According to a CNN poll released yesterday, almost 3 out of every 4 Americans think at least half of the money in last years $787 billion stimulus bill is being wasted. A nationwide unemployment rate of 10% probably is part of the reason why people have such a poor perception of how effective the stimulus has been. But according to a recent study, that stimulus money could have created a lot more jobs, had it just been spent on public transportation rather than improving existing highway infrastructure.
A study by Smart Growth America found that every billion dollars spent on public transportation projects created over 16,000 months of employment, almost twice as much work as those created by simple highway expansion and renewal projects.