BRT = JOBS!

You've heard these claims on projects around the country before:  "our project will bring in thousands of jobs, both for construction and long-term".  And, many times, it's hard to believe these claims.  What we believe is that while multi-year construction projects may bring in thousands of jobs, they actually may hire workers for short-term durations, who then become part of the "thousands of jobs" in that claim.

With this blog, we want to be truthful and realistic.  As we understand it talking with C-TRAN and other agencies, the Fourth Plain BRT project will take less than a year to construct.  About a quarter of the project cost is buying new BRT buses, which will be manufactured and assembled somewhere else in the United States (C-TRAN must comply with the "Buy America" provision in federal law and regulations).  

So, how many local jobs will this project create for construction, and what are the long term economic development implications?

Of the $50 million on this project, about a quarter of this will go to buying buses and acquiring communications and traffic signal priority technology that will be manufactured elsewhere.  So, let's conservatively say about $35 million will go into construction of BRT stations, sidewalks, streetscaping, art and architecture, and paving.  According to reports we've researched from the American Public Transportation Association, Cambridge Systematics, and, yes, Tri-Met, this $35 million translates to between 200 and 300 jobs over the life of the project.  These tend to be trades, which earn a decent, family wage income.  That's on top of other US jobs that are created to build buses and communications technology on the project (probably another 100-150).

Now, let's look at the long term.  According to the Government Accountability Office report "Bus Rapid Transit Projects Improve Transit Service and Can Contribute to Economic Development" (http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-811):


"We found that although many factors contribute to economic development, most local officials we visited believe that BRT projects are contributing to localized economic development. For instance, officials in Cleveland told us that between $4 and $5 billion was invested near the Healthline BRT project—associated with major hospitals and universities in the corridor. Project sponsors in other cities told us that there is potential for development near BRT projects; however, development to date has been limited by broader economic conditions—most notably the recent recession"

Additionally, the report found that:

"The BRT projects we reviewed generally increased ridership and improved service over the previous transit service. Specifically, 13 of the 15 project sponsors that provided ridership data reported increases in ridership after 1 year of service and reduced average travel times of 10 to 35 percent over previous bus services."

In other words, Fourth Plain BRT can help spur economic development (also check out the Columbian's article on Walmart and Fourth Plain BRT:  http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/sep/18/grocery-store-planned-for-old-fred-meyer-site/), and, because of improved travel time reliability and reduced transit travel times, can provide people a reliable way to get to jobs and businesses along the Fourth Plain corridor, further spurring economic improvements and revitalization of the corridor.