I think the point about "allowing people to get to work" is that people with no car (a much larger proportion of the jobless than of the employed, presumably) h

I think the point about "allowing people to get to work" is that people with no car (a much larger proportion of the jobless than of the employed, presumably) have more limited employment options, and improving public transit gives them access to more jobs. It seems a pretty good guess to me, at least, that public transit does more to give more people access to more jobs than highways costing the same amount.