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RFTA wants to embark on a major transit expansion plan over the seventeen year period from 2009 to 2025. Total capital costs of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan are in the range of $180 to $190 million, and annual operating expenses are projected to more than double, from a current $20 million or so to about $40 million.1
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Currently, total transit expenditures for RFTA and Snowmass Village averages about $31 million per year2
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We rank #3 in the nation for per capita transit operating expenditures, behind New York and San Francisco.3
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If the population of the RFTA service area was a single city, it would have ranked as the 479th largest in the United States in the 2000 US Census. In 2006, area transit service ranked as the 119th largest bus based system in the United States.3
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Mass transit is not cost effective, in large part because not enough of our trips fit the limited-purpose service that transit can provide. Consequently, private companies are unable to offer this service. This is why mass transit is a government program supported with tax dollars.4
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Between 1997 and 2007, RFTA operating expenses increased by 130%. Population in the RFTA service area grew by 38%. RFTA ridership grew by 21%.1
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RFTA is still using the same consultant that claimed a BRT system would increase valley ridership by 176% in five years!!!5
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The reduction in vehicle trips resulting from RFTA and Snowmass Village bus services is probably not less than 2 percent, but is most certainly not more than 4 percent. It therefore costs somewhere between $8 million and $15 million per year for every one percent reduction in vehicle trips.2
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The Federal Highway Administration estimates that 1.6 gallons of fuel is wasted for every vehicle hour of traffic delay. Current policy is to preserve congestion at the Entrance to Aspen to create a travel time advantage for buses. This wasted fuel offsets RFTA energy savings down to an amount comparable to one or two days of total regional fuel consumption.2
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It costs RFTA about $35.26 for every gallon of saved fuel, before accounting for the wasted fuel mentioned above.6
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RFTA is a Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). An RTA is a tax district which can plan for, propose, and fund projects related to “any highway, road, street, bus system, railroad, airport, gondola system, or mass transit system”. RFTA does not have to limit itself to mass transit projects.7
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Both RFTA and Pitkin County have rejected efforts to allow taxpayers to use the initiative petition process to propose highway based transportation projects.8
1Discussing Mass Transit Part V – What is RFTA Proposing?
2Part IV – Cost vs. Benefit
3Part II – How Much is Enough?
4Discussing Mass Transit Part I – Who is Served?
5Part III – Who’s Minding the Store?
6Comment on Part IV – Cost vs. Benefit
7Transportation Planning – Discussing Mass Transit (In Context)
8Transportation Funding