Can anyone answer the question: How many people ride the transit? Is there a DOT report that gives this information?

According to the OFM the total transportation dollars spent every two years in Washington State is $7 billion. So if I-745 is approved, $700 million would go to transit with another $400 million comming from the federal government. That makes a grand total of $1.1 billion dollars spent every two years.

I would like to know how many people use transit so that the number of tax dollars spent per person can be determined.

Craig, Can you provide the information and back it up with a reference to a research report?

Eve

-- Eve (Pekewood@aol.com), July 25, 2000

Answers

to Eve: How much of the annual federal money is for vanpools? Vanpooling probably accounts for around 10,000 people.

If you go to the Metro (King County) web site, and snoop around, they claim the fares (plus other sources; whatever that means) is around 80 million dollars. So, you might deduce that King County moves 100,000 people a day. Of course, you might deduce the number is 50,000 people.

If King County gets half the money in the state budget, then the annual state subsidy is in the $1500-2000 per person range, assuming 100,000 riders. Of course, if you assume 50,000 riders, then the subsidy is in the $3000-$4000 range, close enough to make payments on cars for the riders! And this does not include any federal money.

So, assuming the most flattering numbers for transit, transit agencies would still receive a subsidy of around $1500 per rider under I-745. Doesn't sound too unfair.

Bottom line: I-745 is not intended to accomplish anything. It's a meaningless piece of paper.

-- Matthew M. Warren (mattinsky@msn.com), July 26, 2000.

Eve- "Can anyone answer the question: How many people ride the transit? Is there a DOT report that gives this information? " Sure! The USDOT Transit administration requires all but the smallest systems to report their ridership annually. Here if I've done the HTML tags right.

More locally, the King County Office of Regional Policy and Planning has benchmark reports that track what percentage of people use transit for their commuting and what the total annual number of unlinked trips (one-way rides) is. They are available here.

Wha t the latter shows is that in 1999, transit accounted for 5.7% of travel and averaged about 48 one-way trips per year per resident. The last figures available for transit mode share of the work trips was in the 1990 census when it was 9%.

I must give you one word of caution about DOT data (and all transit data). They report unlinked trips which means they assume each boarding is unconnected with other boardings. Someone who took a bus to a point where they took a transfer to another bus to work downtown, rode the no-fare shuttle twice on their lunch hour to go to the spaghetti factory, and then rode the same route home, would generate 6 transit trips. Similarly, someone who parked at a park n ride and took the free bus to the Husky game would generate 2 trips. I'm not saying that's bad or unfair, just want everyone to understand the rules.

An avid transit user who also went to Mariner, Husky, Seahawk, and Sonics games could pretty easily generate 1500 unlinked trips a year, all by themself. Currently a typical Metro bus ride costs about $3.30, a trolley ride about half of that. Sound Transit costs considerably more. Last numbers I saw indicated that the average passenger receives about a $5.40 subsidy per trip above what the fare is. Plus the cost of the roads they ride on, of course. That is not included in the Metro or Sound Transit budget.

Anything else I can help with?

-- Craig Carson (craigcar@crosswinds.net), July 27, 2000.

Craig: You site a subsidy of $5.40 per trip. Is this round trip or each way?

If it is round trip, and we assume 250 work days in a year, then the annual subsidy per rider is in the $1300-$1400 range. If it is one way, then the annual subsidy would be approximately $2700.

By the way, Eve, the annual subsidy for a vanpool rider is approximately $600. Therefore, if the transit agencies were committed to the highest standards of ethics and morality, they would actively recruit passengers out of buses and into vanpools.

-- Matthew M. Warren (mattinsky@msn.com), July 27, 2000.

All values are for unlinked (one-way, and counting each leg if there is a transfer) trips.

Starts to add up to real money. doesn't it?

-- (craigcar@crosswinds.net), July 28, 2000.