This article summarizes recent literature from several different disciplines in two new ways, first identifying six mechanisms through which transportation policy and investment could promote economic development and then discussing the evidence of the connection, one mode at a time. All claims for transportation 's effect on economic development depend on increasing the productivity of private firms, increasing the efficiency of transportation itself fostering innovation, improving the quality of life and thus the supply of labor and entrepreneurship, affecting perceptions, or changing land use and spatial patterns. The historical effects of transportation on economic development have clearly been beneficial, but these benefits have diminished over time, whereas the costs and potential for harm have increased. If long-lasting infrastructure investments are not adaptable, they willfit poorly with increasingly rapid and unpredictable change. To realize the potential for transportation to positively influence economic development in the future, decision making should be structured to make transportation efficient andflexible and take citizens'concernsfor equity, self-determination, and stability into account.
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