Drop the Second Car and Save with Public Transport

May 11th, 2012 by Joshua S Hill

A new report from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) outlines the huge savings possible by swapping from driving to public transport.

According to the APTA May Transit Savings Report, “individuals who ride public transportation instead of driving can save, on average, $823 this month, and $9,880 annually.”

The report takes into consideration the costs of owning and operating a car, as well as aspects like the amount it costs to park a car.

“These savings are based on the cost of commuting by public transportation compared to the cost of owning and driving a vehicle which includes the May 9, 2012 average national gas price ($3.75 per gallon — reported by AAA) and the national unreserved monthly parking rate.”

The top 20 cities with the highest transit ridership are ranked in order of their transit savings based on the purchase of a monthly public transit pass and factoring in local gas prices for May 9, 2012 and the local monthly unreserved parking rate.

	City	Monthly	Annual
1.	New York	$1,209	$14,508
2.	Boston	$1,104	$13,248
3.	San Francisco	$1,084	$13,013
4.	Chicago	$988	$11,853
5.	Seattle	$984	$11,810
6.	Philadelphia	$977	$11,728
7.	Honolulu	$945	$11,339
8.	Los Angeles	$916	$10,987
9.	San Diego	$875	$10,502
10.	Portland	$874	$10,483
11.	Minneapolis	$872	$10,470
12.	Denver	$851	$10,208
13.	Baltimore	$844	$10,131
14.	Washington, DC	$819	$9,825
15.	Pittsburgh	$805	$9,664
16.	Cleveland	$803	$9,635
17.	Miami	$778	$9,332
18.	Atlanta	$771	$9,252
19.	Dallas	$763	$9,158
20.	Las Vegas	$759	$9,103

Source: American Public Transportation Association
Image Source: Benson Kua

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Tags: costs, public transport, report, savings

About the Author

Joshua S Hill I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

JouBaur

This article is just flat out wrong!
it would take 5 hours to ride transit instead of 1 hour in my car, and it would cost me $5 more per day than driving.
If my life was worthless, I guess I could ride transit, otherwise, no chance!
- Bob_Wallace
  
  Here’s what the article said –
  
  ““individuals who ride public transportation instead of driving can save, on average, $823 this month, and $9,880 annually.”
  
  It said “on average”. It did not say “JouBaur could ride public transportation instead of driving….”.
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