April 15, 2021
Troubled Transit: Working from Home Has Wider, “Overlooked” Economic Costs for Cities
- The massive shift to working from home is causing Canada’s major urban centres to lose out on the wider, often overlooked, economic benefits of public transit.
- Fast public transit enables riders to have access to a wider set of job opportunities, higher wages, new services, and learning partners. It also means businesses can draw better talent. Simply, publicly financed transportation infrastructure enables more people to connect with each other, resulting in increased economic efficiency and growth, benefitting both people and firms.
- As governments make decisions on transit operations and investment, these wider economic benefits should be an explicit part of the cost-benefit analysis.
