Strengthening Connections Between Transportation Investments and Economic Growth

This paper elaborates upon and deepens the ongoing policy discussion of relationships between investments in transportation infrastructure and the nation's short- and long-term economic well-being. Transportation infrastructure investment programs are not all equally effective at creating jobs or economic growth. Poorly targeted transportation dollars represent a wasted opportunity that the country can ill afford given its current fiscal predicament. On the other hand, accelerating the return of robust and sustained economic expansion will be imperative and can be advanced by the sound investment of scarce resources.