.34. And in Salt Lake City, the time you spent on the road thinking
unkind thoughts about your fellow motorist increased 320%.
Now, hold that thought for a moment, and focus on this: for every dollar the American taxpayer
spends on supporting the Nation's public transportationa systems, the economic return on that
investment is at least four or five to one, and probably substantially more. And here's the kicker :
the people who benefit the most are motorists and society in general! This perhaps surprising result
is developed in Section 3 of this Report, and is summarized in Table 3 .
"Wait a minute," you say, "I drive, what's public transit got to do with me?" Glad you asked. Try to
imagine....
Another 5 million cars and 27,000 new lane miles of roads jammed into America's cities; Almost
200,000 more fatalities, injuries and accidents every year on the Nation's roads, at a cost in the
billions of dollars; Another four lanes (or maybe a second deck) on your local freeway, at untold
fiscal, environmental and aesthetic cost. Table 1 shows, for 90 urbanized areas, just how many cars
and new miles of freeway would be needed to replace public transit; Americans spending another 367
million hours each year sitting in traffic jams, at a cost to them and to the economy of more than
$19 billion. Not very pleasant to contemplate. Today, the situation on our Nation's freeways and
roads can be pretty bad. But it would be a whole lot worse without public transportation. Table 1
("Transit Relieves Traffic Congestion") shows what would happen to America's metropolitan networks
of freeways, highway and roads if they had to accommodate the millions of people who ride on public
transportation. The same Table provides dramatic evidence of how many America's metropolitan areas —
69 out of 90 shown — are choosing rail transit as an essential part of their multi-modal
transportation investment strategies.
"Anything that encourages people not to drive their cars into urban areas is good for the
environment and good for the health of cities. A dense mass-transit network should be one of
southern New England's selling points. And in particular, anything that links the Providence and
Fall River/New Bedford areas with Boston and its high-technology nexus bodes well for economic
development in southeastern New England."
Editorial The Providence Journal-Bulletin July 25, 1995
And yet, in statehouses and city halls across the land, and even in Congress, we can still hear the
"transit vs. highways" debate that has raged for more than 40 years. This report argues that we need
to set emotions aside and look at the numbers. When we do, the economic case for public
transportation, the "dollars and sense" of the issue, is undeniable.
Why We All Care So Much Ever notice how emotional a lot of discussions about transportation can get?
Ever wonder why? After all, the transportation system is just another part of daily life, just like
the electric utility, water, phone and postal systems. But electricity, water, phone calls and mail
generally just "show up" at our homes and businesses. Transportation, on the other hand, is
something that we all spend an awful lot of our time doing, and the experience is all too often time
consuming, expensive, and irritating — if not downright painful.
Like it or not, we spend hundreds of hours per year just getting to work and around town. That's
more time than we spend on vacation and a lot of other things that make life worth living. An
occasional power failure we can live with, but a transportation system that's overloaded is a
continuing irritant: it's negative effects are up close and personal, and they won't go away!
And here's another thing: few of us claim to be experts about public utilities or the postal system,
but we're all "transportation" experts by virtue of the fact that we spend so much time at it. So
when transportation "solutions" are discussed, we've all got a big personal stake in the subject,
plus our "expert" egos are on the line. Small wonder that much of the public debate on
transportation issues rarely differs from arguments about the subject down at the local tavern.
People are right to care so much about transportation, for it profoundly impacts the life of every
single American. But as Congress debates the reauthorization of the Intermodal Surface
Transportation Efficiency Act (the "ISTEA"), b it might be helpful to tone down the rhetoric and
take a look at the facts.
Beyond Rhetoric A sometimes heated "transit vs. highways" debate has raged ever since the interstate
system was a twinkle in President Eisenhower's eye. Ever since the passage of the Urban Mass
Transportation Act in 1964, critics of public transportation in America have tended to dismiss
transit's significance compared to the nation's systems of Interstates, freeways, and roads. Not
infrequently, public transit has been dismissed as little more than a highly subsidized social
welfare program designed primarily to serve the poor, the elderly, and the physically disabled.
Dismissing transit as being marginal to the "real business" of transportation, the allegation is
that highways are about economic development and jobs, transit is about welfare.
On the other side of the debate, transit's supporters have tended to demonize the highway system —
and sometimes highway engineers and builders — contending that they have destroyed the very fabric
of America's metropolitan areas, caused suburban and ex-urban sprawl, polluted the atmosphere, made
the country dangerously dependent on foreign oil, and generally reduced the quality of life for
many, if not most, Americans. In this view, cars and highways are THE ENEMY of both people and
communities, and transit is THE ANSWER to a better life for all Americans.
