Public Transit and Employment

Posted on July 12, 2012 by townsend

• Improved public transit urged to help speed economic recovery, By Maggie O’Brien, July 11, 2012, Omaha World-Herald: “More than three-fourths of Omaha-area jobs can be reached with public transit, a share that mirrors urban averages nationally, according to a Brookings Institution report. But, echoing a national trend that costs the local bus system potential riders, less than a third of the metro area’s workers can get to those jobs by bus in 90 minutes or less. The report released today by Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program surveyed the country’s 100 largest metro areas. Its wider findings nearly mirrored the situation in Omaha, except slightly fewer Omaha-area workers had to ride longer than 90 minutes. Access to reasonable public transit becomes an issue, the report says, as workers continue to climb out of the national recession. People need to be better connected through public transportation, it argues…”
• Detroit area lags in jobs served by public transit, By John Gallagher, July 11, 2012, Detroit Free Press: “Metro Detroit ranks below average among the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas in the percentage of its jobs served by public transit, with job growth happening in the suburbs but with shrinking options for suburbanites and city dwellers to get to them, a new study released today found. The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program released ‘Where the Jobs Are: Employer Access to Labor by Transit,’ a look at how well public transit systems serve employers…”