A newly released Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) report details the importance of transit to the business community. The report gives an overview of the Transit Means Business program and its statewide importance, shares research into how transit supports economic competitiveness in Virginia, and tells the stories of businesses that value transit.
Transit Means Business, which began as a NVTC forum in May 2015, is a collaboration between businesses, researchers and policymakers. Today it consists of a virtual resource center, a business partnership, and ongoing research to help people better understand the connection between specific transit investments and the ability to recruit and retain business in the Commonwealth.
The report features research by George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis on Transit and the NoVa Economy. “The Northern Virginia region will continue to grow, but the nature of that growth will be shaped by the relative presence, or absence, of a highly effective and efficient transit system,” notes the study. “If Northern Virginia is going to be able to effectively compete for nongovernment-related private-sector business development, it must have a state of the art, effective, financially sustainable and efficient multimodal public transit system.”
A joint study by Virginia Tech and NVTC examines transit and job access in the region. Among the findings are that 708,000 or 59 percent of all jobs in Northern Virginia are within a quarter mile of a transit stop or station. Transit-accessible employment data is broken out by age, income, education, industry, and transit system.
Ten case profiles and accompanying posters tell the stories of what transit in the region means to specific businesses, from a national corporation to a local mom-and-pop shop. Transit allows these businesses to expand their pool of workers, customers and employees. Transit is viewed as a recruitment tool for some and a cost-saving measure for others.
