GOAL 17: Increase the accessibility and efficiency of existing public transportation and transit systems.
INDICATOR: Cost per mile for MARTA and local transit systems
Why is this important?
By calculating operating costs per passenger mile traveled, we can get a sense of a public transit system's overall efficiency. Systems with lower costs per passenger mile are more economically efficient (though not necessarily the better run or more convenient for users).
How are we doing?
Transit systems' average operating costs per passenger mile vary with the number and frequency of riders - the more riders and trips, the lower the cost per mile. Transit systems with decreasing ridership usually experience rising costs per mile.
In the Atlanta region, MARTA -- the largest transit system, with both bus and rail - experienced somewhat larger costs-per-mile in 2003 than in 2002. Beset by funding difficulties, MARTA has cut back services and seen ridership decline over the past two years.
Three smaller transit systems begun in 2002 and 2003 now have cost-per-mile data - but the figures do not necessarily track ridership trends. For example, C-TRAN, which lost ridership after its start-up year, still managed to lower its costs by almost $1.00 per mile ($3.48 per mile in 2002, versus $2.53 in 2003.) Gwinnett County Transit, however, showed the most significant improvement: down from $7.44 per passenger mile in 2002 to only $3.95 in 2003.
Air Quality & Transportation
