Posted on 06/29/2013 5:27:14 AM PDT by qwerty1234
Cote said the FRTA currently runs on a yearly budget of $3 million, which comes from state and federal governments, as well as local assessments to member towns and fare revenue, and that budget supports the services the authority offers at this point
Cote said the transit authority provided about 120,000 rides last year
(Excerpt) Read more at recorder.com ...
Think about it, most of these rides are, on average, short rides, and this government agency is spending $25.00 on average for each of them - jesus, a taxi would be cheaper......oh, and of course, its not enough - the costs are out of their control, and yes please give us more money.
“means the government is spending $25 PER RIDE.”
But to the low information voters, when the government pays for it is free.
Where is mass transit subsidized by those who don’t use it...EVERYWHERE! It is just another way to redistribute your wealth. In the WDC area, rides on Metro system for government “workers” are essentially gratis to them. Aside for the rush hours, the buses are mostly empty. The Metro system (buses and subway) mainly provide access for inner city ferals to roam the suburbs.
Is private competition with public legal there?
The Detroit bus company competes with the city. They have an interesting business model as well. They don’t have regular routes but they will pick you up at the nearest corner and they have a phone ap for people to track where the nearest bus is so they can flag them down. Their drivers make on the fly routing decisions so if they have an old lady with a couple bags of groceries, they take her right to her front door.
In figuring the 120,000 rides you can also assume that many/most people are using the buses 5 days a week for two trips (back and forth)
Assuming 100% commuter usage:
120,000 rides per year (250 business days) = 480 rides per day
Of those rides per day, if they are back-and-forth rides it comes to 240 users per day.
$3 Million divided by 250 business days = $12,000 per day to keep the buses running.
If the riders are pure commuters (back and forth) there are 240 users per day....it costs $50 a day per commuter.
($12,500 per year- per commuter)
They could rent a car for all of them and save money.
At $1000 per month you could buy it, insure it, fuel it and even give it a nice wash and wax.
A nice Lexus or BMW would suffice.
In the city near where I live, they are spending a fortune on public transportation but in the 40 plus years I’ve lived around here, I’ve yet to see a bus with even a fourth of the seats filled. It’s very common to see them completely empty. At best they have one or two passengers.
You are quite correct, it would be much cheaper to send them by taxi.
I have been on public transportation exactly one time in my entire life, that was on a city bus, in St. Louis, in 1963.
I’m betting that many here have similar experiences that I have. Yet, as tax payers, we pay for it.
Yeah I live in the are and the system is the “FRTA”
We like to call it “Free ride to Athol”
A good portion of the riders ride for free anyway. So you may have 120,000 riders that dosen’t mean you have a 120,000 payers.
So 25$ per per person may be on the low side.
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