I used to complain about public transit being doubly cost ineffective. The fees charged to riders didn’t do much to support the cost of running the buses, but the fees were still more expensive than the equivalent gasoline cost, assuming a rider had a car that has pretty standard fuel efficiency.
Guess what? My commute is now cheaper if I take the bus, even if I were to pay full fare instead of using my employer-sponsored bus pass.
Here’s the math. These calculations assume I paid $3.39/gallon in gas (the price I last paid at the pump), and that I was getting 31 mpg (my usual mileage in my ’96 Camry).
- Driving, my commute is 30.9 miles each way. That’s 2 x (30.9 miles x $3.39 per gallon ÷ 31 mpg), a total cost of $6.76 every day.
- Using the park-and-ride, I drive 6.4 miles from my house to the bus station. I walk or bike from the stop to my office. That’s 2 x ($2.50 in bus fare + 6.4 miles x $3.39 per gallon ÷ 31 mpg), a total cost of $6.40 every day.
- Because my employer pays for my bus pass, the park-and-ride’s actual cost to me is $1.40 every day.
- Or, because I like working in differences, riding the bus saves me $5.36 every single day. That’s $26.80 a week, or $107.20 every month. Over the course of the six months this job lasts (ah, grant funded positions), riding the bus has the potential to save me almost $650.
- Even if I carpooled with one other person (I drove every other day), and even if I assume I didn’t have to drive out of my way at all to do so, riding the bus would still be almost $3 cheaper per day. Insanity.
Yay simple math. I was inspired to take a break from reading lots of transportation statistics and cost-benefit fact sheets and run the numbers (my new job is doing some education and outreach for a clean transportation group, so I’m spending a lot of time familiarizing myself with our existing literature). Perhaps I’ll be back later with the more complex emissions comparison, if I feel inspired.
