At What Cost?

Car drivers are only paying the direct costs of operating their vehicles, but we’re all paying the rest of the price: congestion, pollution, and road maintenance.

The average car will spill 34.4 Kg of hydrocarbons a year, 4029.3 Kg of carbon dioxide (C02), and 29.6 Kg of nitrogen oxides (Nox). Multiply the emissions by each of the over 12 million cars in Canada, and you begin to grasp the magnitude of the problem. Six of the seven major air pollutants come from cars and light trucks.

• The average car emits 4 tons of pollutants each year.
  
  
• Fossil fuel consumption is expected to rise 40 percent over the next 25 years.
  
  
• The average cost to keep a car on the road in 2002 was $8,000.
  
  
• Canadian families are budgeting more for transportation than groceries.
  
  
• The average North American works 27 hours per month to keep their car on the road.
  
  
• The number of automobiles on Canada's roadways has more than doubled over the past 20 years. 
  
  
• The cost to purchase a Transit Windsor adult pass for one year is approximately $940.
  
  
• International studies have found that cities with strong transit systems require significantly lower total public and private spending on transportation and were able to divert saved money to other public priorities, such as health care, education and tax cuts.
  
  
• 49 percent of Canadians believe public transit should be improved and expanded.
  
  
• Canada remains the only G7 country without substantial direct federal investment in public transit.
  
  
• The United States Federal Government provides assistance to states and municipalities through a multi-year transit investment program worth up to $7 billion US per year.