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The problem for car-demonizers is that the car is just too good at its job. The alternatives are generally horrendous. Take that Summit-to-Manhattan commuter train. Sure, it's as good as you'll get. But that line was delayed every day last week. At least when you're sitting in your car in the parking lot outside the Lincoln Tunnel, you're not packed three to a seat with crying babies, annoying teenagers, and cell-phone yellers (and don't forget you have to get to the station; not a problem with a car which can take you right from your home).
Despite the fact that going through the Lincoln Tunnel is a nightmare and costs $12.50 minimum during peak hours plus whatever parking costs AND that there are public transportation alternatives, roughly 50,000 drivers take it into Manhattan every day. That's how good the car is compared to the alternatives.
From the link: "Small Urban and Rural Areas: Growing Needs; Limited Service Options
Among residents of central cities in Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), 83 percent of respondents said they had public transportation available to their homes. For entire MSAs, central cities, and suburbs, 64 percent of householders reported the availability of public transportation. For small urban areas outside MSAs, only 33 percent of households said they had public transportation service, and only 11 percent of respondents in rural areas reported the same thing."
The paper you quoted is saying the opposite. Very few people in rural areas have access to public transit.
Quote:
Among residents of central cities in Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), 83 percent of respondents said they had public transportation available to their homes. For entire MSAs, central cities, and suburbs, 64 percent of householders reported the availability of public transportation. For small urban areas outside MSAs, only 33 percent of households said they had public transportation service, and only 11 percent of respondents in rural areas reported the same thing.
It looks to me like 89% of people in rural areas have no public transportation.
And 67% of those in small urban areas have none.
I'm also curious how much charging for public transportation offsets that as well.
I thought you were moving to Pittsburgh! You had a real "thing" for it a while back!
There's no date on this article, but from reading, it appears to have been written in 2011. This is for Denver. RTD "RTD’s operating revenues are derived primarily from two sources, sales taxes and passenger fares. Sales tax revenues account for 69% of those revenues while passenger fares account for 30%, with the remaining one percent coming from on-vehicle advertising and grants."
Mind you, this is just operating revenues. Maintenance, construction, etc are all in different budgets, and not impacted at all by fares.
A lot of you seem to think that those who like alternatives to the car are anti-car. Not the case. I personally don't like driving and I would prefer other modes. But I'm not necessarily saying you shouldn't drive. I believe that there shouldn't be subsidies for transportation and that people should pay the true costs like they would any other good or service. I don't believe that public transport should be subsidized either.
And yes, it definitely would be disastrous if driving was suddenly no longer subsidized because almost all of our cities except for a few are planned around the automobile and most people depend on it entirely. I think that if the government slowly removes subsidies, then land use planning can slowly adapt to less people driving.
Personally, I'd like to see more standardization on how you're supposed to pay for parking. There are some meters that are coin only, some that are credit card based, etc. and the ones that take coins won't accept $1, $5, $10, or $20 bills.
This is absolutely ridiculous and needs to stop before you take away free parking!
Most cities in the US were established before the automobile, including western cities. Denver, for example was established in 1858. And you know what? They needed roads then, too.
For Seattle, $3.08 subsidy per trip estimate. For San Francisco, $1.67. Then you just need to know the average trip distance. Across all forms of public transit and all cities, that's about 5 miles. Commuter rail drives that up significantly but stick with it anyway. http://www.apta.com/resources/statis...-Fact-Book.pdf
So for Seattle, the subsidy per passenger mile is $3.08/5 miles. 61.6 Cents per miles. That's just for operating costs. But just ignore that Seattle is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on capital costs and that buses run on roads that obviously need to be built.
VMT per capita, on the other hand, was in 2010 9,590. If cars had the same subsidy per passenger mile, that would mean a subsidy of $5,907 per capita. Not convinced? There's an estimated 322 million people in the US (2016). That would mean the subsidy for driving would be $1.9 trillion dollars. Meanwhile total US public sector spending is about 15% of GDP, which would mean that the US spends about 75 cents for every dollar of total public spending on subsidizing the car. It doesn't.
San Francisco is about half the subsidy per trip of Seattle, which does partially get offset by the trips not being as long but that doesn't really matter either. It's not like we spend 38.5 cents for every dollar of total public spending subsidizing cars either.
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