The Game Box

Oddly enough, for my prior work usage, driving a private car was CHEAPER than
taking the bus to work every day. I'm including all costs - including the purchase
price of the auto, repair costs, and gas. A bus pass runs about $20 a week, whilst
the drive was very short (and the car very cheap). This didn't apply to me, because
work paid for the bus pass, but it's shocking to think that one person driving a
(not terribly efficient) car could get by more cheaply than taking public transit.

Something seems very wrong.

Other costs too: insurance, parking. Here in Lower Canuckistan it's very expensive to own and maintain a car. Our horrendous potholes don't help.

Insurance was counted in. I paid very little. AZ is cheap if you basically don't drive.

I was in the car for maybe 10 mins a day. Tiny little drive - but the walk to and from
the bus (which took about the same amount of time) was 40 mins. Free parking.

Getting in an accident probably changed the economics though. Insurance would have
gone up, and repairs were going to be a pain.

With a flat bus fee, a person like you, who was only going a short distance, was subsidizing all the people who were utilizing the bus to travel much farther. With that particular pricing scheme and those particular circumstances the outcome seems about right.

I guess. I just feel like I'm often subsidizing huge empty buses more
than I am actual transportation.

Some of the routes have infrequent, and not terribly well filled buses.
Wish they could use smaller vans, more often. But, it is likely that
the driver is too large an expense; and they need the bigger bus for
a couple trips a day.

Usually it's taxpayers doing the subsiding if there are a lot of empty busses.