I have just changed my commuting from riding the bus to driving. This was not due to my own choice – my office moved and I was unwilling to take an extra 2 to 3 hours per day to get to and from this highly underserviced area. Coincidentally I had to buy gas on my way to work on my first driving day. It threw some real perspective on the price of riding the bus
At my old building the bus took 30 to 45 minutes each way while driving took 20 to 30. At my new location the bus would take at least 90 minutes each way but more likely 2 hours while driving takes 25 – 35 minutes. Of course the bus has never been portrayed as the fastest method of commuting so lets look at cost. The bus cost me about $6 a month because my employer paid the other $70 for my pass. I no longer have that option so a bus pass costs me almost as much as my gas ($60) plus my insurance while taking 3 or 4 times as long to make the trip. Imagine if I were paying on a per trip basis for my bus riding – that would be $99 a month to ride the bus – not counting the taxpayer money that supports UTA. Notice that all the prices I am quoting for the bus are not the express passes or the trains, just the regular bus system.
As I started to put all that together I realized that despite the fact that I believe that good public transportation is a good idea, it is notanywhere near economically competitive with private vehicle ownership. Whatever money we spend as a society to prop up our public transit system we need to realize that we are not making any significant economic benefit to those who use the system – they come out a little bit ahead of simply hiring a taxi every time they need to go somewhere.
I still favor the idea of public transportation in theory, but in practice I’m not sure that our taxes should be used simply to hide the fact that the system is not economically competitive. If we are unwilling to pay enough to make it beneficial then our tax support is wasted.
If you had to pay the full cost of bus travel without a public subsidy, the cost would be much higher than private driving.
Your post highlights one factor commonly ignored by ardent public transit proponents: time. All of us intrinsically know that our time has a value.
Some public transit routes make time and economic sense to riders. When you have to move a lot of people from one population center to another, transit routes work for people. It may actually save them time and money.
On the other hand, nobody cares one iota about the burden to the taxpayer that is subsidizing all of this. We simply assume that it’s a good deal for them too.
That is exactly what I was coming to realize. I had known that without a public subsidy the cost of bus travel was higher than the cost of private driving – I had just not realized how much higher the cost was.
I’m starting to think that we might be wiser to give up on public funding of anything except very high volume routes between population centers. Aside from that our best transportation tax dollars seem to go to maintaining a basic road infrastructure and not to the public transit entities.
Utah Transit Authority is trying to get other “ENTITIES” more involved in Public Transportation for the Disabled and the Elderly. With the way the Economy is very likely Property Taxes would be increased and Services for the Disabled and the Elderly would be cut. These Entities would be Responsible for Drivers, Gas, Maintenance and the Purchase of more Vehicles in order to meet all the needs.
UTA has a Good Bus Service in Down Town Salt Lake City, in the Avenues and the University of Utah. UTA has Destroyed the Bus System in the rest of Salt Lake County.
UTA needs to get Accessible Vans and Small Buses to go into Neighborhoods to Help Encourage People to take the Bus would take Individuals to the Main Bus Routes and Trax. UTA needs to work on Barrier Free, Benches and and Shelters and also Increase the Frequency of Buses.
This would reduce the need for Paratransit and bring down the cost of Paratransit. This would be Transportation for all. This would Help get more cars off the roads, not so much Traffic Grid Lock and Help our Environment.
The HIGH PAID EXECUTIVES do not RECEIVE HUGE BONUSES for a GOOD BUS SYSTEM. TRAX and FRONTRUNNER bring in more FEDERAL DOLLAR, if PROJECTS are Finish on Time or Early the EXECUTIVES Receive HUGE BONUSES.