A Jobs Bill that Builds More Jobs, Not More Highways
By John M. Krieger , Federal Transportation Policy Analyst, United States Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG)
Also posted today on the Huffington Post
As everyone knows, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Yet the transportation spending in Congress' latest "jobs bill" looks insanely identical to the spending that went out the door almost a year ago in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Repeating earlier spending patterns wouldn't be such a serious problem if America's transportation system functioned well. But there is widespread consensus among citizen organizations around the country that our current approach to funding transportation is broken and in need of reform.
And, while 2/3 of our oil consumption and 1/3 of our global warming pollution comes directly from the amount we have to drive in this country, we continue to spend most of our transportation funds on highways.
This insanity comes partly from the misconception, firmly pushed last year by White House Economic Advisor Larry Summers, that stimulus money for highways would spend faster and create more jobs than public transportation projects.
But a look at the official data (PDF) tells a completely different story.
....