Public Transportation, what are the real numbers?

Public Transportation, what's it's real cost to the commuting public? There are currently funds within the Department of Transportation dedicated to be used to repair, maintain and build our roads and highways and provide public transport. What's the "right mix" of those funds that should be used for Public Transportation vs. our roads?

Some have developed plans to build a light rail system, trolley or building the infrastructure to support them, but has anyone really looked at the numbers with regards to the operating costs of a public system as compared to our cars and SUVs? Let's, for now, forget about the capital costs to build and start up a new system, let's just look at operating costs...Operating costs are long term, ongoing costs that "someone" must spend every day we commute from one point to another.

The best metric for measuring those costs are how much does it cost to move one person one mile. I had a chance meeting with a retired IBM manufacturing analyst (who's job it was to squeeze the most out of a Dollar) that has done some work in this area and he was kind enough to provide me with data and his sources of data that I think is worth sharing here.




This data comes from the Urban Transport Fact book that draws from National Transportation data, US Census data, National transit data and from the American Public Transportation Association.


It's important to remember that these numbers are operating costs only and the data is from 2001, as this was the most recent data that was available for both Public Transportation systems and for automobile operating expenses. If you go to the Fact Book, you will find that operating costs are pretty stable for cars up through about 2004.


There are a number of cities with Public Transportation systems operating costs listed in the Fact Book, but I picked some that I have personally either seen, used or have been briefed on their operations and compared those operating costs to Boise's system (in 2001).


Costs per passenger mile is an important metric. It shows just how much each passenger should expect to pay (or subsidies that would be required) for 1 mile travelled. The data comparison clearly shows that in 2001 the Boise system costs tax payers and riders about 89 cents per mile each passenger travelled. If those same folks would have ridden in a car, their operating costs per mile would have been 1/4 of that cost!


The taxpayers of Idaho have infrastructure investments today that need maintained (our roads) that our buses, taxis and van pools currently use to move those that would prefer or need access to public transport. Every taxpayer Dollar spent on infrastructure other than our current road system would be used to support a system that has an operating cost per passenger mile 4 times that of cars.


Obviously, the data above does not address any environmental or social issues associated with transport costs of every passenger per mile, but all of these metrics should be demanded prior to investment into any Public Transit system to ensure those costs "pencil out" or have a positive return on investment for the Taxpayers of our state. The Fact Book does address many of these issues as well, but I've not the room here to get into them.


As an example; currently the #42 "Intercounty Bus Fare" for the trip from Nampa to Boise (one way) is $2.00. Lets say that this one way trip is (conservatively) a 20 mile trip. The passenger payment per passenger mile works out to 10 cents per passenger mile.


Using the old 2001 figures of Boise operating costs of 89 cents per passenger mile (when fuel costs were almost half of what they are today) indicates that "someone" besides the rider is paying (or subsidizing) 79 cents per mile per passenger on that route, or $15.80 per rider!


Who do you think that might be Mr. and Ms. Taxpayer?




I would encourage you to look at the Fact Book data and ask some questions of our local leaders and those focused on increasing taxes to build out our Public Transport infrastructure. Do they understand what are the true costs of that infrastructure and the ongoing operating costs PER PASSENGER MILE are going to be? Can they supply the data to the taxpayer comparing those costs to what we have invested today and what the expected future costs will be?


Do we have the population density to support such a system? Would we be smarter investing more in our current infrastructure of roads? How about in some sort of voucher system that would allow people, that really need public transportation, that could be used with a taxi? There are too many questions that are not being asked, too many statements focusing our eyes away from the "card up the sleeve"...


There is no doubt that we could all do better in ensuring we carpool or share a ride when we can, these are the things that drive down the automobile operating costs per passenger mile for all of us. If you look around you on I-84 coming into town, you will see too many of us not sharing a ride, but do we want to increase our taxes as punishment? Will this change our behavior? Are we going to have to invest in our roads anyway?


At the same time we are seeing our traffic backing up because we are not considering these ride sharing options, we are seeing and hearing from some, with interests other than economically resolving these issues, recommending that we increase our taxes to build an infrastructure that will cost us more to operate than what we currently spend, while at the same time supporting only a minority of commuters.


Do we need to plan for our future density, of course, but the numbers clearly show we are not ready for anything other than a more economical bus system.


A cute Trolley or Light Rail line might be a really "sexy" thing for the Treasure Valley to have, but is the "juice worth the squeeze" for the taxpayers?


What are your thoughts?

Mass Transit in the Treasure Valley...

A number of us from the Legislature in the Treasure Valley were invited to attend a briefing in Salt Lake last Monday regarding how their mass transit system has evolved. My intention was to learn costs per person, state funding, subsidies required and ongoing costs for maintenance and how that is managed.

The Treasure Valley Compass leaders ensured that we all met the major players in Utah that have been involved in setting up the transit system, expanding it and maintaining it. The Compass folks did a great job in ensuring that we got our questions asked and have promised to work with Utah in getting some of the data we requested.

There is no question that the public transportation system in Salt Lake is top of the line. They have a combination of bus, tram and light rail. Their system was originally started on a shoe string (much like the Valley Regional Transit Authority now), but was boosted through federal earmarks (around $500M if I recall correctly) and local option taxes of the six surrounding counties to Salt Lake of between 1/2 cent to 3/4 cent sales tax that is collected through the state. Utah has had local options taxes for quite sometime so you will find various sales tax rates throughout the state.

Utah's system thus far has cost the tax payers (both federal and state) approx. $1.5 billion dollars. The est. population in the six counties footing the bill (less federal earmarks) is approx. 1.2 million folks (just slightly less than the entire state of Idaho).

Inceases in local option taxes have been happening since the system was started, most run as a referendum that was done on a "quick sale" sort of effort by engaging with the public on the requirements shortly (within 4 weeks) before the vote was required. Their strategy was to ensure that any opposition would have little time to organize and coordinate an opposing view before votes would be made (sound familiar?) and worked absentee ballots hard as well to ensure passage of the increased tax.

No doubt that Utah's mass transit system is top of the line, however, I see no way that 500,000 people in the Treasure Valley would pony up the money for such a convenience.

One lesson that did hit hard was that Idaho must start early in purchasing easements for ANY kind of transportation planning, regardless if that's public trams, trains or roadways... it needs to be planned and purchased as early as possible. Land prices just continue to go up, waiting for "tomorrow" to purchase property for a bypass or a commuter train is just not smart business.

I appreciated being invited on the fact finding tour, I learned a lot. Utah started planning and funding these transit systems well before it was announced that they would be getting the Olympics, much to our surprise. I suspect that because they did invest in such a system, that it did bode well for their selection by the Olympic selection committee.

Idaho has transportation needs from city streets to the freeway, from buses to walking trails. We are going into debt now through GARVEE to get some of the issues corrected and, as I'm sure you've heard, we are still "$200M per year"short. We need to get creative, change the way we do day to day business in the way to manage our transit systems. I've posted some ideas previously (click here to read them) that we need to consider. Is it time to raise gas taxes, registration fees, fund transportation needs with General Funds or change our habits?

We don't have the answers or the money... do you?

Drop me a note at Marv@thg-inc.biz

Cheers,

H