Ditch one car—Save $6,514 a year

Phoenix, AZ (September 8, 2008)  Valley residents can save big bucks by taking public transportation instead of driving based on today’s gas prices in the metro area. The yearly cost of driving and owning a vehicle is $6,514 based on average mileage and trip length. By tacking on parking fees, the savings would be even greater.

“One household can benefit immensely from eliminating a car and taking public transportation instead,” said David A. Boggs, Valley Metro executive director. “It’s a quick way to save a lot of money, and helps clear the air as well as our streets and freeways.”

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) states that the annual average savings in the Valley is more than what one household in America spends on food for one year ($6,111*).

According to a statement released by the association this week, APTA’s monthly “Transit Savings Report” (publictransportation.org) shows how much a person can save on a monthly and yearly basis by taking public transportation and living with one less car in his or her household.

Goodyear residents, Jim and Ginny Boyle, have been riding Express bus Route 562 since its start-up on July 28. Although they used to carpool together to their separate work locations at Central and Thomas, they prefer the bus.

“We used to fill our gas tank weekly and now we save at least $150 every month, plus we are not stressed out when we get to work,” said Ginny Boyle. “To others I would say ‘give it a try’ because driving on the I-10 west is not much fun.”

Chandler resident, June Munson, began riding the Route 96 bus (Dobson Road) when it expanded its route in July. She switched from a car to the bus to not only save money, but also to help the environment and pack a little more exercise into her day.

Many other commuters in the metro Phoenix area have also caught on to the public transportation trend with express bus ridership up by 32.5% comparing June 2008 to June 2007. Measuring ridership system-wide, there were more than 59.8 million boardings on Valley Metro between July 2007 and June 2008, which is 3% higher than the previous year.

*According to the Food Institute

Valley Metro/RPTA is an organization of 14 local governments that provides or funds transit services to citizens in the greater Phoenix metropolitan and surrounding areas. For more information about Valley Metro public transit services, call Transit Information at (602) 253-5000; for callers with TTY (602) 261-8208; or visit the Valley Metro website at www.ValleyMetro.org.
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