Peak Oil Task Force Report - City of Bloomington - State of Indiana

11. Seek greater public investment in the transit system.
Only a public transit network that is easily accessible and offers high levels of service with
regard to speed, frequency, and quality of service can truly be considered a viable option
for people who can no longer afford automobile travel as fuel prices increase. A robust
transit system includes service at night and during weekends, dedicated bus lanes, bus
shelters, and good pedestrian access to bus stops. If the transit system requires a lot of time
to negotiate and is not available when people need it, its usefulness as a transportation
alternative will be very limited. The lack of robust, viable transportation alternatives will
result in more severe local economic disruptions.
Gas tax
About 20 percent of BT’s annual operating budget is comprised of federal dollars – largely
funds from the gas tax. Since 1993, approximately 18.4 cents of every gallon of gasoline is
levied by the federal government to pay for roads, bridges and transit. The link between
transit and the gas tax is problematic in at least two ways. First, the gas tax heavily favors
the construction of roads and bridges over transit as fully 80 percent of the tax is devoted
to roads and only 20 percent is dedicated to public transit. Therefore, the current system
favors road building over transit and actually encourages suburbanization and a low
population density that makes it difficult for BT to serve these areas. In a post‐peak future,
we know this is a problematic approach. Secondly, the tax itself is unstable. Decreased
demand for gasoline, as we experienced in the summer of 2008, causes gasoline revenue to
drop appreciably and transit suffers.
Funding
As INDOT recommended in its recent analysis of transit in Indiana, to reach levels of
service necessary to realize even modest increases in ridership, an increase in funding
must come from the local or regional level. 174 Local funding is critical considering that a
post‐peak environment will occasion both 1) increased demand for transit and 2)
decreased state and federal funding.
174 Indiana Department of Transportation, Executive Summary, Indiana Mass Transit Studies PL 203‐2007
(December 2008).
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