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Is public transit really cheaper?
Subway riders wait for a train near Times Square.
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TEXT OF STORY
Tess Vigeland: One common piece of advice you'll hear for cutting the household budget is to take public transit. Get out of your car and onto the bus. Or the subway. But in some areas, that financial rule doesn't cut it anymore. Because transit authorities are cutting service and raising fares.
From WNYC, Matthew Schuerman looks at how riders in New Jersey are coping with the new math.
Matthew Schuerman: The train station in Secaucus, New Jersey sits just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Thousands of suburban commuters pass every day through the sleek and modern station. Marlene Mascioli used to be one of those commuters. And she enjoyed riding the train.
Marlene Mascioli: I can read books, play crossword puzzles...
Schuerman: But Mascioli now drives to work. Why? This spring, New Jersey Transit announced it would hike fares by as much as 25 percent. Mascioli's a pharmaceutical consultant, and couldn't help but run the numbers. So she created an Excel spreadsheet to see if driving would be cheaper.
Mascioli: It really is pretty simple. I looked at the New Jersey Turnpike tolls...
Mascioli found out she'd save $34 a month by taking her car instead of the train.
Mascioli: I think 25 percent increase is just, it's just so unrealistic.
New Jersey is just a part of a growing trend. The American Public Transportation Association says that more than half of large transit agencies across the country have increased fares over the last two years.
Mascioli: So the train loses. Or I lose, I guess you can say, because I get to drive now an hour and a half each way.
Once Mascioli started driving to work, she reported, she actually liked it. Then again, Mascioli does a reverse commute and driving simply isn't an option for most New Jersey Transit customers. They commute into crowded, expensive Manhattan every day which is why the agency says more than 97 percent of its riders continue to take mass transit. People like Andy Cohen. He and his family moved to Madison, New Jersey two years ago.
Andy Cohen: The train goes right along this ridge.
Madison is an old-fashioned small town about 20 miles west of Manhattan. Cohen teaches film and video at a Quaker school in Brooklyn and his commute takes an hour and 20 minutes each way. Cohen says he's thought about driving.
Cohen: I have a colleague that lives nearby and we could commute, we could carpool and it would be cheaper for us.
But they figured, just one car accident, and those calculations would get thrown off anyway.
Cohen: The stress of driving back and forth to New York City everyday would do me in.
The fare hike by New Jersey Transit means Cohen now has to pay $620 more a year to get to and from work.
Cohen: It means that we'll be eating out less frequently than we are already eating out less frequently.
With an annual household income a little over $100,000 and a daughter in college, Cohen's taking a close look at his budget.
Cohen: I'm not going away this summer, I just need to save some money.
Because next fall, he'll be back on the train, a little less money in his wallet.
In New York, I'm Matthew Schuerman for Marketplace Money.
Clarification: The effective rise for reverse-commuters was actually 45%. There was previously a discount for off-peak (reverse commute) riders of about 20% which was eliminated, at the same time as the 25% rate hike. This is one of the reasons I stopped taking the train and started driving.
I use to take the bus to work here in denver for 5 years. It would take me two and a half hours each way. That is over 60 hours a month. after buying a car I was commuting half an hour each day. Commutingby bus added a week and a half for which I was not getting paid. It also meant I had little time with my family or activites with freinds. I counsel people who ask me about taking the bus to consider the price of their time. It may be more to your advantage to get a second job rather than commute by transit.
The story does not make clear if the commuter is computing the true cost of riding a car. That cost includes not only gasoline but maintenance, insurance, licensing, registration and purchase price allocated over the number of years of ownership. People who look at only gasoline costs and their gas mileage to compute trip costs are deluding themselves about the costs of operating an automobile as a form of transportation. Even this computation doesn't include hidden costs of tailpipe pollution on the environment.
I'm also in the NY Metro area. There are several factors to add to the discussion. (1) While mentioned, the piece downplays the sort of traffic congestion around the islands that comprise this area. Bridge delays of hours at a time are irregular, but not uncommon. (2) Gasoline is undertaxed and underpriced. Everything will get recalibrated again when fuel prices rise after the recession shocks are finished rejiggering the economy. (3) Lack of automation and union labor agreements (especially medical and pension subsidies) add to costs that would not be tolerated in most privately managed systems.
I am a New Jersey Senior, and my NJT fares are quite reasonable. For example I can ride from a parking lot a few miles from me to NYC for a total of $7.70, $7 for the train from Trenton and $.70 for the light rail line to Trenton. I can also take a bus from Phila to Penn Station for as little as $1 (plus $.50 reservation fee) on Megabus, but it is no where near as pleasant. The train is the best way to go. I hope they do not start to hike the senior rates any time soon.
