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Cost of driving
Our present transportation system with an overdependence on automobiles is extraordinarily expensive. Transportation is the second largest expense for American households, ahead of food, clothing and health care. The price of a gallon of gasoline adjusted for inflation jumped 55% between 1990 and 2007. And it has been going up even more in 2008.
Residents of areas with robust transit spend approximately 10% of their income on transportation as compared to as much as 25% of their income for residents in auto dependent areas. Gas and car prices that are rising make these disparities likely to get worse. Both transit and highway users are subsidized from the true cost of transportation. In 2005 federal, state, and local governments spent $39 billion in non-user fee revenue on highways, accounting for more than one fourth of the total spending. And the “total” does not include externalities of health care costs from pollution and accidents. A study indicates that just these externalities would add $2.00 to the cost of gasoline if highway users truly wanted to pay for all costs of highways without subsidies. In Wisconsin local governments spend $1.29 billion in non-user fees on highways, considerably more than the $110,000 million spent on transit.
We need to balance our transportation investments. Since the late 1950s, there has been a tremendous imbalance in our expenditures with an underinvestment in transit. Even a modest shift in investment would reduce gasoline consumption and carbon emissions.
Americans are beginning to understand that transit investment is important. Improving public transit and building communities that require less driving is embraced as the best solution by 75% of the people over 21% believing that building new roads is the best solution. In a recent Dane County survey, 65% specifically said the region should have commuter rail as proposed by the County Executive and the Mayor of Madison. “Construction of new parking facilities in downtown areas convenient to users cannot keep pace with demand at reasonable prices and in sufficient supply. Alternative transportation methods will help soften this demand/supply picture and improve parking availability downtown.”
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