Whatever the merits on each side of this ideological chasm, the resulting rhetorical excesses have
often generated more heat than light, doing little to enhance the subtance or conduct of the public
discourse — whether in Congress or in the Nation's statehouses and city halls — about what mix of
transportation investments can best meet Americans' mobility needs in the 21st century.
"The efficient movement of goods and people is a crucial factor in ensuring our domestic and
international competitiveness: transportation now accounts for 17% of gross domestic product. Having
a variety of transportation methods available increases access to both new labor markets and
cost-effective goods shipment. Transportation efficiency can be achieved through a national
transportation plan that includes all modes of transport."
Business for Efficient Transportation Washington, D.C.
One issue that seems especially muddled relates to the economic return on the American taxpayer's
investment in the transportation arena. For better or worse, cars and trucks are just about
everywhere, and most people intuitively understand that America's economy depends on the
efficient and safe transport of people and goods on the country's nearly 4 million miles of
Interstate highways, urban freeways, and local streets and roads. But what most people don't know
is that the Nation's public transit systems play an essential part in making the overall
transportation system work.
This report tries to get beyond the rhetoric to look at the facts. The results may be
surprising to some:
In metropolitan cities and suburbs, and in rural towns and villages, the Nation's subways, light
rail lines, commuter rail systems, AMTRAK, and bus and paratransit systems are giving the taxpayers
more than their money's worth. While transit is clearly a boon to the people who use it, even larger
benefits accrue to motorists, businesses, and society in general. Transit makes the road system work
better; and transit plays a key role in helping America to be more competitive in the global
marketplace, in making more Americans more productive, in creating jobs, and in making our cities,
suburbs and towns better places to work and do business. In the past few years, state and local
decision-makers have had unprecedented flexibility to develop transportation investment strategies,
and public-private partnerships have sprung up in hundreds of places to bring a more businesslike,
no-nonsense approach to finding transportation solutions. The outcome is that more and more areas —
central cities, suburbs, and smaller towns and villages — are choosing to make public transit an
essential component of their strategic transportation investment portfolio. Businesses that make
strategic investments needed to offer quality products and services to the marketplace will tend to
prosper; those that don't will lose market share and fail. Public transit is no different: in those
areas where such investments have been made, ridership has grown, and the economic benefits to those
communities have risen accordingly. In other areas, where systems and services have been allowed to
deteriorate, transit use has declined. The market for transit is there, but the Nation's
transportation strategies must be geared to tap into that market. It's In the Mix "We have come to
the stark realization that a balanced working transportation solution must be multi-modal. In short,
we need to dramatically expand our local and express bus operations and build a modern light rail
system to complete our transportation network."
Honorable Peggy Bilsten Vice Mayor Phoenix, Arizona
The above referenced "mix" of transportation investments is key: it reflects a new way of thinking
about transportation strategies that has started to take root since, and to no small degree because
of, the passage of the Intermodal Transportation Systems Efficiency Act of 1991, commonly known as
the ISTEA. The ISTEA emphasizes a "systems approach" to transportation policy and investment (more
about that in a minute), with increased emphasis on the functionality and outcomes of different
transportation strategies. This approach recognizes that the transportation system has a lot to do
in getting people to work and goods to market, and in providing access to shopping, social, cultural
and recreational opportunities for every American. And it knows that the various "modes" of
transportation (e.g. highways and roads, rail and bus transit, freight railroads, etc.) all have a
part to play, and that they are all part of the bigger system.
"System" is one of those words that engineers (and sometimes marketing types) use to impress us
ordinary folk, but what does it mean in a transportation setting? It may help to think of an
electronic circuit which has a bunch of different components: transistors, resistors, capacitors,
inductors, and other widgets that make up the circuit. No one would argue that one type of component
is somehow more important than the others. Take out any one of them and the circuit won't work as
well, and may not work at all.
"The city of Phoenix and the surrounding communities continue to experience phenomenal growth in
population and economic development opportunities. We believe that mass transit, as a major
component of a balanced transportation system, is essential to meet these challenges."
Valerie Manning, President and CEO Phoenix Chamber of Commerce
It's the same with transportation. Whether we realize it or not, it all works together like an
electronic circuit, and the "components" of the circuit are the modes: you can't change one part
without changing it all.
Without its transit "component," the overall transportation system starts to break down. As we'll
see, transit is essential in the transportation mix for America. As we'll also see, it pays a
handsome return on investment to the taxpayer, to the business community, to the transit user, and
even to the motorist who never uses transit.
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