Public Transit Policy

Click the map to enlarge

The New York Times yesterday posted the above map on their Website. With vacation season upon us and gas prices rising, everyone is concerned about how $4-a-gallon gas is impacted the wallets of American consumers, and you can see the full breakdown here.

As the map shows, the percent of income spend on gas is lowest in a few major metropolitan areas. The New York area is bathed in dark purple; Chicago and its surrounding environs is dark purple; Boston, Washington and Philadelphia complete the Northeast Corridor of purple; and the San Francisco Bay Area reveals similar results.

Not coincidentally, those are also the areas in this country with the best public transportation systems. We have, for better our worse, the MTA and New Jersey Transit; Boston has the MBTA; D.C. has Metro; Philadelphia has a comprehensive SEPTA system that links to New Jersey Transit; Chicago has the CTA; and Northern California has BART, CalTrain and MUNI.

Despite this obvious relationship between gas expenditures and public transit access, politicians — even those in public transit-rich areas — are still focused on oil issues. It’s no wonder then that Streetsblog is calling on politicians to change their focus to mass transit expansion.

The big news this summer as vacation season kicks off has focused around rising gas prices and the high cost of a gallon of gas. At the same time, people are flocking to mass transit systems around the nation and the dramatic increase of ridership coupled with rising fuel prices and poor infrastructure investments are crippling public transit systems at the time when they are needed most.

In an article available only to Wall Street Journal subscribers, Ana Campoy and Alex Roth take a look at the state of public transit in the U.S. The big picture is alarming to say the least, as Campoy and Roth write, “As gas prices go higher, the problem will get worse.”

Rising fuel prices have hit public transportation harder than consumers. Diesel, the main fuel for bus systems, has gone up 40% since the beginning of the year to an average $4.72 a gallon last week. Regular gasoline is up 27%. Adding to the crunch: Transit budgets that are largely funded by sales tax revenue are shrinking as consumers spend less in response to tough economic times.

“We’re all getting killed,” says Cal Marsella, general manager for Denver’s Regional Transportation District.

To compensate, many agencies have been canceling plans to expand service, raiding emergency funds and raising fares to stay in budget. When that’s not enough, agencies are resorting to cuts in service. In a survey of the nation’s public transit agencies to be released Friday, the American Public Transportation Association, which lobbies for greater support of public transit, found that 19% of bus operators responding are cutting service to some degree, while 21% of rail operators are doing the same.

Basically, the problem is one of the recurring cycles. Rising gas prices hit public transit agencies just as hard as they hit drivers. As the drivers flood to the transit systems, the agencies must meet demand. Thus, they are paying more for fuel and more for service while not drawing enough revenue to covering the rapidly increasing costs.

The blame of course lies with our governments who, on state and federal levels, have long been interested in investing in roads over public transit. We have cities that have sub-par public transit networks; hardly any metropolitan area is as blanketed in transit as the New York City region is. We have roads that choke off transit development, and we have agencies scrambling for money.

As with environmentally friendlier automobiles, the time is now for the government to reassess its commitment to infrastructure investments. We need to see more of a commitment to current and future public transit options. At this current crossroad, the nation’s economy — and its environment — depend on it.

Gas prices have been on the climb in America for years, but investment in mass transit has lagged far behind acceptable levels. Most major cities in the country have only nascent systems, and while new light rail and other mass transit networks are starting to spring up around America, it’s all been a bit too little way too late for a nation long dependent on cars.

Now, though, with gas prices hitting record highs and showing no signs of ever coming back down, the people once behind their wheels are starting to notice that benefits of mass transit. As Clifford Krauss reported in The Times over the weekend, mass transit ridership nationwide has reached new highs, and experts predict this growth to continue. Now if only the folks holding the purse strings would pay attention to these trends too.

Writes Krauss:

Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.

“In almost every transit system I talk to, we’re seeing very high rates of growth the last few months,” said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.

“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”

Some cities with long-established public transit systems, like New York and Boston, have seen increases in ridership of 5 percent or more so far this year. But the biggest surges — of 10 to 15 percent or more over last year — are occurring in many metropolitan areas in the South and West where the driving culture is strongest and bus and rail lines are more limited.

In the article, Krauss draws a very telling quote out of Joseph Giulietti, the executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, operators of the Tri-Rail system. “Nobody believed that people would actually give up their cars to ride public transportation,” he said. “But in the last year, and last several months in particular, we have seen exactly that.”

With attitudes like that from the people in charge of these transit authorities, is it any surprise then that our elected officials have been loathe to invest in adequate public transportation networks? Had these networks been in place long ago, people would have gladly left their cars for fast and stress-free commutes.

As ridership increases, though, these nationwide transit authorities — as we’ve seen first-hand in New York — don’t often see the increase in revenue one would expect. While fare box collection totals go up, the same factors that drive people out of their cars — high gas prices, poor economies — are impacting the rail agencies as well. Cities that rely on sales taxes — or real estate taxes — to fund their transit networks are finding their coffers relatively empty, and the high cost of fuel and power is a drain to even the most popular of transit networks.

Over at Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens, Gary Reilly throws out a suggestion that public officials should heed: “The Federal gas tax needs to be increased, and the funds must be dedicated to building a world class transit infrastructure. We are decades behind Europe and Japan in our high speed rail infrastructure. It’s time to show some leadership again.”

I couldn’t agree more. Oil prices aren’t going to go down; the cost of gas won’t magically decrease. It’s time for this nation to invest in public transportation. A token gesture here and there won’t do it, and it’s not a stretch to say that the future economic health of our nation depends on it.

Photo of high gas prices by flickr user xxtukyo.