Flutterby™! : Transit notes

A bit of what I'm talking about:

Center For Transportation Excellence says in their page meant to rebut critics that

The Federal Transit Administration’s 1999 National Transit Database [link elided 'cause it's 404] shows an average operating cost per passenger mile on light rail of 45¢, compared to 55¢ on buses.

So as of 1999 buses cost as much per mile to operate as automobiles do in 2009 in stop-and-go traffic. Since 20% of that automobile cost is fuel, if you get a car that's twice as efficient as the average of 22.6 MPG (not counting trucks!), which could just be a new car, your operating costs are inline with a train.

So you can argue about subsidies, but as soon as you start to do that you see something like that CFTE page making statements like:

Approximately 40 million Americans, nearly 20% of the population, use transit on a regular basis. [vii] On the federal level, transit receives approximately 20% of available transportation funds.

apples, meet oranges.

I'm having trouble tracking down simple numbers on construction of rail per mile costs vs road per mile, and really that's the wrong metric, the numbers need to be about road per mile costs. Which means, of course, that I'm back to the same apples and oranges that others are complaining about.

I know that there has to have been some deeper thinking on this, but in light of all of the shouting by the various advocacy groups I'm having a hell of a time finding it.