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Portland is a PR machine for light rail & streetcar

Here are Some Facts About Portland Oregon          

“It must always be remembered how cost-effectiveness works in the public sector: the cost IS the benefit.” - author unknown




Operating cost:

We base this on the AAA cost of driving which gives the cost of driving a car per mile for several different car types and annual mileage. The stated costs are per vehicle-mile, while transit data is usually per passenger-mile (after all the goal is to move people, not vehicles!)


The AAA  Driving Costs 2010.pdf states (page 7) the operating cost of the “average” car is 16.74 cents per vehicle mile


The TRANSPORTATION ENERGY DATA BOOK: EDITION 29,  fig. 8.1, says the average USA car has 1.59 people in it.


Since the average car carries 1.59 people, simple division gives the cost per passenger-mile:


16.74 / 1.57 = 10.66 cents/passenger-mile. Rounded off to $0.11 cents/passenger-mile.



Cost Comparison of Cars & Transit

Cost of Transit & Cars (per passenger-mile)

mode

operating cost

capital cost

total

Automobile (1.57 people/car)

$0.11

$0.14

$0.25

light rail

$0.52

$0.86

$1.38

transit bus

$0.85

$0.16

$1.01

Transit from National Transit Database see http://www.portlandfacts.com/top10bus.html

automobile based on AAA data adjusted to match actual USA car age - see .portlandfacts.com/aaa_cost.html

Cost of Cars Used in Above Chart

Capital Cost: From: The AAA publication at

http://www.aaapublicaffairs.com/Assets/Files/201048935480.Driving Costs 2010.pdf


The AAA Driving Costs 2010.pdf  states on page 3:

Depreciation is based on the difference between new-vehicle purchase price and estimated trade-in value at the end of five years.

...

Finance Costs are based on a five-year loan at 6 percent interest with a 10 percent down payment. The loan amount includes taxes and the first year’s license fees, both computed on a national average basis.


Therefore the average car in the AAA study is 2.5 years old compared to the national average of 10.6 years (table 3.9). This accounts for almost all of the difference between the AAA cost of driving and the actual USA cost of driving. (And the IRS cost because the IRS appears to use the AAA number.)


Here is the AAA chart of “ownership” costs with our added right hand column being the average USA cost from above (“AAA number” in the USA Avg. column means we used the AAA number):


AAA average ownership costs:.....................................AAA......................USA Avg.

full-coverage insurance................................................$1,031..................$1,031 (the AAA number)*

license, registration, taxes...........................................  $585.....................$585 (the AAA number)*

depreciation (15,000 miles annually).............................$3,554..................$1,388 (actual cost)**

finance charge............................................................. $806........................$0 (in above)***

TOTAL......................................................................$5,976..................$3,424

at 15,000 miles/year:

Fixed costs.....(divide total by 15,000)...........................39.8   cents/mi............22.8 cents/mi

Cost per Passenger-mile (divide by 1.59)....................25.0 cents/mi............14.34 cents/mi


* the cost of both insurance and license, registration and taxes for the average car would be less than the AAA number, so using the AAA number here will make our USA average cost of driving higher that the actual real cost.

** Actual household car purchase expense $2,776 (calculated from Table 8.3 - see above) divided by 2 to get cost per car since there are two cars per household.

*** Finance charge is assumed to be in the vehicle purchase cost. Data from TRANSPORTATION ENERGY DATA BOOK: EDITION 29  Table 8.3:  

Cost of Transit Used in Above Chart

Notes, Data sources, and calculations data same as motor bus



NTD Table Contents

( For the data, go to http://204.68.195.57/ntdprogram/data.htm (select RY 2007 Database (Self-extracting xls)   

Data is in 27 files, this one file combines the important data:  http://ti.org/NTD07sum.xls)

 Table 1: Summary of Operating Funds Applied

Table 2: Directly Generated Sources for Transit Operating Funds Applied

Table 3: Federal Government Sources for Transit Operating Funds Applied

Table 4: State Taxes Dedicated at their Source for Transit Operating Funds Applied

Table 5: Local Taxes Dedicated at their Source for Transit Operating Funds Applied

Table 6: Directly Generated Taxes Dedicated at their Source for Transit Operating Funds Applied

Table 7: Transit Capital Funds Applied - Summary and Federal Sources

Table 8: State Taxes Dedicated at their Source for Transit Capital Funds Applied

Table 9: Local Taxes Dedicated at their Source for Transit Capital Funds Applied

Table 10: Directly Generated Taxes Dedicated at their Source for Transit Capital Funds Applied

Table 11: Capital Funds Applied by Type of Expenditure

Table 12  Transit Operating Expenses by Mode, Type of Service and Function

Table 13: Transit Operating Expenses by Mode, Type of Service and Object Class

Table 14: Transit Operating Expenses by Mode and Object Class - Single Mode Bus Transit Agencies

Table 15: Operators' Wages

Table 16: Revenue Vehicle Maintenance Performance - Directly Operated Service

Table 17: Energy Consumption

Table 18: Employee Work Hours and Employee Counts - Directly Operated Service

Table 19: Transit Operating Statistics: Service Supplied and Consumed

Table 20: Transit Operating Statistics: Service Supplied and Consumed - Train Statistics - Rail Modes

