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Transit Facts

Transit Benefits Calculator

Welcome to the Center for Transportation Excellence's Transit Benefit Calculator and Database. We have developed this tool to allow transit supporters to measure the benefits of actual or proposed transit investments in their community. Please fill out all known information as well as search parameters for the database. Once you hit "submit" a separate page will generate outlining your results.

Jobs Created by Transit Investments Plug in the amount of money you are currently spending or are planning to spend on transit investments, and generate an estimate of the number of jobs created:
1. Enter the amount of real or proposed transit investment in millions of dollars:
2. Enter the amount of real or proposed transit capital investment in millions of dollars:
3. Enter the amount of real or proposed transit operating expenditure in millions of dollars:
Benefits to Business of Public Transportation Investments Transit investments result in a gain in sales for businesses of $3 for every $1 in capital invested and $3.20 for every $1 in operations expenditures.
4. Enter the amount of real or proposed transit capital investment:
5. Enter the amount of real or proposed transit operations investment:
Energy Saving Use this calculator to determine the energy savings on transit vs. auto use. When you enter passenger miles of transit use, the total number of gallons of gas saved will be generated.
6. Enter the amount of real or proposed number of passenger miles of transit service:

Don't double count benefits: Dollar benefits such as jobs created, business revenue growth, and transportation cost savings are alternative descriptions. They cannot be added together.

How did we get these numbers?: To ensure accuracy, please be sure to review our How did we get these numbers? section for each of the calculators. These descriptions include important information on how we developed the numbers and how the results can and should be best described.

This calculator uses national averages: Please remember that while it is entirely appropriate to use national data, you should make it clear that these are estimates for your community based on national averages. If you're interested in developing more specific localized information, check out: "Estimating the Benefits and Costs of Public Transit Projects: A Guidebook for Practitioners. TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 78.