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Get Michigan Moving
10 Reasons to Significantly Expand Public Transit in Michigan
Jobs * Prosperity * Thriving Communities
Public transit is creating thousands of jobs and generating billions of dollars in new infrastructure, retail, residential and commercial investments in communities and states across America—but not in Michigan. Get Michigan Moving is providing information to help people understand how expanding public transit—bus and rail systems—can help restore economic prosperity in Michigan.
1. Expanding public transit will help restore prosperity in Michigan by creating thousands of new jobs. It’s happening now in other states.
Michigan’s unemployment rate continues to rank as the nation’s worst. Every $100 million invested in public transit creates and supports about 4,000 jobs.*
Building public transit systems in Michigan will create thousands of good jobs for the laborers who do the really hard work, and for the construction contractors and subcontractors, architects, engineers, heavy equipment operators, and other professionals who design and build the systems and the stations that serve as stops along the routes.
Even more jobs are created when developers invest billions of dollars opening retail shops, grocery stores, apartment buildings, restaurants, cafes and all the other services transit riders demand.
2. Expanding public transit will generate billions of dollars in new commercial and residential development in Michigan. It’s happening now in other states.
A 22-mile light rail line in Dallas, Texas, produced 30,000 jobs and $3.3 billion in private development investments. The system has generated more than $660 million in annual taxable retail sales and boosted annual state tax revenues by $41 million and municipal tax revenue by $6.6 million. Property values around the line rose 25 percent.
The Hiawatha line in Minneapolis, Minnesota, resulted in the construction of 11,931 housing units within a half-mile of the line before it even opened. Development around the transit line produced 5,000 new jobs and included 1.25 million square feet of office space, along with restaurants and hotels.
In North Carolina, the Charlotte Blue Line light rail resulted in $1.87 billion in investment and development and led to $515 million in additional real estate tax values, an increase of 121 percent.
In Portland, Oregon, in the three years the Westside Max line was being built, $14 billion was invested in high technology industries along the line and in the region.
3. Public transit is an investment that pays for itself. It’s happening now in other states.
Every $1 invested in public transit returns around $6 in local economic activity.*
As investments begin, tax revenues increase from the jobs and commercial and residential development that transit systems generate.
As public transit systems develop, millions in federal funding becomes available to the cities and states making the investments.
4. Public transit increases prosperity for many types of businesses. It’s happening now in other states.
Transit lines in other states are generating billions of dollars in private investment in new commercial and residential developments and redevelopments.
Transit lines provide opportunities for new retail shops, grocery stores, shopping centers, restaurants, coffee shops, and cafes near and around each station.
Expanding public transit in Michigan would spark the construction of new retail shops, grocery stores, shopping centers, restaurants, coffee shops, and cafes near and around each station.
In St. Louis, the public transit system is expected to spark $2.3 billion in business sales.
Businesses in Dallas near the light rail line experienced a 33-percent jump in retail sales in just one year.
5. Expanding public transit will keep young, college-educated people living, working, and playing in Michigan.
Michigan’s lack of extensive public transit systems is one reason why thousands of young, educated people are leaving for metropolitan areas like Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, Denver, and Madison.
According to a 2006 CEOs for Cities study, young, educated people prefer not to have to drive to where they live, work, and play. Instead they want transportation alternatives to driving a car, including bike lanes, streetcars, light rail, buses, and more.
America’s most prosperous states—where unemployment is low and personal incomes higher—tend to have larger populations of young, college-educated residents. Michigan is not among these states.
6. Public transit saves families money.
Transportation is the second largest expense in most households*, with some families spending as much as 50 percent of their income owning, insuring, maintaining, and operating a car. **
The cost averages $8,000 each year to own and operate a single vehicle. By comparison, the average annual transit pass costs about $800.**
7. Expanding public transit will improve Michigan’s environment by reducing air pollution and greenhouse gases, and curbing run-offs from roads into our lakes, rivers and streams.
Public transit systems emit half as much carbon dioxide (CO2) per mile as automobiles. They decrease car travel and air pollution.*
More than 200 million passenger cars and trucks log almost 2 trillion miles on American roads each year.
These vehicles generate 50 percent of air pollution nationwide—and even more in larger cities.*
Public transportation already reduces carbon monoxide (CO) emissions by nearly 745,000 tons annually.
This equals nearly 75 percent of the CO emissions by all U.S. chemical manufacturers.*
Public transportation reduces emissions of CO2, which contributes to global warming, by more than 7.4 million tons a year.*
8. Expanding public transit will reduce Michigan’s dependence on foreign oil.
If one in ten Americans used public transit for their travel, the United States could reduce its dependence on foreign oil by more than 40 percent.*
Public transportation already saves more than 855 million gallons of gasoline or 45 million barrels of oil a year. The number is equivalent to the energy used to heat, cool, and operate one-fourth of all American homes annually, or half the energy used to manufacture all computers and electronic equipment in America annually.*
9. People of all ages use public transit.
People of all ages use public transit, including the young and highly educated, seniors, and the disabled.
An AARP survey indicated 80 percent of U.S. residents over age 45 decide where they want to live based on their proximity to the things they need.*** They also want access to housing, transportation, services, entertainment, and public spaces.
10. Transit relieves traffic on congested and deteriorating roads.
Expanding public transit would relieve traffic on Michigan roads and bridges, which are in significant disrepair and increasingly congested.
Reducing traffic would help ease the strain on state and local road maintenance and construction budgets.
Get Michigan Moving
What if we could create thousands of new jobs in Michigan, produce billions of dollars in new investment, improve the environment, and restore prosperity in our communities?
We can.
But it won’t be easy. It will require billions in new private and public investments. Even harder: it will require political, business and community leaders from east and west Michigan, rural Michigan, and southeast Michigan to cooperate and embrace a common vision and support public policies to get Michigan moving.
Other communities and states are doing it, and their economies are prospering as a result.
Help us Get Michigan Moving! Visit: www.GetMichiganMoving.com.
*Source: American Public Transit Association
**Source: U. S. Bureau of Labor
**Source: Transportation Riders United