(Even) More On the Job Benefits of Transit
Posted September 8, 2010 in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
Perhaps it's what Donald Rumsfeld would call a "known known," but one must never skip the opportunity to tout convenient truths, even if one already has (twice).
This time, it's the Transportation Equity Network that has commissioned a report from the University of Missouri-St Louis' Public Policy Research Center, entitled More Transit = More Jobs. What the report analyzes is 1) how many jobs would be gained if each metropolitan area shifted 50% of the money it spent on highways to transit; and 2) how many jobs would be created if Federal funding matched the proposal put forward by Transportation for America (of which NRDC's a member)
The team analyzed 20 metropolitan areas across the US, including two in California. Consistent with my California focus, I'll stick with those (the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego).
Results? In a word: "good." In a few more...
If the San Francisco Bay Area (which, as a percentage of total transportation spending, already spends above the national average on transit) were to shift 50% of its highway dollars to transit, we'd see a net increase of 23,264 jobs over five years. That's more than 20,000 just by shifting around money we're already committed to spending (i.e. No New Money!). In San Diego, you're looking at 18,180 more jobs.
If T4A's reauthorization proposal (somehow) made it through Congress and got signed by the President, the Bay Area's set to get 43,464 additional jobs and San Diego, 30,528.
Now, of course, the precision of these numbers (four hundred and sixty-four jobs) masks the fact that we cannot always be so sure of what will happen. Indeed, some road investments actually help transit by creating more reliable rights-of-way and reducing vehicle damage.
Nevertheless, these results simply confirm the general direction of what many many others have laid out: for job creation, transit's simply the superior investment.
It also helps that transit is safer, better for the environment, good for your health, helpful to the poor and reduces oil imports. But you knew that already.
