Re:American Maglev
by potatolicious on Friday March 27, 2009 @09:05AM
(#535003)
What are the continued operating costs, though, from both the government and users? When I lived in Toronto I could have an all-access unlimited subway pass for $100 a month, that's $1200 a year.
If I commuted by car I would've personally paid a hell of a lot more for the privilege. The up-front cost of the infrastructure is not the only consideration...
> What are the continued operating costs [?] ... When I lived in Toronto I could have an all-access unlimited subway pass for $100 a month,
This does not speak to operating costs.
Mass transit fairs are usually subsidized from general tax revenues - user fees usually cover something like 10-25% of actual costs.
Re:American Maglev
by potatolicious on Friday March 27, 2009 @09:25AM
(#535028)
Right, this I'm aware of - so I'd be interested in seeing someone do some numbers on the real costs of highways vs. mass transit.
Last time I ran the numbers the US highway system costs around 3$/gallon of gas used on the highway system. So, double your gas costs, then add all the other costs and you can approximate the "net" cost of your commute.
Re:American Maglev
by potatolicious on Friday March 27, 2009 @12:48PM
(#535350)
It's more than your gas cost, though - there are other things like maintenance, amortized cost of car ownership, insurance, etc.
You don't just pay for gas, you pay for the car to put it in.
That would imply that the US has several trillion dollars invested in its highway system, correct? Does that number pass the smell test to you?
Wiki reports that our ~45,000 mile interstate highway system cost about 425 billion, or a hair under $10 million a mile, in 2006 dollars. That's under a twentieth of what the LA transit folks are quoting. (I think they're doing creative accounting by reclassifying part of construction as operating expenses, which is a frequent trick in this field, but I've got nothing to back that up.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System