Benefits of Our Transit
Want to be "green" and work towards greater sustainability to preserve our planet? Besides being environmentally-friendly, public transit makes good sense for a lot of good reasons.
Benefits of Public Transit
- Saves money. Public transit is far cheaper than owning, maintaining, and insuring a personal vehicle.
- Reduces fuel usage.
- Safer than a car. Riding the bus is more than 10 times safer than riding/driving in your personal car.
- Reduces traffic and congestion.
- Reduces vehicle emissions that destroy the ozone.
- Promotes economic development. "People ride public transit to either make money or spend money." -- Clark Harder, Executive Director, Michigan Public Transportation Association.
- Economic development.
- $1 invested in MAX generates $6 in economic returns.
- $1 million invested in MAX generates $3 million in NEW sales
- MAX’s $2.2 operating budget generates $7 million in new sales
- Transit systems are viewed as amenities, attracting homebuyers and businesses to a community.
- Quality of life and property values are generally higher in communities with public transit systems.
American Public Transit Association FACTS
Public Transportation Ridership:
Energy Conservation - Reducing National Dependence on Foreign Oil:
Individual Cost Savings:
Environmental Conservation:
- In 2006, Americans took 10.1 billion trips on public transportation, the highest ridership level in 49 years.
- 34 Million times each weekday, people board public transportation.
- From 1995-2006, public transportation ridership increased by 30 percent, a growth rate higher than the 12 percent increase in US population and higher than the 24 percent growth in use of the nation's highways over the same period.
Energy Conservation - Reducing National Dependence on Foreign Oil:
- Each year, public transportation use in the U.S. saves 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline. This represents almost 4 million gallons of gasoline per day.
- Public transportation use saves the equivalent of 300,000 fewer automobile fill-ups every day - 108 million fewer cars filling up annually.
- Each year, public transportation use saves the equivalent of 34 supertankers of oil, or a supertanker leaving the Middle East every 11 days.
- Each year, public transportation use saves the equivalent of 140,769 service station tanker truck trips clogging our streets.
- The typical public transit rider consumes, on average, one half of the oil consumed by an automobile rider.
Individual Cost Savings:
- Public transportation provides an affordable, and for many, necessary alternative to driving.
- Each year public transportation households save over $1,399 worth of gas.
- Transit availability can reduce the need for an additional car, a yearly expense of $6,251 in a household budget.
- The average household spends 18 cents per dollar on transportation, and 94 percent of this goes to buying, maintaining and operating cars.
- Americans living in areas served by public transportation save $18 billion annually in congestion costs.
Environmental Conservation:
- Public transportation use can help reduce pollution and promote cleaner air.
- Public transportation produces 95 percent less carbon monoxide (CO), 90 percent less in volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and nearly 50 percent less carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx), per passenger mile than private vehicles.
- Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions represent 82 percent of total U.S. man-made greenhouse emissions.
- By reducing smog-producing pollutants and greenhouse gases and by conserving ecologically sensitive lands and open spaces -- public transportation is helping to meet national air quality standards.