Key facts:
- For every dollar collected in fares from transit riders, the average transit system in America requires more than $2 from taxpayers for operating subsidies plus more than $1 for capital improvements and maintenance.
- In 2008, the federal government collected about $1.11 billion in user fees from North Carolina highway users but returned only $656 million to the state for highways.
- Adding the federal, state, and local numbers together, North Carolina highways users paid about $203 million more user fees than was spent on roads in 2007.
- North Carolina highway users are subsidizing other programs at the rate of slightly more than a penny per passenger mile. The total cost of driving in North Carolina is no more than 22 cents per passenger mile.
- By comparison, the state average cost of public transit is $1.15 per passenger mile, nearly $1 of which is subsidized by non-transit users.
- Annual capital costs and depreciation add another $71 million to the cost of running North Carolina transit. Taxpayers lose $249 million per year on transit systems in a dozen NC cities.
- Bus transit costs taxpayers an average of 85 cents a passenger mile. Subsidies to the Charlotte light rail are several times greater. North Carolina transit riders pay an average of 72 cents every time they board a bus, while taxpayers pay an average of more than $3 to support that trip.
- Driving is more energy efficient and produces less carbon emissions than almost any transit system in North Carolina.
- Currently transit agencies have incentives from Congress to choose high-cost forms of transit. Changing those will make it easier for agencies to allow such reforms as smaller vehicles, contracting out, jitneys, privatization, and vouchers.
