Skip to main content

ARTBA highlights transport's importance to US

New data available from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) highlights the importance of transportation spending to US economic growth. This information can be sourced through a new Internet resource set up by ARTBA. The data has been revealed at a time when the multi-year highway/transit authorisation bill is still being discussed in the US Congress. The US secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, said at the CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011 that he hopes a six year authorisation bill will
May 16, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
New data available from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) highlights the importance of transportation spending to US economic growth. This information can be sourced through a new Internet resource set up by ARTBA.

The data has been revealed at a time when the multi-year highway/transit authorisation bill is still being discussed in the US Congress. The US secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, said at the CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011 that he hopes a six year authorisation bill will be signed in August of this year, but there is still concern that more delays will appear.

ARTBA’s interactive website provides information about the job creation impacts of federal transportation investment on the national and state economies. The data, found at www.transportationcreatesjobs.org, shows the number of American jobs that could be at risk if the House and Senate fail to take action on a long-term bill. It also provides statistics about the size and scope of each state’s transportation network, the current road and bridge investment needs, commuting patterns, and the impacts on other industries that depend on the nation’s transportation network.

The research was conducted by ARTBA vice president of policy & senior economist Alison Premo Black, an economics doctoral candidate at The George Washington University. Utilising US Census Bureau “County Business Patterns” data and the US Commerce Department’s Regional Input‐Output Modeling System (RIMS II), Black found that the transportation construction industry’s largest economic impact is in the state of California, where it generates or sustains more than 354,000 jobs. California’s followed by New York (286,449), Texas (276,276), Florida (196,087), Pennsylvania (148,669), Illinois (129,014), Georgia (106,658), Ohio (104,310), Washington (100,384) and New Jersey (97,036). Black said that money invested in transportation construction industry employment and purchases generates over US$380 billion in US economic activity, nearly 3% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Related Content

  • Buttigieg 'to put $150bn' into public transit
    January 20, 2021
    Cash part of proposed $1 trillion infrastructure package from new US administration
  • CoMotion LA Live 2020: report
    November 30, 2020
    November’s CoMotion LA Live event looked at new technology, emerging partnerships – and how Joe Biden’s ‘super-commuter’ status might just stand future mobility in good stead
  • Calls for road pricing to fix Australia’s congestion
    November 16, 2015
    According to a report by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) claims the rising costs of congestion in Australia’s major cities underscores the case for real road pricing reform, says Infrastructure Partnerships Australia (IPA). Updating a similar report from 2007, the traffic and congestion cost trends for Australian capital cities report puts congestion costs for society as a whole in 2015 at US$11.7 billion. IPA believes this will rise to US$36 billion in 2030 if noth
  • Public transit CEOs highlight urgent need to invest in aging US public transportation systems
    May 23, 2016
    CEOs of large, mid-size and small public US transportation systems attending a press call as part of National Infrastructure Week have sounded the alarm for the urgent need to increase infrastructure investment in America's public transportation systems. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) cited a US$86 billion backlog in deferred maintenance and replacement needs with more than 40 per cent of buses and 25 per cent of rail transit assets in marginal or poor condition, according to the latest data