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The highway avoidance costs attributable to public transit systems are difficult to determine, because in a sense it requires proving a negative, which is impossible.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>I am most familiar with transit in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dallas</st1:place></st1:City>; in fact, I have looked at the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) 2007 statistics in depth, in large part because the transit agency gave me access to them.  <o:p></o:p>Approximately 45 per cent of the bus passengers, as well as 23 per cent of the light rail passengers, and 13 per cent of the commuter rail passengers, don't have access to a personal vehicle.  Public transit is their only option.  They have not taken any cars off the roadways.  Moreover, most of the people who ride the light rail and commuter rail systems use a personal vehicle to get to the station.  So they are only taking a vehicle off the road from the station to their final destination.  In parts of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex many of the users would drive the same distance as they would ride on the trains.<o:p></o:p>Approximately three per cent of Metroplex residents use any form of public transport.  Of course, the percentage of city dwellers, as opposed to suburbanites, using public transit tends to be higher.<o:p></o:p> DART is expanding its system with the <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Orange</st1:place></st1:City> and Green lines.  At the same time a new expressway is being built along the <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity River</st1:place>, and plans are under way to rebuild the down town Mixmaster. Public transit systems in large cities, especially rail systems, attract crime.  Heaps of it!  That is why every significant transit system in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> has its own police force.  Having a dedicated transit police force is supposedly more effective than relying on the community police force.  My former employer - I am retired - had a substantial police presence.  We called them security personnel or rent-a-cops when feeling derisive.  They were licensed to carry firearms.  And on one occasion they used them.  I worked for a large electric utility.  We had a major security presence at all of our power plants, mine sites, system control centers and major office facilities.  It was a major expense; it is an unfortunate sign of the times in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
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