Your Riders Will Save a Bundle on Public Transit

Filed Under Feature Stories, Municipal Transit, Research, Transit Trends, Transportation Trends

And, They Can Prove it to Themselves!

Riders can save enough to pay for their annual food budget–and then some!

Figures from APTA and a helpful calculator prove that public transit is still a bargain even with a late 2008 drop in fuel prices.

Even though the price of gas has continued to drop public transportation riders still enjoy a significant economic savings. A person can achieve an average annual savings of $8,416 per year by taking public transportation instead of driving, based on today’s gas prices and the average unreserved parking rate, according to the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) “Transit Savings Report.” The report is a monthly analysis that shows the average annual savings represents almost a third more than the average amount a household pays for food in a year, according to the Food Institute ($6,111).

Public Transit K.O.’s Cars with Killer Cost Savings According to APTA

City	Monthly Savings	Annual Savings
New York	$1,041	$12,492
Boston	$1,033	$12,396
San Francisco	$948	$11,376
Chicago	$865	$10,380
Philadelphia	$860	$10,320
Honolulu	$846	$10,152
Seattle	$844	$10,128
Washington, DC	$794	$9,528
Minneapolis	$758	$9,096

Your citizens can calculate their own savings with this great tool.

To get a more precise idea of how much money commuter would save by swapping their car for your bus or rail system, click on this link to the PublicTransit.org Calculator. The image to the left shows a San Francisco Bay area commute with gas at $2/gallon. In this hypothetical scenario, the commuter saves $5645/year vs. traveling by car. Even this commuter decides to go from a 2 car to a single car household, another $11,000 in savings ensue.

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