Rising Gas Prices Allow Public Transit Riders to Ring in the New Year with an Average Savings of $805 This Month and $9,656 Annually

The title of this post is the title of a bit of propaganda to be found here, on the website of The American Public Transportation Association. I ran across it in a SmartPlanet article.

The "methodology" section at the end of the article should really be called a disclaimer, as it's a section explaining how they came up with the most exaggerated results possible. Included is the statement "The savings assume a person in two-person household lives with one less car."


That's an interesting assumption, but one that needs more detail. In assuming the person switching to public transit gives up a car, you must make assumptions about what kind of car they've given up. Was it assumed to be a new car? According to the NADA (quoted by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in this article), the average price of a new car in the U.S. is $28,400. Spread out over 5 years at an excellent rate of 3.99%, not having a note on a car of that price would save a commuter $6274.80 in payments alone. Of course, they don't say what kind of car the commuter is not buying, but this would account for 2/3 of the supposed savings.

The savings includes the price of parking, but some who commented on SmartPlanet say that they have to pay for parking at the park-and-ride where they leave their cars each day. These are folks who ride public transportation because it is, indeed, easier than driving into the city each day, yet they save nothing on parking, and they don't get to "give up" a car. There may be an alternative for these folks, in that their spouses could take them to the train or bus station each day, but if there are children to take to school, or if their work schedules don't mesh well, the two-car solution may still be the only viable one.

That's not to say that it's impossible to give up one car and thereby save money. Both of my sons have done exactly this. One lives in Austin, where his wife normally uses the city bus to go to the university. The cost of that trip is hidden in her student fees. He's close enough to work take a bicycle when weather permits, so there is a potential for the car to be left at home many days. If a couple were to live within biking/walking distance from both of their daily commutes, they could leave public transit out of the picture, as well. I don't suppose that the public transit people really want you to consider that option, though.

Here's the thing: They're presenting a scenario for savings that's unlikely to apply to anybody. If a person can afford two cars that expensive, they're probably going to keep them. If they can only afford one car that expensive, then it's the older or less expensive car that's going to be sold, because you're likely to want to keep the better car. Such an exaggerated claim may get people to read the article, but most likely it will result in dismissal of the claim as simply pie-in-the-sky.