Public Transportation

A good post at The Commons about the true cost of public transportation:

Ten Billion Served (and Hundreds of Millions Fleeced)
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) just announced that the U.S. transit industry carried more than 10 billion transit trips in 2006, the first time the industry has exceeded 10 billion trips since 1957. Naturally, APTA -- the transit industry's leading lobby group -- sees this as "10 billion reasons to increase local and federal investment in public transportation."

The 10-billion milestone looks a lot less impressive when compared with the growing population of urban residents. It works out to just 42.7 trips per urban resident in 2006. (A trip, incidentally, is a transit boarding: if you get on a subway, then transfer to a bus, that is counted as two trips.)

While 42.7 trips per urbanite is more than were carried in 2005, it is not more than 2001, and it is less than in any year between 1907 (the first year for which transit data are available) and 1993.

In the meantime, transit subsidies already average 64 cents per passenger mile, compared with less than 0.4 cents for subsidies to auto driving. Over the past decade, APTA's transit factbook says that the U.S. has "invested" more than $100 billion in public transit capital improvements, mostly for expensive rail transit projects. Many of the cities that have built rail transit lines have actually seen transit ridership drop because the high cost of rail has forced them to cut bus services.

As I explain in more detail in my Antiplanner blog, the real problem with the transit industry is too much money. Because transit agencies get the vast majority of their funds from taxpayers rather than transit riders, their incentives are to build expensive, glitsy urban monuments rather than provide economical transit services to those who need them. The solution is to stop subsidizing transit agencies and instead give vouchers to transit users, who can use them for buses, taxis, or any other public conveyance.

Very good point -- we look at the revenues and the cost to ride the bus and we think that the service is working. We fail to take into account the amazing amount of cash that the transit authorities rake in through government subsidies and grants. Seattle is still reeling from the cost of the "Monorail Project" which eventually failed after driving up everyone's car registration costs substantially. And King County is still building the very expensive light-rail system that will whisk passengers from SeaTac airport into downtown Seattle. No word on ticket prices but they need to be able to compete with companies like Shuttle Express who take you from your doorstep directly to SeaTac (with a few other stops to other passengers doorsteps) for under $20. If Jen and I were still living in Seattle, we would have direct bus service from our house to the train but it would have taken us a good hour to get there. Add to this the time spent waiting for the next train and all the stops the train would make on its way to the airport and we would be looking at a two hour journey. Compare this with the 30-45 minutes the Shuttle Express took us and you can see where we would have spent our money...