Study: transit creates more stimulus jobs than roads

Up to 5x as many jobs / dollar

Steve Hawley, Jan 06, 10.

Transit projects have created twice as many jobs per dollar of stimulus money as highway projects during the first ten months of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to a new report released by Smart Growth America, the US Public Interest Research Group, and the Center for Neighborhood Technology.

Because highways received significantly more stimulus money than transit projects, highway projects have created more overall jobs so far: 138,831 job-months compared to 72,328 job-months for transit projects. However, transit created twice as many jobs per billion dollars: 16,419 job-months versus just 8,781 for highway projects. The report 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.’”

The results were even more dramatic in Texas, where transit contracts created 38,317 job-months per billion dollars, compared to just 7,596 job-months for highway projects, a five-fold difference. The report states that the current highway-transit split in the state, which significantly favors highways, has 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.

According to the report, public transportation projects create more jobs because they are more complex, spend less money on land acquisition, and involve buying and maintaining vehicles. It also notes that for similar reasons, money spent on transit operations creates more jobs than money spent on capital investments. The study also claims that public transportation saves jobs, as well as creating them, by allowing more people to get to work. “And for many others,” it notes, “public transportation helps to save money, allowing them to pay their mortgage or spend on other goods and services.”

The organizations hope the report will influence the upcoming jobs bill, which passed the House in December and will come before the Senate later this year. Smart Growth America says:

[B]y mimicking funding levels for transportation set out in ARRA, the Jobs for Main Street Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in December missed an opportunity to create additional jobs where they are needed most. If the Senate version invests equally in public transportation and highways, we could produce 71,415 additional job-months, equivalent to year-round employment for 5,951 more workers, without spending a dime more than the House bill.

The source data was collected through October 31 and released by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on December 10.

Report: What we learned from the stimulus