Economic Competitiveness: Transit’s High-Value in the Knowledge Economy
Channel: eesionline
Date: 2015-05-14

Learn more at: http://www.eesi.org/briefings/view/051315transit
Table of contents: https://youtu.be/tYOiMligvU4?t=20s

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) held an Infrastructure Week briefing about how transit investments affect the nation’s competitiveness. The world’s economies are increasingly based on knowledge and information. High-tech, knowledge-based innovation districts are increasingly shaping the U.S. economy. What are the characteristics of a knowledge-based economy, and the people who work in it? What role does transit play in the location choices of high-value technology firms, and why? Does transit help these firms attract the workforce they want?

Speakers: 

Alderman Robert Bauman
City of Milwaukee, WI; Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair, National League of Cities
Download Slides: http://www.eesi.org/files/Robert_Bauman_051315.pdf

Linda Watson
President and CEO, Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Austin, Texas)
Download Speaker Notes:  http://www.eesi.org/files/Linda_Watson_051315.pdf

Joanna Turner
Executive Director, National Association of Regional Councils

Shyam Kannan
Managing Director, Office of Planning, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Download Slides: http://www.eesi.org/files/Shyam_Kannan_051315.pdf

Twelve short-term, flat-funding extensions for surface transportation over the last six years have degraded the nation’s surface transportation network and constrained the nation’s economy, thereby impacting short and long-term U.S. global competitiveness. There is bipartisan agreement that a long-term transportation authorization bill is an economic necessity, and diverse funding solutions are on the table. While all agree that transportation is fundamental to the economy, it has been nearly six years since the last transportation finance hearing in the House. A crisis is fast approaching as the current Transportation Bill authorization expires May 31, 2015, just at the height of the construction season for transportation projects and repairs.

High-tech, high-value industries involved in the knowledge-based economy tend to cluster to enable collaboration and labor market pooling. In addition, a growing number of “knowledge workers” prefer walkable, bikeable communities connected by transit, to minimize travel times and make commutes more productive. Community leaders have found that these traits improve the competitiveness of an entire region.

A previous APTA report showed that transit investment in the major metropolitan areas of Boston, Atlanta, Denver, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco would provide more efficient access to jobs, enabling over 100,000 jobs and $8.6 billion in GDP by 2040.