Jarrett Walker, in Human Transit (and many other places) has said “Frequency is Freedom”, the title of Chapter 8. He also summarizes Chapter 1 ‘What Transit Is and Does’ as “This chapter defines transit and its role in the city compared to other transport modes, and proposes the concept of personal mobility, a measurable freedom, as transit’s most fundamental product.” We encourage you to read Human Transit, for all its concepts, but in particular these two chapters. No one should be sitting on a transit board, of SacRT, or any transit agency anywhere, without having read Human Transit. It is available from Island Press and many other sources. This is the revised (or 2nd, 2024) edition, but you can often find used copies of the first edition (2011) at a low price from typical used book sources.
STAR strongly supports the concept for ‘frequency is freedom’, while recognizing that the balance between transit frequency and coverage is a political one that elected officials must determine.
But we go beyond ‘frequency is freedom’ to say ‘transit is freedom‘.
Funds invested: At the federal level, 20% of transportation funds in the ‘highway’ trust fund go to transit and rail. At the state level, it is about 8%. At the local level, it ranges from 0% to 10%. In Measure A transportation sales tax, about 1/3 goes to transit, but this is only a part of expenditures on transportation. There is a strange idea that freeways are a public good and paid for by gas taxes (far from true, it is less than 50%), while transit is a public subsidy. In fact, roadway expenditures are as much of a subsidy to road builders and car manufacturers as they are to drivers.
Cost to the user: AAA estimates the average annual cost of car ownership as $9,282, though many suggest that this number is too low. Regular users of transit spend $1000-2000 annually on transit, while heavy users, people who take most trips on transit, spend $2000-3000. So owning a motor vehicle, or several, as many people do, is three to five times as expensive as using transit. The average motorist drives about 13,500 miles per year. Private motor vehicles average $47,000 new, and used $27,000, with electric vehicles averaging $61,000. The cost of a vehicle puts it out of reach for many, many people. Low income people often have to settle for a very used vehicle that may break down before it is even paid for.
Vehicle life: Buses last 12-15 years, or about 500,000 miles, and light rail vehicles last about 25-35 years, with a mid-life overhaul. Private motor vehicles are usually sold by 8.5 years, and may last up to 12.5 years, on average.
Land use patterns: Private motor vehicles demand a lot of space, to store and to use. Garages in homes and condos, and parking lots in multi-family developments, are expensive, raising the price of mortgage or rent by at least 15%, and often more. Many streets are twice as wide as they need to be in order to accommodate on-street parking, which is then offered for free or well below market rates. Structured parking (multi-level garages) are incredibly expensive to build, and cities almost never recover the cost of the structure from parking fees. Because private motor vehicles require an huge buffer space when traveling in order to be safe, roads and freeways must be wide to accommodate what is really a small amount of capacity. So the space occupied by parked and moving private vehicles pushes everything further apart, and induces more driving to reach those further destinations. Most of the suburbs were built with the idea that everyone would drive everywhere to reach the jobs and amenities they need, and are nearly unlivable for people who don’t have that option. The further away things are, the bigger the requirement to drive, and the more people drive, the further away things are, in an endless downward spiral.
Who doesn’t drive: Everything above constitutes an active bias against those who can’t or don’t drive. See ‘When Driving is Not an Option‘ on Week Without Driving Sacramento. There are people too young to drive, under the age of 16. This means most students. If we consign students to the back seat of their parent’s car, they will not learn independence, responsible decision making, the pattern of their city, and the actions they can take to make their transportation system work better. Same for people too old to drive, both those who have admitted it, and others whose diminished driving skills are a danger to themselves and everyone else. Some people decide not to drive, for many reasons, including the environmental impact of cars and roads, and resistance to supporting the worldview and profits of multi-national corporations. And just because they are committed to supporting walkable places. And then there are people who lose their driving privilege for a period of time, due to health issues, drunk driving, incarceration, and repairs they can’t afford. Anna Zivarts estimates that at least 1/3 of people can’t or don’t drive. Yet most of our transportation expenditures go to the 2/3 that do.
Freedom? The car manufacturers present driving a car as the epitome of freedom. The freedom of the open road is a mythology promoted by nearly every car advertisement you have ever seen. You don’t see advertisements with people stuck in traffic. But for the above reasons and many others, cars are only freedom for those who can afford them, and those who drive in remote areas rather than the congestion of cities. The polite term for this is ‘car dependency’ but it can be seen as ‘car hegemony‘, the dominance of the idea of private motor vehicles over all other ideas and all other options.
The benefits: The benefits of private motor vehicles to some people can’t be denied. Cars get people to places they can’t get on transit, or walking or bicycling, particularly the mountains and areas for camping and exploration. Cars allow last minute decisions about trips, while transit definitely requires planning and more travel time, particularly in places with marginal transit coverage and frequency such as the Sacramento region. Cars and trucks are convenient for carrying loads (though that is not what they are used for most of the time). Cars provide status, as in, I can afford this fancy vehicle, so I’m better than the average person.
The writer of this post, Dan Allison, has been car-free for 14 years (my time in Sacramento), and car-lite for about 5 years before that. I travel by transit, by bicycle, and by foot. On rare occasions, I catch rides with friends or hitchhike, but as my friends can attest, I will often refuse a ride when there is a transit option.
Yes, transit takes planning ahead of time, in most places. In San Francisco, I don’t usually need to plan because transit coverage and frequency is great. Same for Seattle. To a lesser degree, other cities I visit including Portland, Los Angeles (yes, even Los Angeles!), Salt Lake City, and Denver. It also takes time. Buses make a lot of stops, and though ‘rapid’ buses stop less often, it still adds up. And buses get stuck in traffic, just as do private vehicles, unless there are dedicated bus facilities (BRT) or red transit-only lanes (again, San Francisco). Buses are usually slower than cars. Light rail is a bit slower than cars, depending on the degree of separation from street traffic. Subways are of course faster than car trips (BART in the bay area and the two subways in Los Angeles), and the underground portions of light rail (Los Angeles, Seattle) are fast. I am fortunate in being retired and having the time to plan trips and the time to make them on transit. Or even better, when I have the time, walking and bicycling.
Many people with cars assume that people without cars must be stuck at home most of the time. That is true for some people with disabilities who can’t use or can’t afford other options. But it is definitely not true for most car-free or car-lite people. I travel in California and the west coast more than anyone I know,, except for people who travel regular for work (and paid for by work). Capitol Corridor, the train between Sacramento and the Bay Area, is a common mode. I use light rail and buses to get around the Sacramento area. I just got back from a trip to southern California on the San Joaquins trains and buses, and while there used light rail extensively. I get around the Bay Area on bus and light rail and subway, including BART, SF Muni, AC Transit, Golden Gate Transit, Marin Transit, SMART, and many others. I use bike share where it is available, or take my folding bike. And I walk a lot. I have a tremendous amount of freedom, because of transit. I feel that I am significantly more free than most owners of cars.
Perhaps most significantly, if I had a car, too much of my income would go to that expense. I’d not be able to do all the traveling and diverse activities I do, backpacking, theatre, dancing, museums, visiting relatives and friends, just enjoying my life. As I have often said, if I had a car, I’d be living in it, because I could not afford a car and rent. So I don’t own a car, and I do pay rent, and I do use transit. And that is real freedom.
Sacramento Transit Advocates and Riders (STAR) 