Last week on KUOW, I brought up a point that hasn’t gotten much play during the discussions about Obama’s “jobs” package: Relying on road and highway-construction jobs, as the proposal does, is a recipe for disaster on two fronts (not counting the fact that most of the jobs it produces won’t be for women).
First, it doesn’t work: The stimulus package, which leaned heavily on road construction projects, failed to produce the number of jobs it promised. In contrast, according to a new study by the Political Economy Research Institute in Amherst, MA, bicycle and pedestrian projects create more jobs per dollar than road projects. Similarly, transit investments stimulate nearly a third more jobs than road construction
Second, it won’t lead to the future we want: Building highways is a 20th-century response to a 21st-century program. It may create some jobs in the short term, but in the long term, it will only contribute to greenhouse-gas emissions, create additional sprawl, and increase Americans’ reliance on cars to get around. Additionally, every dollar spent on highways is a dollar that could have been spent on transit or bike facilities—two areas where spending has been lagging behind for decades.
How many more people would Metro be able to move around if it got a few hundred million more dollars, compared to the number of drivers a new highway would serve? Sadly, it looks like we won’t get the opportunity to answer that important question.
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