High quality public transit consists of service sufficiently convenient and comfortable to attract travel that would otherwise be by automobile. This report uses data from U.S. cities to investigate the incremental costs and benefits of high quality transit service. It indicates that high quality public transit typically requires about $268 in additional subsidies and $104 in additional fares annually per capita, but provides vehicle, parking and road cost savings averaging $1,040 per capita... ...This indicates that residents should rationally support tax increases if needed to create high quality public transit systems in their communities.
Current planning practices tend to overlook or undervalue many of these savings and benefits and so result in underinvestment in transit quality improvements.
Download here (PDF 220KB) From Victoria Transport Institute, Victoria, BC, Canada