One year later, Recovery Act shows transportation works

Next Wednesday, February 17, marks the one-year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Also coming soon is the announcement of our discretionary TIGER grants.

 

With those two events in mind, I was happy to see a new report from the state trenches, "Projects and Paychecks, A One-Year Report on State Transportation Successes Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act."

The report reminds us that transportation stimulus, which amounts to less than 7% of Recovery Act spending, has created "tens of thousands of jobs and billions in paychecks to American workers."

 

And, if you want to get a sense of who those workers are, I urge you to visit what I think is the best part of the website supporting the report, its Faces of Recovery page.

There, you'll find the compelling stories of the real people who have found real jobs through the stimulus. People who held onto their jobs or went back to work. People who were able to continue making their mortgage payments. People who were able to maintain health insurance coverage for their families.

That is recovery.

The useful website built around the report also makes it easy to see how America's transportation construction community has benefited from our national infrastructure investment. Differentiating itself from the rest of the construction industry, transportation construction was up over 5% from the previous year.

That is recovery.

With over 24,000 miles of highway and 1,100 bridges being improved, over 700 transit projects underway, expanded options for bicyclists and pedestrians, reduced congestion and its associated pollutants, and updated airports, the American public has clearly benefited as well.

And that, too, is recovery.

But we are far from finished. There are bigger projects coming that promise even more jobs lasting even longer. There is the $8 billion in High-Speed Rail seed funding we recently awarded to projects in over 30 states.

And there are our upcoming TIGER grants for innovative projects that promise to make an economic or environmental difference in their communities.

You see, transportation does more than move goods and people; transportation works.

Comments

[Michael E. Bailey]

The ARRA is a great piece of legistation that has been a bright spot for the economy. It should be renewed. The transit funding component should be increased to include some funding for operations. There should be transit operations funding in the Jobs For Main Street Act that has passed the House. This is important because transit hires people and moves millions of people every day to and from home and their work. It is a lifeline service. The ARRA has helped millions of people as it has helped the economy. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey

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I think it is a project that benefits the people.

[Brent Hugh]

"coming soon is the announcement of our discretionary TIGER grants."

And here is where we'll see whether Sec LaHood's statement at the last National Bike Summit, that "You have a full partner at the US DOT" is true or just lip service.

Looking at some of the list of projects, it is amazing how far head and shoulders above the others many of the bicycle & pedestrian ones are, as far as return on investment. Not just in terms of transportation per se but in terms of health, extending mobility to those who otherwise have very limited mobility, reduction in pollution and emissions, and improvement in livability and economic vitality of communities.

Part of that high ROI is simply that projects (especially bicycle projects like those put in place by the non-motorized pilot projects like Columbia, MO) are just dead inexpensive in comparison with regular highway and transit projects.

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Nice Post,Thanks for Information.