Transit Users Save $9K Yearly
APTA
Individuals who ride public transportation save, on average, $9,968 annually, which is $831 per month, according to the American Public Transportation Association’s July Transit Savings Report.
These savings are based on the July 14, 2011 average national gas price ($3.66 per gallon- reported by AAA) and the national unreserved monthly parking rate.
The national average for a monthly unreserved parking space in a downtown business district is $155.22, according to the 2011 Colliers International Parking Rate Study. Over the course of a year, parking costs for a vehicle can amount to an average of $1,862.64.
APTA releases its monthly Transit Savings Report to examine how an individual in a two-person household can save money by taking public transportation and living with one less car.
EPA Study Finds Where You Live Matters More Than How You Live
Treehugger - Lloyd Alter
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirms in a new study prepared with the Jonathan Rose Companies that a home's location and access to transit -- in other words, its location efficiency -- are as important to reducing energy use as are energy-efficiency measures in homes and cars.
It also confirms the importance of housing type- that the single family home is an energy hog compared to row housing or multi-family housing.
This study illustrates two key points about the effect of compact, location efficient development on energy consumption:
1. A home's location relative to transportation choices has a large impact on energy consumption.
People who live in a more compact, transit-accessible area have more housing and transportation choices compared to those who live in spread-out developments where few or no transportation options exist besides driving.
Choosing to live in an area with transportation options not only reduces energy consumption, it also can result in significant savings on home energy and transportation costs.
2. Housing type is also a very significant determinant of energy consumption.
Fairly substantial differences are seen in detached versus attached homes, but the most striking difference is the variation in energy use between single-family detached homes and multifamily homes, due to the inherent efficiencies from more compact size and shared walls among units.
Moderate energy-efficient building technologies, such as those qualifying for Energy Star performance, also generate household energy savings that are notable but not as significant as the housing location and type.
Drive a Prius and insulate your single family home and you can cut your energy consumption by 34%. Go for an efficient multifamily home and car in a transit friendly area and you cut your energy 64%. The consumption in a multifamily residence in a transit oriented development is a quarter of the amount consumed by the single family detached house in a conventional suburban development.
So lets stop pretending that green suburban single family houses filled with Energy Star fridges are going to make much of a difference at all. The big gains are made in a systemic change.
The data shows what we have to do: GET URBAN AND GET TRANSIT.
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Calculate Your Carbon Reduction and Fuel Savings by Using Public Transportation Instead of Driving
APTA
The carbon reduction calculator will help you estimate the potential reduction of carbon dioxide emissions you can achieve by switching part or all of your travel to public transportation.
The fuel savings calculator lets you compare the price of using public transportation with the price of paying at the pump and then parking your car in town. This calculator has been set with default values based on national averages for April 2009; however, you may set variables such as the price of gas and the length of the round trip to match the price of gas in your area and the length of your round trip.
Report Says Without Public Transit, Travelers Would Have Suffered 785 Million Hours of Delay on our Roads
DelDOT Public Relations
The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) released its highly regarded congestion report, 2010 Urban Mobility Report, which looked at road congestion in 439 United States urban areas.
As in past years, the data overwhelmingly shows the importance of public transportation in relieving congestion. In fact, the improved methodology of the report indicates that public transportation has an even greater role in reducing congestion than previously thought.
The 2010 Urban Mobility Report makes clear that without public transportation services, travelers would have suffered an additional 785 million hours of delay and consumed 640 million more gallons of fuel.
Had there been no public transportation service available in the 439 urban areas studied, congestion costs for 2009 would have risen by nearly $19 billion from $115 to $134 billion.
There is no doubt that expanding public transportation use is the key to reducing traffic congestion, said American Public Transportation Association (APTA) President William Millar. Clearly, even if you do not ride public transportation, it is still in your best interest to support investment in public transit. Better public transportation in your community means less congestion on the roads.
In addition to its proven record of reducing congestion, public transportation offers economic benefits. Public transportation plays an important role in helping people commute to work; nearly 60 percent of all trips on public transportation involve travel to and from job sites. Also, every $1 billion invested in public transportation creates and supports 36,000 jobs.
U.S. public transportation use also produces significant energy-savings benefits. Each year 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline are saved because our citizens use public transportation.
The Report ranks the Philadelphia-DE-NJ-MD area as 7th out the 35 top urban areas in the nation that had the highest savings in hours of delay due to public transportation use in 2009.
In the Philadelphia-DE-NJ-MD area the hours saved totaled 26,377,522 and gallons of fuel saved were 18,954,700. The total congestion cost savings from public transportation use in Philadelphia-DE-NJ-MD area is $633,001,381. |
