Economic Development

The Story/The Facts
Minnesota’s Hiawatha Light Rail Transit line is projected to create 7,150 new housing units, more than 19 million square feet of commercial space, and up to 68,000 new jobs by 2020.
In the short term, transportation creates jobs; people need to build, maintain, and operate those buses, rails, and bike paths. In fact, the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) released a 2004 report showing that investment in public transportation creates 19 percent more jobs than new road or bridge projects.
In the longer term, investment in public transportation creates more livable communities. “Transit-oriented development” builds vibrant public spaces, filled with places for people to live, shop, work, and easily access public transportation.

The Issue
Minnesota needs a strong public transportation system providing options for mass transit, walking, and bicycling. Transit fosters development, attracts workers to a region, and demonstrates a high quality of life. Investing in transportation is investing in the economic future of our state.

Transit for Livable Communities Work

• Transit for Livable Communities published the Citizen’s Agenda for Transportation in the Twin Cities Region, which states that “sustained economic prosperity” is a key transportation goal.

Resources
Organizations

• Project for Public Spaces works with developers and municipalities to ensure that new mixed-use communities, town centers and infill development are planned and designed in such a way that they integrate public spaces into the fabric of the community, bringing life to all aspects of the development.
• Reconnecting America’s Center for Transit-Oriented Development seeks to use transit investments to spur a new wave of development that improves housing affordability and choice, revitalizes downtowns and urban and suburban neighborhoods, and provides value capture and recapture for individuals, communities and transportation agencies.

Publications

• “Missing the Train,” Sierra Club, May 2004. More communities are clamoring for public transportation. This Sierra Club report highlights the economic and workforce benefits of public transportation.
• Overview of the Hiawatha Light Rail Line. Metropolitan Council. The Hiawatha line, the Twin Cities’ first light rail line, carried 7.9 million riders in 2005 and averaged 24,000 riders per weekday. Ridership in the line's first full year of operation exceeded pre-construction estimates by 58 percent.
• “Transportation and the Economy,” the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) makes the case that transportation investments should support local and regional economic objectives.
• “Transportation is About Places,” Project for Public Spaces. For 30 years, PPS has been working to create streets, bus stops and train stations that not only accommodate traffic, but also become places that benefit communities socially, economically and environmentally.