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Thursday, August 15, 2013 2:05:00 PM
A new report provides further evidence that transit is good for the economy.
The study, highlighted this week at The Atlantic Cities website, suggests transit helps boost the economy by bringing people together – widening the labor pool, increasing accessibility and bolstering innovation.
Though authors acknowledge more work is needed to support their claims, their initial results suggest a 10 percent expansion of transit could produce a per-worker wage increase between $53 and $194 in city centers. Transit can also help add jobs and increase a city’s gross metropolitan product, the study suggests.
The study echoes the findings of the Itasca Project’s “Return on Investment Assessment,” which focused on transit in the Twin Cities metro area. The study suggested that spending $4.4 billion on transit expansion before 2030 – including the addition of new light rail and Arterial Bus Rapid Transit lines – could lead to a benefit of more than $10 billion by 2045.
> Star Tribune: The business case for transit
> Metropolitan Council: Moving forward on transit and highway funding