Table 21: Passenger Stations

Table 22: Maintenance Facilities

Table 23: Transit Way Mileage - Rail Modes

Table 24: Transit Way Mileage  - Non-Rail Modes

Table 25: Age Distribution of Active Vehicle Inventory

Table 26: Fares per Passenger and Recovery Ratio

Table 27: Service Supplied and Consumed Ratios

City

Total system

Passenger- miles

000s

Avera ge trip length

(PM/ Trip)

People/

Vehicle

(PM/V RM)

Vehicle Capacity

Operati ng cost/

trip

Operatin g$/Mile

Fare

/trip

Total Cost/

Passen ger-mile

Operating Cost/

passenger-mile

BTU/

Passenger-mile

Auto MPG to  Match  Rail BTU/pm


1.3/Car   1.57/Car

Los Angeles

291,158

7.0

33.5

144.0

3.49

16.63

0.50

$1.38

$0.50

3158

30.2

25.0

San Diego

207,727

5.9

26.2

185.2

1.59

7.05

0.78

$0.42

$0.27

2065

46.2

38.2

Portland, OR

186,541

5.2

28.4

165.4

2.04

11.22

0.81

$1.11

$0.39

2387

40

33.1

Boston, MA

176,196

2.5

30.7

243.2

1.72

20.99

0.93

$1.24

$0.68

3023

31.5

26.1

Dallas, TX

138,867

7.8

26.6

186.0

4.46

15.28

0.52

$3.06

$0.57

4433

21.5

17.8

St. Louis, MO

137,439

6.3

22.2

178.0

2.36

8.30

0.78

$0.90

$0.37

2684

35.5

29.4

Denver, CO

119,750

6.4

13.7

184.0

2.17

4.64

0.96

$1.39

$0.34

3829

24.9

20.6

San Francisco,

106,543

2.6

21.0

200.5

2.96

24.36

0.60

$1.98

$1.16

4843

19.7

16.3

Salt Lake City,

82,248

5.1

29.2

124.0

1.61

9.29

0.45

$1.34

$0.32

2614

36.5

30.2

Sacramento

78,760

5.4

19.1

232.4

3.27

11.49

0.85

$0.97

$0.60

4677

20.4

16.9

Averages

152,522

5.42

25.06

184.3

$2.57

$12.93

$0.72

$1.38

$0.52

3371

28.3

23.4

Top Ten Light Rail Agencies   (by annual passenger-miles)

Light rail costs an average of $0.52 per passenger-mile and $138 including capital cost based on the average of the nation’s 10 largest light rail systems:

Download printable version of this page (PDF)

NOTES:



All Data is from this bus file and this light rail file which was excerpted from   http://ti.org/NTD07sum.xls  which combines data from the many separate files of the National Transit Database at http://204.68.195.57/ntdprogram/data.htm (select RY 2007 Database (Self-extracting xls)  

We used

Data sources used by data table:




Calculated data:




For more data see: Table 2.13, TRANSPORTATION ENERGY DATA BOOK: EDITION 27–2008


City

Total system

Passenger- miles

Average trip length

(PM/Tri)

People/

Vehicle

(PM/V RM)

Vehicle Capacity

Operati ng cost/

trip

Operating $/Mile

Fare/tr ip

Total Cost/

Passeng er-mile

Operati ng Cost/

passeng er-mile

BTU/

Passeng er-mile

Auto MPG to  Match Bus BTU/pm


1.3/car     1.57/car

New York, NY

1,812,108,125

2.1

17.9

81.7

2.43

20.65

0.90

1.26

1.15

3222

29.6

24.5

Los Angeles, CA

1,491,338,894

3.7

17.5

53.8

2.15

10.04

0.61

0.68

0.58

3649

26.1

21.6

Newark, NJ

920,864,038

6.1

13.5

69.2

4.20

9.34

1.79

0.82

0.69

3446

27.7

22.9

Chicago, IL

762,277,885

2.5

11.2

77.6

2.82

12.76

0.85

1.38

1.14

4590

20.8

17.2

Philadelphia,

476,535,831

2.8

11.9

81.3

2.77

11.81

0.89

1.05

0.99

4634

20.6

17.0

Seattle, WA

463,901,941

5.4

14.8

63.3

3.99

10.99

0.75

0.88

0.74

3041

31.4

26.0

Miami, FL

427,626,902

5.1

12.0

78.3

3.83

8.96

0.85

0.98

0.75

4186

22.8

18.9

Washington, DC

410,761,850

3.1

10.7

60.1

3.66

12.51

0.80

1.33

1.17

5189

18.4

15.2

Houston, TX

397,539,383

5.7

13.0

67.7

3.27

7.41

0.56

0.89

0.57

3575

26.7

22.1

Minneapolis, MN

303,491,661

4.5

13.2

66.3

3.20

9.42

0.99

0.88

0.72

3223

29.6

24.5

Averages

746,644,651

4.10

13.55

69.9

3.23

11.39

0.90

1.01

0.85

3876

24.6

20.4














Portland, OR

223265805

3.5

9.9

57.1

3.27

9.22

0.71

0.94

0.93

3619

26.4

21.8

Vancouver, WA

25849236

4.7

6.7

51.5

4.31

6.17

0.97

1.34

0.92

4701

20.3

16.8

Top Ten  Bus Agencies (by annual passenger-miles)

Buses cost an average of $0.85 per passenger-mile and $1.01 including capital cost based on the average of the nation’s 10 largest bus systems: