A new report from Alabama Arise and the Institute for Policy Studies, entitled “Alternate Route: New Pathways to Better Jobs in Alabama Through Public Transit,” finds that investing in public transit could create as many as 2,561 new jobs in the state, addressing Alabama’s workforce shortage and kickstarting significant economic growth.
“Public transit plays a crucial role in connecting people to jobs, especially in places where a person’s lack of reliable access to a motor vehicle makes it virtually impossible to find and keep employment,” the report reads. “By some measures, Alabama is the most auto-dependent state in the nation. Without adequate public transit alternatives, people in Alabama’s rural communities and big city neighborhoods are shut out of the job market if they do not have a car or truck. So the state’s lack of public transit is a significant barrier to closing the state’s workforce shortage.”
According to the authors, if the Alabama state legislature appropriated $25 million into the state’s Public Transportation Trust Fund, the state could then access an additional $100 million in federal grant matches, thereby “creating 2,561 new jobs, improving workers’ paychecks by a combined $120 million and generating $207 million in new GDP.”
They argue that this growth would address Alabama’s low workforce participation rate (56.9 percent as of May 2026) as well as the state’s workforce shortage, which grew from 80,000 unfilled jobs in 2024 to 105,000 in 2025.
With a majority of the state’s labor force participation and employment concentrated in a select few urban centers, increased public transit funding would allow rural Alabamians to access employment opportunities that are currently out of reach.
As the authors note, nearly 30 percent of the state’s rural population has lost access to intercity transportation between 2005 and 2010, with the state legislature neglecting to invest a single dollar into public transit and leaving available federal funds on the table. The Lieutenant Governor’s Commission on the 21st Century Workforce has even pointed to lack of accessible transportation as a significant barrier to closing the state’s workforce shortage.
“You can’t get and keep a job if you can’t afford to get to work,” said Robyn Hyden, executive director of Alabama Arise. “Public transportation boosts community connection and helps ensure people can get where they need to go in a timely way. This report shows how state funding for public transportation would create jobs and increase economic opportunity for people across Alabama. It’s time for our lawmakers to get off the sidelines and make this essential investment in a better future for the people of our state.”
“Lack of access to public transit should not be a barrier to securing a job in Alabama,” added Marc Bayard, associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. “Our report shows how vital investments in public transit in Alabama can address the workforce shortage and boost economic opportunity, meaning more Alabama workers can get to and from more jobs. It’s a win-win scenario for state lawmakers and for ordinary workers who rely on transit access in the most auto-dependent state in the nation.”
In addition to allocating funds toward public transit, the authors also urge state lawmakers to distribute those funds equitably across Alabama, particularly in rural counties. Similarly, they suggest pursuing needs-based, equitable distribution among local transit agencies with considerations for “deferred maintenance, ridership, and local population utility, including education, healthcare, and ability to connect to other services and activities of daily life.”
The authors also encourage the state to give local communities and transit authorities control over any funding they may receive, to tailor the expenditure of transit funds at the discretion of each individual agency, and to ensure that any new transit jobs are equipped with living wages, health insurance, retirement savings and other key benefits.
