What Do Public Transit, Highway Maintenance, and Urban Density Have in Common? Union Jobs.
Smart investments in maintaining roads and public transit that support compact development are a win for affordability, jobs, and climate change.
Metropolitan areas with smart-growth policies grow and add construction jobs at a faster rate than other cities.
Across the United States, governors and mayors are working to get residents out of traffic and into affordable housing and well-paying jobs. A new study shows that, with the right investments, we can do all three at once.
Smart Growth and Good Construction Jobs: How Urban Density Benefits Union Density, from economic development nonprofit Good Jobs First, finds that urban density creates more construction work, higher wages, and more likely union work for building trades members than suburban sprawl. Looking at long-term regional growth data, federal highway–building data, and diverse case studies on urban revitalization, the study finds that policies and projects that make smarter use of land create greater demand for construction labor and high-skilled labor.
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Some key takeaways:
- Metro areas with higher density ratings (i.e., less sprawl) are more likely to have stronger union representation in the construction labor force.
- Denser housing types result in a greater proportion of work that is conducted by specific building trades members: plumbing and other mechanical, electrical, elevator, concrete, and metal structural.
- Metro areas with smart-growth policies continue to grow and add construction jobs at a faster rate than business as usual cities.
- When the cost of land is taken into account, fix-it-first highway projects—filling potholes and rebuilding bridges—create more construction jobs, dollar for dollar, than new highway construction.
This new research aligns with previous studies on the topic. Analysis of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by Transportation for America found that a dollar spent on public transportation produced 70 percent more job hours than a dollar spent on highways. Both highway maintenance and transit create more jobs per dollar than new highway construction because the latter typically involves considerable spending on land acquisition.
Bottom line: Investments in highway maintenance and public transit are responsible uses of transportation funding that support compact development—a win for climate, affordability, and jobs.
Why this matters for climate
The transportation sector is the single-largest source of climate-warming pollution; responsible for nearly 30 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The majority of those transportation emissions come from the tailpipes of cars and trucks. To reduce transportation pollution, we need to make it easier for Americans to get into electric vehicles (EVs) and provide them with safe and convenient transportation choices, like smooth sidewalks, safe bike lanes, and frequent buses and trains.
When homes, jobs, and amenities are closer together, people can walk, bike, and take public transit more often, which decreases the need for personal vehicles. Less driving means less traffic and lower emissions, which cleans our air while making streets safer and neighborhoods more livable. Vehicle ownership is also the second-largest monthly expense for most households. Places where residents can choose to drive less and own fewer vehicles can significantly increase their disposable income.
The flip side to this are communities where homes, jobs, and amenities are spread far apart, requiring people to drive long distances each day. We know that 36 percent of Americans over 10 years old don’t have car access, whether due to age, disability, or income, and so they are often stranded and isolated. Transportation investments and policies that build and expand highways on the urban edge encourage this type of development. If governors and mayors instead focused more on maintaining their existing assets, the public sector could save money, put more people to work in high-road union jobs compared to new construction, and reinvest in existing communities.
Following the money
State and local leaders have great discretion in how they invest transportation funding. And they can use their leadership to drive investments that support clean mobility and good jobs.
Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to stymie investments in sustainable transportation, state departments of transportation (DOTs) are still receiving historic levels of transportation funding that Congress authorized in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. State DOTs can use that funding for a variety of purposes, including highway maintenance, public transportation, bike paths, sidewalks, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
In September, Evergreen Action released a report detailing how states have the power to transfer funding away from highway expansion and toward walking, biking, transit, and EV charging infrastructure. In fact, there was a great example of this in California this past summer where, thanks to NRDC and a coalition of other organizations, the California Transportation Commission approved $94 million to build more than 500 new truck-charging ports along California’s busiest trade corridors. This was from a pot of money that had traditionally supported highway expansion projects.
The well-maintained road ahead
Attaining a transportation system that provides clean and affordable access to jobs, school, errands, and recreation will take a major shift in how we build and support our transportation system. After decades of slashing through neighborhoods and nature to build out the freeway system, we’ve hit a dead end of diminishing returns on mobility and skies fouled with tailpipe pollution.
For transportation agencies, a better path forward for people and the planet would combine a fix-it-first approach to highways, a commitment to redesigning existing roads, and streets that are safe for all users, as well as dedicated funding to provide more transportation choices for everyone. States and cities should allow and encourage housing and jobs near new transit stations and redevelopment of existing buildings and neighborhoods that would make it easier for people to meet their day-to-day needs without driving everywhere to do everything.
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