Why Invest In Transportation?

The economic and environmental well-being of the New York region depends in part upon the ability of the transportation system to efficiently and reliably link workers to jobs, students and teachers to educational institutions, visitors to attractions and goods and services to customers.

The New York metropolitan area supports nearly 10.5 million jobs and 10,000 international businesses and generates a gross regional product roughly the size of Canada’s entire economy. While one-fifth of its jobs are contained within a few square miles in Manhattan, the scope of the economic activity in the region is worldwide. New York is a global economic leader in business, communications, financial services and the creative arts. Nearly half of the nation’s securities and commodities trading is generated in Manhattan. All of the major television networks are based in Manhattan, as are six of the ten largest book publishers.

Locales such as White Plains and the I-287 corridor in the Hudson Valley, the Nassau Hub and the Route 110 corridor on Long Island and downtown Brooklyn, Long Island City and Flushing in New York City, are quickly becoming major business centers that contribute significantly to the region’s economic vitality.

Maintaining and improving the transportation system helps tie together the growing portions of the region, link them to the various centers, and assert the region’s preeminent position in the global economy, maintaining the region as the epicenter for business and culture. It will maintain the region’s economic vitality by expanding the areas from which to find qualified workers and by making the delivery of goods and services more efficient.

An improved transportation system can move people, goods, services and information more efficiently and with less energy consumption and impact on the environment, preserving the quality of life in the region.