saveTransit
(PTC is a member of this coalition seeking support for dedicated funding.)

PPTA
Pennsylvania Public Transit Association
(This is the organization of public transit agencies in Pennsylvania.)

Delware Valley Association of Rail Passengers
PTA
Pennsylvania Transportation Alliance
Works to ensure that accessible, affordable transportation is available to all PA citizens with disabilities

An alliance of groups like the PTC that are working together to fight for more funding for public transportation.

However, public transit is, like many other public goods, something that has to be subsidized if it is to provide the maximum benefit to everyone

·· An example of a public good is education. Even if you have no children, you benefit from publicly financed education. Educated children are more likely to hold good jobs, stay out of trouble, and pay taxes. And they provide the workforce that makes for more productive and valuable businesses. Indeed most historians of 19th century America argue that widespread public education contributed as much to the rise of the American economy as our large national market and natural resources.

· If parents had to pay all the costs of elementary and secondary education, many fewer children could afford an education. And we would all suffer as a result.

Public transit is another public good. Everyone benefits from public transportation, including those who never use it.

· Public transit reduces traffic and parking congestion. Imagine what the Expressway or I-95 or Lincoln Drive would look like during rush hour if the 300,000 workers who take SEPTA to work every had had to drive.

· Public transit dramatically reduces the costs of road maintenance and construction.

· Public transit contributes to economic efficiency and growth by making it possible for businesses to find workers with the appropriate skills and training.

· Public transit limits sprawl and associated costs of infrastructure development.

· Public transit dramatically reduces pollution. One bus removes forty cars from the roads, while one train removes 120 cars. And For every passenger mile traveled, public transit vehicles produce 95% less carbon monoxide, 92% fewer volatile organic compounds, and nearly half as much carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide as cars. Public transit uses about half the fuel of private autos, SUV’s and light trucks,

· Public transit enables students to go to the public and private elementary and secondary schools that best suit them. Almost 1/2 of Philadelphia Middle and High School students (totaling about 35,000 students) take SEPTA

· Public transit enables students to attend college in Philadelphia. Over 15,000 students commute by SEPTA to the 70 colleges and universities in the area.

If public transit were not subsidized it would be so expensive that very few people, if any, would use it. And all those people who do not use public transit would lose the benefits of it as well.

Public transit is also critical to social justice. It provides a critical mobility lifeline to people who cannot drive.. Senior citizens take more 95,000 trips each day on SEPTA. Five thousand individuals with disabilities also rely on SEPTA.

All Transit Is Subsidized

Critics of public transit often argue that it is the only form of transit that has to be publicly subsidized. But this is clearly not true.

Consider, for example, automobile travel. It is true that the gas tax pays for some of our roads and bridges. But travel by car also receives a substantial subsidy from our tax dollars: local roads are almost wholly paid by general revenues as are the costs of traffic signals and the police who watch our roads. Snow removal also is paid for by local revenues as are the costs of the police and medical services provided to the thousands involved in automobile accidents each year.

Travel by car also imposes very serious costs on all of us including the death and dismemberment caused by car accidents and the pollution spewn from the exhausts of cars. The tremendous waste of land for roads, parking lots and garages should not be forgotten either.

Airline travel is also heavily subsidized. The costs of our airports, air traffic control, and airline safety are paid out of our tax revenues.

People often assume that there is something wrong with public transit because our transit agencies run deficits that have to be covered by tax revenues.