MDOT’s Draft Five Year Transportation Program should support transit more!
The 2027-2031 Five Year Transportation Program (5YTP) outlines how MDOT will invest money over the next five years to support their goals in the MDOT 2050 Mobility Plan. This program is a detailed overview of the specific projects up in the next few years, including where funding is being allocated and the economic impacts. Rather unsurprisingly, highways are receiving a bulk of the investment at $13.7B, and all other transportation modes (local bus, intercity bus, marine passenger, vanpool, port, freight rail and passenger rail) will receive $4.8B over five years.
Highways are important to our state, but so is every transportation mode, and MDOT should invest equally in every mode of transportation. Prioritizing highway repair and expansion at the expense of buses, boats, vans, and rail leaves Michiganders who can’t drive isolated.
This is despite public transportation having a higher return on investment for our economy than highways. MDOT’s $13.7B for highways is expected to produce:
- 22,000 jobs
- $4.3B in business output
- $2.2B in gross regional domestic product
- $1.7B in income for labor
Whereas the $4.8B in public transportation (Almost $9B less than for highways!) will produce:
- 16,500 jobs
- $2.9B in business output
- $1.5B in gross regional domestic product
- $1B in income for labor
If we funded transit at the same level as highways, over 47,000 jobs would be added to the states economy!
MDOT is taking comments until August 31
Thankfully, MDOT is listening, and is taking public comment through August 31. Please, write to MDOT supporting public transit in the Five Year Transportation Program, so everyone can get where they need to go. If we all write to MDOT, they will listen.