The US-based Transportation Equity Network (TEN) recently released a common sense proposal for creating jobs in the report More Transit = More Jobs. They look at what would happen if about half of the US urban freeway budget was invested in public transit. Their answer is more jobs for the same money.

TEN emphasizes that public transit investment creates more jobs per dollar than urban freeways and other roads. But they also propose focusing more on immediate improvements to transit service rather than resource intensive capital investments such as subway construction as a way of boosting job creation: "Transit operations generate more jobs per dollar spent than transit capital spending because transit operations are more labor-intensive and do not involve significant non-labor inputs, such as land acquisition or materials." This is a very important consideration here in BC, where operating funds are so tight that Translink had to tie up one of our three Sea Buses.

The TEN study analyzed 20 US metropolitan areas and concluded that shifting half of their highway funds to transit would result in a net gain of 180, 000 jobs over five years - with no new spending. TEN allies focus on the benefits of transit service, rather than just the jobs, in promoting the plan to shift money away from urban freeways.

More jobs and improved transit for the same money sounds good, but there are other much more important reasons to shift spending from roads to transit. In Canada, transportation is the largest and fastest growing source of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Unemployment may be a serious problem, but the climate crisis threatens the very future of human society. As the old bumper sticker puts it there are 'No Jobs on a Dead Planet'. Perhaps it should be updated to 'No Jobs on a Cooked Planet'.

The end of cheap oil is also a compelling reason to shift resources from freeways to transit. The present economic crisis and resulting unemployment was partly triggered by the sharp peak in oil prices in 2007 - 2008. But this could just be the start of an oil price roller coaster as oil supplies peak and go into decline. In the near future, oil dependence could well be a recipe for economic ruin.

Perhaps the biggest fault with the TEN study is that you could read it and think that unemployment is the biggest threat to society, and that peak oil and global warming are just additional reasons to support a smart job creation strategy. The fact is that we will make big changes, or circumstance will impose much harsher choices on us.

Given the end of cheap oil and climate crisis, it is time for an end to urban roadway expansion. Most of the existing roadway infrastructure should be kept and maintained well, but the public money now spent on roadway expansions must be reallocated to transit.

If you agree that public funds should be shifted from urban freeways to transit, please consider attending the 10/10/10 Dig in for Climate Justice on Sunday October 10, 2010.