According to the Transportation Equity Network:
What would happen if 20 metropolitan areas shifted 50% of their highway funds to transit?
They would generate 1,123,674 new transit jobs over a five-year period — for a net gain of 180,150 jobs over five years — without a single dollar of new spending.
That’s the finding of TEN’s new study, More Transit = More Jobs.
The report also examines the job-creation potential of passing a transit-friendly federal Transportation Authorization Act, as supported by Transportation for America (T4A) and TEN. The study projects that the T4A proposal would create 1,291,431 new jobs in the transit sector over five years – an increase of almost 800,000 jobs over the current federal transportation law, SAFETEA-LU.
Previous studies, including examinations of federal Recovery Act spending, have consistently found that public transportation creates more jobs than highways. Investment in public transit tends to be more labor-intensive than highway projects because the work is generally more complex, involves the purchase and maintenance of vehicles, and requires much less spending on land acquisition.
More Transit Equals More Jobs makes a broad case for larger investments in our public transit systems. More money for transit not only means more jobs but would additionally lead to less traffic congestion, hazardous pollution, and global warming emissions.