A study released this month by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Economic Development provides further support for the notion that urban mass transit is critical to a healthy economy.

The study examines the 12 percent cuts proposed for 2012 in the Milwaukee County transit system. The proposed cuts eliminate a number of routes and reduce hours of operation, which the study shows would result in over 13,000 jobs no longer being accessible by public transit.

In other words, if you do not have a car, those jobs are out of reach. If you do have a car, that will become the only option for you to get to work, equaling more fuel consumed, more road wear, more expense for the worker.

Cutting transit means a lot of people can no longer get to work. Is that really what the economy needs right now?