Well, let’s see…

My commute from Kirkwood to Fenton is 7 miles one way. My car gets 30 MPG. Parking is free. A bus ticket is, what, $1.75 now? (We’ll assume for the sake of argument that there’s a reasonable route from Kirkwood to Fenton in the first place.)

So according to the calculator on that site:

“Your yearly cost of commuting by car: $ 375.09
Your yearly cost of commuting by public transportation: $ 840.00″

Hmmmmmmm.

According to that site, I won’t start saving money with public transportation until gas gets to $6.15/gallon.

And did this factor in the taxes we all pay to keep public transit running? Gas may get close to that 6.15/gallon with Obama taxing the crudola out of oil companies, gas station owners and motorists.

Kyralessa,

It may be better to use the IRS estimate of .65 (I think? Could be wrong?) cents per mile to calculate the wear and tear on your car rather than just gas costs. I believe the IRS calculation includes the estimated cost of gas. Your estimate of just gas costs does not include your car payment (most people have one) as well.

Well Kyralessa, a single bus ticket is $1.75, but a Metro monthly pass is only $30. And saying that gas prices are the only expense you pay with a car is awfully shortsighted.

Aside from gas, there is the actual cost of an automobile, the auto insurance, paying for its general maintenance, paying for any problems (flat tires, new batteries, accidents), paying for new tags and inspections, and of course, the personal property tax we have to pay every year.

Unfortunately, with the state of public transportation in the area, there doesn’t appear to be a time in the near future where we will be able to forego auto ownership.

Be of good cheer, Boomer. If you’re serious about getting out of your car as much as possible, you can take transit into account when you decide where to live. Along major bus routes or near MetroLink stations is always a good place to be. I moved to Oregon for three years and sold my car before I went, so I just made sure I rented along the major bus routes and had no problem getting around town. Those flex cars are great for weekend trips, too, and there’s always the old-fashioned bumming-a-ride-from-friends!

Hm, I would be interested to know if that takes into account the “real” cost of transit, too - infrastructure and individual tax burden. But one of the problems with these kinds of comparisons is that there are so many factors to weigh: For instance, how beneficial is transit to your region? If you wouldn’t have a job without transit, that’s got to be taken into the calculation! How fuel-efficient is your car? How many people do you ride with? There are all kinds of ways to minimize transportation expenses, and there are all kinds of reasons to support public transit even if it doesn’t personally save you money. But it’s a nice thought exercise anyway.

If you read the article at http://www.publictransportation.org at the very end it says one of the assumptions is that a household gives up one automobile. Like that is going to happen.

Kyralessa - It does say average person. That would imply that some people save more, some less. Clearly, you’re on the less side. But think about how much less traffic you might encounter if more people who would benefit more were to switch to public transportation. Of course, that is pretty moot with public transportation options getting slashed and reduced around here.

Think - if you want to get into taxes supporting transit, then you should also include taxes supporting roads. Gas taxes only support state roads. Most roads belong to cities, counties, and neighborhoods and are funded through other mechanism - i.e., property taxes and sales taxes.

Actually, a Metro monthly pass is $60, not $30–still a bargain compared to a car at 65 cents per mile. But since St. Louis County voters did not approve Prop M, public transit is likely to become more expensive at the same time it offers less service. There is lots of blame to go around here–a perfect storm of chronic underfunding, managerial brinksmanship, dire warnings from Metro that sounded more like threats than constructive solutions, and a NIMBY mentality, all at a time when ridership was at record highs. But even well-funded transit systems are facing the same problems–the CTA (Chicago) is on life-support, and the NYC transit system is facing fare increases and service cuts. When gas goes up again, as it will, our public transportation systems will be in no position to help out. The irony is that Metro was trying to save taxpayers money by not requesting more public funding to build the Cross-County extension. We thus have one of the best light rail systems in the country that next year won’t even be running at night. “Can do” for all of us has become more like “can’t be bothered.”

While public transportation isn’t practical for my commute, I’ve saved a lot of gas in the past few months by riding an electric scooter to work and back.

I started this while I was working downtown. Obviously the commute is shorter when I’m just going to Fenton. It doubles my commute time, but it’s a nice feeling to get to work and back without burning a drop of gas.

Unfortunately, MODOT is so unfriendly to any vehicles smaller than cars that most people just aren’t going to use this commuting method. It’s impossible to get to Fenton from Kirkwood, for instance, except by taking 141 (a bit scary on my 24 MPH scooter, especially since 141 has no shoulder) or by going far out of the way to take Gravois Rd.

Public transportation isn’t always practical given the flexible schedules many people work these days. More practical would be for people to take small electric vehicles or bicycles. But for that to happen, MODOT will have to seriously change its policies to start building roads that account for such vehicles.