Why Great Transit Is Worth Loads of Money to Local Businesses

Jobs are moving back into city centers, but there's still an awful lot of them in the urban fringes and the suburbs—places typically hard for public transportation to serve. That's not a problem if you own a car, but it can be a huge one if you don't, or even just if your car breaks down that day. Most of us don't have the fortitude to walk 21 miles to work.

Your boss might say tough luck to these problems, but the truth is it's in the company's best interest to offer great car-free access to work—not just morally but financially. For one thing, the more potential employees can reach an office site, the more selective a business can be about its workforce, resulting in better matches between job and worker. An accessible location also helps retain staff: firing someone who's frequently late to work on account of poor transit creates substantial new costs in terms of finding, hiring, and training a replacement.