Alternate Route: New Pathways to Better Jobs in Alabama Through Public Transit

Introduction

Public transit plays a crucial role in connecting people to jobs, especially in places where a person’s lack of reliable access to a motor vehicle makes it virtually impossible to find and keep employment.

By some measures, Alabama is the most auto-dependent state in the nation. Without adequate public transit alternatives, people in Alabama’s rural communities and big city neighborhoods are shut out of the job market if they do not have a car or truck. So the state’s lack of public transit is a significant barrier to closing the state’s workforce shortage.

Unfortunately, Alabama’s policymakers have never invested even a single state dollar in this critical economic development strategy, and local governments are constitutionally prohibited from using gas tax dollars to fund transit in and between their communities.

Fortunately, the key to fixing funding is relatively straightforward. If the state appropriates $25 million into its Public Transportation Trust Fund, local transit authorities across Alabama can leverage up to $100 million in new federal transit funds. This will help local communities from the Wiregrass to the Shoals and everywhere in between to expand transit access significantly and bring thousands of new workers into the workforce.

In addition, Alabama has examples of homegrown local public transit improvements from across the state — including urban, suburban and rural areas — that provide lessons for success in closing the workforce shortage. The solutions are already here. But they are not broadly implemented because the localities creating them are starved for funding.

This report, from Alabama Arise and the Institute for Policy Studies, details the crises caused by the state’s lack of transit investments and proposes some simple solutions. Some key findings and recommendations follow below. Much more detail is available in the full PDF.

Recommendations

Alabama’s policymakers should adopt the following policy recommendations:

• Increase state funding. Alabama should commit $25 million in statewide funds for public transit. These funds can then be used for $100 million in federal grant matches that are available and already being paid by Alabama taxpayers.
• Distribute transit dollars equitably across Alabama’s local transit agencies — especially in rural counties. Distribution should account for needs based on deferred maintenance, ridership, and local population utility — including education, healthcare, and ability to connect to other services and activities of daily life.
• Give local communities and transit authorities control over the funding they receive. Transit agencies understand the areas they serve. The expenditure of transit funds should be at the discretion of each agency depending on the area’s needs.
• Ensure new transit jobs come with living wages, health insurance, retirement savings, and other key benefits.