Average Virginia commute hasn’t changed in 8 years, study finds

OmniRide buses that are used to take commuters from Prince William County to Washington. D.C. will continue to operate.

The transit system’s $56 million budget keeps commuter, and local buses running for the next year and includes a mixture of ride fare increases, service cuts, and administrative savings to include lower-than-budgeted diesel fuel costs. Overall, it’s good news for an agency that earlier this year faced a $9 million budget shortfall and discussed cost-saving measures like converting its commuter bus fleet to feeder buses only serving Metro stations.

Prince William County — the largest funder of OmniRide, because it has the most residents who use the service —  kicked in an additional $6 million in one-time funds to offset the budget shortfall this year. Next year, and for every year until 2021, the transit system will continue to face a $2.2 million budget shortfall, said Eric Marx, the interim director for the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission.

It will be up to local politicians a year from now make up that funding, or else the transit agency must look for more cuts or “cost savings.”

Overall, Virginian’s have become more “multi-modal” since 2007, according to a statewide travel study conducted by the Southeastern Institute of Reasearch and heralded by Virginia’s Department of Rail and Public Transportation.

The study found a six-percent decrease in single-driving commuting, meaning those to travel to work along in a car. Statewide, commuters still travel the same distances (about 37 miles one way) and spend the same amount of time (about 30 minutes one way) in 2015 as they did in 2007.

Fredericksburg commuters have the longest commute in the state traveling on average 60 miles round trip, spending an average of 90 minutes roundtrip commuting, according to the study.

The statewide numbers are important to OmniRide. However, the agency will soon begin its two-phase study that will examine how other localities across the nation fund their transit systems. The buses in our region are funded by state, and federal subsidies, and from a motor fuels tax fund reserve that built up when gas prices topped $4 a gallon six years ago but now is near depletion.

“Are they using gas taxes, or are they using meals taxes or some other form of funding? These are the things we will look at,” said Marx.

A second phase of the investigation will examine alternative transportation modes. Slugging, and the rise of ride share services like Uber and Lyft, and how they impact or offset transit services, has gotten the attention of transportation officials.