A study done by Parsons-Binckeroff for the Sound Transit board shows that a mass transit expansion will pay for itself in increased local economic growth within about 15 years of completion. After that time the benefits would continue to pile up for a century or more.
From the press release:
These are the key findings of a benefit-cost analysis prepared for Sound Transit and released to its Board today. The Board currently is considering options for Sound Transit system expansion. Benefit-cost analysis of projects costing more than $100 million is required by the Puget Sound Regional Council as it reviews conformity with the regional transportation plan, a state mandate.
“This confirms that investing in mass transit makes sense for the bottom line," said Greg Nickels, Sound Transit Board Chair and Seattle Mayor. “By expanding Sound Transit and giving people more alternatives to sitting in traffic, we'll save both time and money."
The impacts of new transit on travel patterns in the region were assessed in five categories:
· number of new transit riders,
· travel time savings for new and existing travel riders,
· savings in vehicle (highway) miles traveled due to new transit riders,
· paid parking saved for new transit riders,
· reduction in delay caused by traffic congestion.
Benefits-cost analysis is an economic tool used to measure the relative difference between the benefits and costs of projects or investments. Public investments generating benefit-cost ratios greater than one-to-one, or more than break even, are considered justifiable.
The study’s methodology is modeled upon state-of-the-art, conservative assumptions for U.S. transit investments. It compares expanding transit with taking no action. Anticipated regional population growth will cause significantly more congestion on existing highways by 2030. The study finds that expanding the rail system will yield significant mobility benefits, resulting in time savings of between 13 million and 34 million vehicle-hours from reduced vehicle delay per year, depending on the expansion option.
Let's go to the ballot in 2008!
4 comments:
Reprinting Sound Transit propaganda as usual.
^ I love anti-ST comments like the one above; 100% criticism and no constructive ideas. But what he really meant to say was "I don't like Sound Transit, and since there's no other game in town, I'm just going to whine about it and throw little jibes in here and there to make me look cool."
It is a press release, yes. But the study was done by a third party, and reading it as objectively as I can, it seems to take very conservative estimates for ridership, lower than even Sound Transit's own estimates.
It's worth noting that nearly every other city that has deployed rail in recent memory has seen higher than expected ridership.
Runnerodb83,
People like to “credit” the Seattle Process with this regions inability to get anything done. However, IMHO it’s not really the Seattle Process that is holding us back as much as it is this region’s penchant for valuing the opinion of curmudgeons more than the opinion of experts.
Take a stroll through local history: Emmet Watson, Charlie Chong, I-41 & 53, etc, etc. Whereas other cities seem to value the “can do” attitude of strong government and big business, this city seems to have accepted our inability to get things done and instead replaced “accomplishment” with “entertainment.” I.e., we would rather be entertained by the pithy comments of a curmudgeon then work to overcome some of the very difficult problems we currently face.
Think about it.
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