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Public Transportation—The Bottom Line
The Value of Public Transportation
An efficient, safe, and environmentally sound public transportation system is essential to moving people in both rural and urban areas, and is an important part of the nation’s multimodal transportation system. The nation’s public transportation network is essential to the economy. It connects workers to jobs and employers to labor markets. Public transportation also provides basic mobility options for the economically challenged, the young, the elderly, and physically challenged individuals with disabilities, in urban areas, small towns, and rural areas. Public transportation also plays a significant role in state and national efforts to mitigate traffic congestion, conserve fuel, enhance the efficiency of highway transportation, address air quality issues, and support security and emergency preparedness activities.
In 2007, 10.3 billion passenger trips were provided by the nation’s public transportation systems. In some of the nation’s largest cities, public transportation carries from 12.2 percent to over 53 percent of all work trips originating in central cities, and is an essential link between these CBDs and the rest of the region. This table identifies the 15 cities in the United States with the highest levels of workers using public transportation.
With the United States projected to experience significant population and employment growth in coming decades, with the aging of the population, and with continued issues of greenhouse gases and energy supplies and prices, the demand for public transportation services is projected to continue to increase.
Public Transportation Services and Ridership
Public transportation services are available in 450 urbanized areas. In every state, public transportation provides service to rural residents, elderly individuals, and physically challenged individuals with disabilities. There are:
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729 public transportation service providers in urbanized areas;
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1,217 public transportation service providers in rural areas; and
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4,836 public transportation service providers to the elderly and persons with physical challenges, across both urban and rural areas.
The return on Federal, state, and local investment is clear. Public transportation ridership has increased substantially over the last decade. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) reports that, since the mid-1990s, public transportation ridership in the nation has grown 32 percent (from 7.8 billion trips annually in 1995 to 10.3 billion trips in 2007). Fifty-nine percent of all public transportation trips in the nation are work related—significantly supporting the country’s economic growth and vitality.
Although public transportation is commonly associated with the nation’s major urban-area subway or commuter-rail systems, approximately 59 percent of all public transportation trips in the United States are provided by buses. The remaining public transportation trips are made on other types of public transportation, including commuter rail (four percent), light rail (four percent), demand responsive services (one percent), and others, including automated guideways and ferries.
On December 8, 2008, APTA announced that, during the third quarter of 2008, there had been a 6.5 percent jump in transit ridership over the same period in 2007. They reported that ridership growth in 2007 and 2008 was spurred in large part by record high gas prices. In contrast, they reported that Americans drove 4.4 percent less or almost 11 billion fewer miles in September 2008, compared with September 2007.
Compared to the 10.3 billion ridership APTA reports that transit achieved in 2007, what that 6.5 percent increase means is that transit ridership for 2008 may have reached the 11 billion mark. If transit passenger miles increased at a parallel rate, compared to the 52 billion miles traveled in 2006, passenger miles traveled in 2008 could be estimated to have reached nearly 58 billion. In contrast, highway vehicle miles traveled (VMT) declined from 3 trillion in 2006 to 2.9 trillion in late 2008. Even though highway travel growth is expected to begin to increase again once the current economic crisis has passed, the more transit ridership can be increased, and the more person trips that can be shifted from cars to transit, the more transit can help reduce congestion, especially in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, which have the most extensive transit systems.
Public Transportation Capital Assets
Urban Bus Systems
The nation’s public transportation bus fleet is approximately 70,000 vehicles. There are currently over 400 providers of traditional bus services and over 400 providers of paratransit service in urbanized areas. The average age of the bus fleet and the percentage of overage vehicles indicate that public transportation systems nationwide have not been able to keep pace with investment needs for vehicle replacement.
Urban Rail Systems
In many large and mid-sized cities across the country, fixed-guideway rail operations play a significant role in providing public transportation service. Today, services are provided by 72 urban public rail systems, with nearly 11,000 track miles and almost 3,000 stations in revenue service. The number of rail systems, track miles, and stations are shown here by type of system (heavy rail, light rail, commuter rail, and other rail). There are now more than 19,000 vehicles in the existing rail transit fleet, as shown in the table below. Parallel to the issues associated with the nation’s bus fleet, the average age and percentage of overage rail rolling stock are indicators that public transportation systems have not been able to keep pace with their expected replacement cycle.
