Smart transportation creates more jobs

Repairs > new roads

Jon Boyd, Sep 20, 10.

Smart transportation investments, like prioritizing road repairs over adding road capacity, employs more workers per transportation dollar, according to Smart Growth America:

Repair work generates 16% more jobs than new construction, and those jobs are more likely to lead to long term employment. Public transportation projects are even better at creating jobs because they spend less money on land and more on labor, and because projects are often more complex, whether laying track or manufacturing vehicles.

Smart transportation also relates to investments in other modes. Dollar for dollar, building transit puts more people to work than building roads. President Obama announced his plan on Labor Day weekend to rehabilitate the nation’s rails and runways, another way to generate jobs.

(Photo credit: Reconnecting America)