1 year later: transit stimulus projects creating more jobs

Gap is growing

Steve Hawley, Feb 18, 10.

One year after the stimulus bill was signed, transit projects are still creating more jobs per dollar of spending than highway projects, according to Smart Growth America. In fact, the gap between transit projects and highway projects has been growing.

The organization notes:

Other recent data also confirm that ARRA investments in public transportation are superior job creators. Last month’s President’s Council of Economic Advisers Second Quarterly ARRA Economic Impact Report showed that public transportation was the top job generator among ARRA clean energy programs. ...

“The new data shows that the job productivity of transit is no fluke – transit not only maintained its job productivity advantage over highway investing over a longer period of time, in the fourth quarter it was the top job supporter of all clean energy investments in ARRA, according to the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors,” said Scott Bernstein, President of the Center for Neighborhood Technology. “Shifting as much of our transportation spending to the most job-creating investments as we can is essential. The Senate should pass companion legislation to the House’s Jobs for Main Street bill, and make it effective by giving transit spending parity with highways.”

About two months ago, Smart Growth America, along with the US Public Interest Research Group and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, found that transit stimulus projects created 16,149 job-months per billion dollars, compared to just 8,781 job-months for highway projects, a difference of 7,368 job-months. The data included everything through October 31.

The gap was even wider in Texas, where transit contracts created 38,317 job-months compared to just 7,596 job-months for highways - a five-fold difference. Smart Growth America stated that the current highway-transit split in the state, which significantly favors highways, had reduced the drop in employment by 6.8 percent, but that a balanced 50-50 apportionment would have reduced the drop in employment by 14.5 percent.

The new data, which goes through December 31, shows that transit projects have now created 19,299 job-months per billion dollars versus 10,493 job-months for highway projects, a difference of 8,806 job-months. It does not include state-by-state information. Highway projects have created more total jobs, however, because highways received far more stimulus money than transit projects. According to the statistics, highway stimulus projects created 186,350 job-months last year, while transit projects created 93,733 job-months. Smart Growth America states, “Because transportation projects are of different durations, a ‘job month’ is a more accurate way of comparing quantities of employment created than is a ‘job year.’”

Smart Growth America, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, the US Public Interest Research Group, and Transportation for America are calling for more balanced highway and transit funding levels in the upcoming jobs bill, which passed the House in December and is currently before the Senate. However, Transportation for America reports that the Senate version does not include any money specifically for transit.