Other Urban Public Transportation Assets
In addition to the bus and rail vehicles discussed in the previous two sections, the nation’s urban public transportation systems consist of a wide variety of nonrevenue vehicle assets. Unlike vehicles, the expected life cycles for these assets are generally quite long. The table below shows that the service life for other assets ranges from 25 years for ferries to 96 years for guideway elements. Ten percent of nonrevenue vehicle assets are estimated to have exceeded their expected service life as defined for this analysis. In addition to the existing backlog of assets eligible for replacement, another six percent of nonrevenue vehicle assets will reach the age of their expected life. In total, 16 percent of nonrevenue vehicle assets are overage or reach the age of their expected life during the next six years.
Rural Public Transportation Systems
Typically, rural public transportation systems are quite small, with only a handful of employees and a limited number of vehicles. The primary source of data used here was a 2000 study on the Status of Rural Public Transportation regarding the rural public transportation systems funded by FTA. That study identified approximately 22,000 vehicles engaged in the provision of rural general public transportation service through the Section 5311 program.
The most recent inventory of Section 5310 providers and vehicles was conducted in 1994 by the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) under the Rural Transportation Assistance Program (RTAP). Based on this study, about 19,200 vehicles were estimated to serve nonurbanized areas in 1994. Based on the observed increase in rural public transportation service provided between 1989 and 1994 (an increase in fleet size of 37 percent), an increase in the total fleet size from 1994 to 2004 of more than 70 percent was assumed. This resulted in a total year 2004 estimated fleet size of approximately 33,000 vehicles. Based on information obtained from private intercity bus operators, it is estimated that there are approximately 1,700 vehicles eligible to receive Section 5311(f) funding. The total current rural public transportation fleet is, thus, estimated to be approximately 56,700 vehicles.
Assuming a service life of five years for vans, seven years for small buses, and 10 years for medium buses, an estimated 55 percent of the existing fleet has already exceeded their expected FTA recommended service life; and within the next six years, almost all of the nation’s rural public transportation vehicles will need to be replaced.
Types of Public Transportation System Expansion Needs
Addressing the public transportation needs associated with the projected growth in ridership over the next 20 years will require significant capital investment in system expansion, in addition to the investments needed just to replace existing assets. This section summarizes the public transportation system expansion needs necessary to accommodate continuing ridership growth.
Capacity and Core Capacity Improvements
In many of the nation’s largest cities, public transportation ridership has significantly increased over the past several years. As a result, some existing rail systems are operating near to or in excess of their physical capacity, and above a level that provides acceptable passenger comfort and safety. Without significant capital investment to expand the core capacity of these systems, it is likely that some public transportation systems will be unable to address growing demands—potentially resulting in shifts of people from overburdened public transportation systems to the use of the urban areas’ already congested highway networks. “Core capacity” is defined here as those improvements that are required to provide sufficient capacity at the major points of constraint on public transportation system capacity. Core capacity constraints are equivalent to bottlenecks on major highway corridors or on rail freight systems.
This issue is emerging primarily in some of the largest urban rail systems in the country, such as Washington, DC, and New York City. Since this is an emerging issue, public transportation systems are exploring ways to address these specific capacity constraints and are just beginning to develop detailed cost estimates of needed capital infrastructure investment to address the topic of core capacity.
New Starts Program Improvements
In addition to the expansion of existing systems, ridership growth will also be accommodated through the introduction of new systems or new public transportation modes within existing systems. Many metropolitan areas across the country have recently completed or are pursuing major fixed-guideway public transportation capital improvements. Between 1996 and 2006, more than 460 miles of fixed-guideway public transportation service were added in 26 cities.
Rural Public Transportation
Rural public transportation needs are much more difficult to define on a national basis than urban public transportation needs. Many rural areas do not currently have any public transportation service; and in those areas with service, the quality and coverage of service are not consistent. Service may be limited to only a few days a week, to only a few hours in the day, or to only very limited service areas. In contrast to urban public transportation systems, very limited data are available on public transportation ridership, trends in service provision, or growth in ridership.
Alternative Fuels and Technology Enhancements
There is increasing attention on issues of technology and alternative fuels that are likely to affect capital and operating costs. Similarly, a number of public transportation systems are exploring approaches to improve the quality of traveler information, system management, and fare collection. Enhancements are often designed to improve the quality and reliability of service. Alternative fuel vehicles are also increasing rapidly in response to environmental concerns, such as global climate change, and are expected to reach about 20 percent of the fleet by 2007.
Security Enhancements
Public transportation systems across the country are also facing increasing needs associated with improving the security of systems. Although system-by-system estimates are not available, a recent study conducted by APTA, Survey of United States Transit System Security Needs and Funding Priorities (2004), estimates that total capital needs for security enhancements are in the range of $5.2 billion. These needs should be included in a comprehensive summary of all needs, in addition to the traditional capital needs that are estimated here.
