Transit Not Traffic News

Students Mark Regional “Transportation Freedom Day”

Residents in DC-Baltimore Region Save from Greater Access to Public Transit

College Park – Today students at the University of Maryland celebrated Transportation Freedom Day, the date by which a typical area household has earned enough income to cover its transportation costs for the year.

Americans on average spend an astounding 20 percent of their annual income on transportation, more than they pay for food or even health care. New findings released by the Maryland Public Interest Research Group show that a typical family in the DC-Baltimore region shells out the equivalent of more than two months of its annual salary to pay for transportation costs.  

“The cost of getting from place to place shouldn’t take such a huge slice of our pay check, especially in these tough times,” said Kristi Horvath, a policy associate at the Maryland Public Interest Research Group. “People may not recognize how much they pay for transportation, because they do so in dribs and drags. But when gas prices tip over $4 a gallon again, transportation will likely to become households’ biggest expense.”

Fortunately, many communities of Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties have Transportation Freedom Days that fall earlier than the regional average, which occurs today, March 10. The dates for Silver Spring, Greenbelt, New Carrollton, and College Park all occurred last week between March 5th and 8th.

“Maryland has a solid transit backbone in place, but our elected officials must continue to connect and extend that transit to provide more citizens with affordable and reliable commuting options,” said Horvath.

Last year, public transit ridership hit a 52-year high and has continued to grow even as volatile gas prices fell from their summer peak. Despite this surge, service at transit agencies across the country is threatened by state and local cutbacks due to the budget crises brought about by the economic downturn. In January, the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) reduced or eliminated service on a number of popular commuter buses and MARC lines, and WMATA is currently taking public comments on proposed cuts it plans to make in the coming months.

“Many students who move to this area rely on public transit if they don’t bring a car to school, but there are still lots of places we go that are hard to reach by bus or train. I’d like to think that students who come to this area in the future will have better transit than we have today,” said Gabe Kleinfeld, the Public Transportation Coordinator with the Maryland PIRG Student Chapter.

Transportation Freedom Day data comes from the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago, which is a leader in statistically based analysis of transportation and housing. Transportation costs are controlled for differences of income, family size, and number of working individuals in a household. Costs are calculated based on detailed census data on household expenses, including car ownership, maintenance, gas, parking and transit fares. A detailed description of cost methodology can be found at: http://htaindex.cnt.org/model_summary .

Transportation Freedom Day logo found at http://www.uspirg.org/transportation/freedom-day

Maryland PIRG is a nonpartisan, nonprofit citizens-based advocacy group  

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