STUDY * USA - The transformation of transportation
Mass transit creates 22,000 for every $1 billion invested, compared with 5,500 jobs in the oil, coal, and gas sector (and by extension the auto industry)
Boston,MASS,USA -The Boston Globe, by Derrick Z. Jackson -February 24, 2009: -- In the half-month since the Senate nearly slashed mass transit from the stimulus bill, yet more locales broke ridership records from coast to coast... According to University of Massachusetts economist Robert Pollin, who is a consultant to the Department of Energy, every $1 billion in clean or green energy industries creates 17,000 jobs, compared with 5,500 jobs in the oil, coal, and gas sector (and by extension the auto industry). Mass transit creates even more jobs, 22,000 for every $1 billion invested, needing many people to build and maintain it. Pollin said the job creation for mass transit is 70 percent more than for defense spending and 30-to-40 percent more than for a tax cut... Pollin himself is not ready to say GM or Chrysler should die. "It's so frustrating because there are so many innocent people involved in the auto industry, the workers, the suppliers," he said. "The level of fragility is perhaps even worse than 1929. As opposed to 1929, we know what we're doing and it still isn't working. Perhaps we've got to let them limp through for the next year or two. But they need new management."... But at some point very soon, Obama must decide that limping is not enough to keep up with a nation whose commuters and even vacationers are radically rethinking transportation. From New York to Madison, from North Carolina to Seattle, people are not clamoring for new Cadillacs. They want the buses and trains of a new America to run on time...
Labels: public transportation services
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