Chuck Holtman helps us out by pointing to the research of the Victoria Transportation Institute, which he believes is far more credible than most sources. It seems that they think an average external cost (that is, a cost that is paid by all) of driving vehicles in a metro area) is 60 cents per mile.
I guess that they live on another planet. Let's use that 60 cent figure and add it to the often-quoted AAA average cost of car ownership of 44 cents a mile. That's $1.04 per mile. Now let's look at the 1998 figures in the CTS study on the full cost of transportation in the Twin Cities. They cite an average household income of a little under $36,000 and a little over 1,000,000 households. That's a total income for the area of $36 billion a year. They also cite 26 billion vehicle miles travelled. That's an average of 24 thousand miles per household. That's high because of the commercial traffic, but we pay for a lot of that in our other purchases because it was necessary to transport all of the goods to various manufacturing or distribution points. At the $1.04 per vehicle mile, that's 75% of the total income produced in the area. Let's assume that the average cost of food ($350) and shelter ($650) per household is $1,000 per month. That's $12,000 per year. Therefore the average household has no more than $24,000 per year to spend on everything else: taxes, entertainment, travel, health care, and all of those other things your money goes for. If we use the $1.04 per vehicle mile figure and multiply it by the 26 billion, we get $27,040 per household to pay those vehicle costs. Anybody notice a shortage of money for all of those other things? Just in case anybody wants to argue for fewer miles travelled, on average, let's use 12,000 miles per household. But remember those other miles being travelled on your behalf. That would mean $13,520 per household for vehicle costs. That leaves $10,480 for everything else. According to the 1998 tax booklets, an income of $36,000 would have paid $2,754 in FICA and Medicare taxes, $2,300 in state income tax, and $4,300 in Federal tax. That's $9,354 in total taxes, leaving $1,126 (less than $100 per month) for everything else. Even if you were to assume that 60% of taxes were due to transportation (a joke), that would only increase the amount you had to spend on everything else by $3,741, giving you $405 per month for everything else. Visit www.effectivetransit.org The Independent Unsubsidized Voice of Citizens for Effective Transit in the Twin Cities * lrt isn't a potato chip, you can stop at just one * Bruce Gaarder Highland Park Saint Paul [EMAIL PROTECTED] TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
