Traditionally, public transportation passenger cost savings were often the primary factors considered as the benefits of public transportation projects. This mindset has changed significantly and now it is widely accepted that public transportation investment can also help reduce roadway traffic congestion, with broader benefits for commercial truck deliveries, employer labor market access and on other aspects of business productivity. These issues were raised in the APTA Report on Public Transportation and the Nation’s Economy (Cambridge Systematics and EDR Group, 1999), the Federal Transit Administration’s Transit Benefits 2000 Working Papers (HLB Decision Economics, 2000), the NCHRP Economic Impact of Congestion Study.
