Stimulus Investment in Transit Creates Twice as Many Jobs as Roads

This according to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), which analyzed data from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on state spending of federal stimulus dollars in 2009. The analysis found that “every billion dollars spent on public transportation produced 19,299 job-months, compared to 10,493 job-months for every billion spent on highway infrastructure.” This analysis confirms the findings of a report released earlier this year by Smart Growth America, PIRG and the Center for Neighborhood Technology that looked at state-level stimulus spending associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009.

Source: www.tsa.gov

The researchers explain the difference in job creation between public transportation and highway infrastructure spending by noting that transit projects often spend less on land and other “hard costs” and more on labor. These findings are particularly relevant now, as Congress debates different methods of job creation, that may or may not contain funding for public transportation, while New Jersey contemplates major cuts to NJ TRANSIT service

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