Reduced parking area required at employer site 5. Reduced traffic congestion for all employees 1. Reduced rate of salary inflation, for all workers, over a 20 year period. If the quality of life declines in Austin over the next few decades then large employers will have to pay billions of dollars per decade in higher wages to compensate. Otherwise employees will leave Austin for smaller cities with a better quality of life.
Most people prefer Austin to Houston or Dallas because Austin has a higher quality of life.
Ask yourself how much more you would have to earn to be happy in Houston. Most people I talk too say no amount of money could get them to move to Houston. If Austin continues to develop without the benefit of smart growth and mass transit it will become another Houston. But light rail alone is not sufficient. Portland has a successful light rail in terms of ridership and its beneficial effect on the downtown.