Full paper: The Costs of Transportation
SEATTLE—More than $21 billion a year is spent on transportation in the four-county central Puget Sound region, but only $1.7 billion actually goes to maintaining and improving our region's transportation system and services, according to research just released by the Puget Sound Regional Council.
The vast majority -- more than $18 billion -- is spent by citizens and businesses to use the transportation system, covering everything from the costs of buying, operating and insuring autos, to moving freight and goods.
The Costs of Transportation, a report prepared by the Regional Council's Transportation Pricing Task Force, analyzes "Expenditures on Surface Transportation in the Central Puget Sound Region for 1995." Among the major findings in the 37-page report:
The region spent more than $21 billion on transportation in 1995, equal to more than 25 percent of total regional personal income, and an average of more than $7,000 for every man, woman and child in the region.
Of the $21 billion total, public expenditures on transportation -- by cities and counties, transit agencies, school districts, the state, and other units of government -- were $1.7 billion, or only 8 percent of the total.
Private expenditures totaled more than $18 billion, including $13 billion to pay for costs associated with automobile ownership, operations, and parking costs.
More than $5 billion -- 24 percent of the total -- was spent on costs associated with moving freight and goods within the region by rail or truck.
Less than three percent of all transportation spending was on transit and ferries, while about four percent of total regional travel was on transit and ferries.
King County Councilmember Maggi Fimia, chair of the Transportation Pricing Task Force, said "the number of miles we drive has been growing four times as fast as our population. By the year 2020, with our population increased by 1.1 million people, congestion is expected to increase by 125 percent if current trends continue."
She said the current way we pay for transportation is difficult to see and understand for most people, and as a result, travel choices are generally made without much consideration for what they actually cost. She said the study provides valuable information for policymakers, businesses, citizens -- anyone concerned about the current state of our transportation system, and what should be done to improve it.
The research by the Regional Council is similar to other studies done nationally and internationally to document the total costs of transportation, but is the first effort of its kind focused on the four-county region covering King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties. Fimia noted that the Council's findings are more conservative than results from other studies, because some hard-to-quantify costs included in other studies were not included in this effort; these include costs associated with global warming, land values, national security necessary to protect fuel supplies and other costs.
Still, the results present a staggering picture that few people may realize -- we're spending huge amounts, nearly all on auto travel, and paying the price, to the tune of more than $680 million a year for the costs of congestion, nearly $270 million for the costs of air pollution, and nearly $100 million more for other environmental impacts.
"We took extraordinary pains to avoid double counting," said Renton City Councilmember Bob Edwards, a member of the Task Force. "It was not done as a research paper with an agenda. This is more in the nature of a set of facts, with rigorous accounting, and we think it's really intellectually honest.
"Different people will have different interpretations. What this does is lay a foundation for further discussions about how to improve our transportation system."
The report was a followup to the Regional Council's adoption of the 1995 Metropolitan Transportation Plan, which looked at the current state of our transportation system and the potential costs associated with trying to meet the escalating demand for travel, which would require financial resources far beyond what would be available based on existing resources. The MTP suggested that the region should look at ways to influence demand for travel, and the Regional Council`s Transportation Policy Board Chair, Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel, created the Transportation Pricing Task Force to look at options for establishing a more direct relationship between how people use the transportation system and how they pay for it.
The first step was this report, which was the product of about nine months of research and review, and which was presented to and adopted unanimously by the Regional Council's Transportation Policy Board at its meeting Thursday (Oct.10) in Seattle. The Task Force will now begin work on a second research paper that will look at what the region is getting for the current expenditures it is making, and whether and what kind of changes in spending might be considered.
The Regional Council is the federal- and state-designated transportation and growth management planning agency for King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties. The Regional Council includes 60 cities and towns, the four counties, the Ports of Everett, Seattle, and Tacoma, and the Washington State Department of Transportation and Transportation Commission. The General Assembly includes all mayors, councilmembers and commissioners, and representatives of the member agencies.
Copies of The Costs of Transportation are available through the Regional Council Information Center at (206) 464-7532.