Big Benefits for your Bucks [2 of 2]

A standard forty-foot transit bus can transport up to 75 people and would remove 20 to 50 cars from the road. One LRT car can carry up to 160 people and would remove 35 to 90 cars from the road. Public transit has the ability to transport people more efficiently and the potential to alleviate congestion and pollution problems as well as reduce many transportation related expenditures.
	Who's on the bus? Click on the picture to find out [Picture: Martin Parsons]

The public costs relating to car use are high at around 10 cents per passenger-kilometre; by contrast those related to transit are only around 1.4 cents per passenger-km. Greater "subsidization" is required to support automobile use than is needed to provide transit services.

In the well-developed, densely populated cities of the world where public transit does carry the greater percentage of journeys, the total cost of transportation usually does not exceed 6% of the GDP [gross domestic product], but it may easily exceed 14% in urban centres where the majority of journeys are made by car. While it is neither desirable nor possible to eliminate car use completely, providing quality alternatives that reduce car dependency makes sense.