Transportation Benefits of Parking Cash Out, Pre-Tax Commuter Benefits, and Parking Surtaxes
For many workers, the decision to drive to work is an economically rational one that minimizes their commute costs. Most employers offer free parking at the workplace as an employment benefit, with a relative few offering subsidies towards transit, bicycle, vanpool, and other travel modes. In many cases, the value of free parking is greater than the cost of riding transit. In effect, by providing such a high-value asset for free, employers are incentivizing behavior that increases roadway congestion, reduces physical activities, and increases emissions. Several policies associated with employer-provided commute benefits can begin to level the playing field among travel modes by allowing employees to select a travel option that is most suitable to them, without incurring a financial penalty. This paper identifies six policy scenarios cities could implement that combine elements of cash out, pre-tax commuter benefits, and parking surtaxes. The impacts of the policies were analyzed for nine United States cities and it was found that they could reduce drive-alone commute trips from a low of 1 percent to a high of 22 percent depending on the policy and city. The results clearly show that policies designed to make employer-provided commute incentives mode neutral can lead to a significant reduction in commute-related vehicle trips.
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Supplemental Notes:
- This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE50 Standing Committee on Transportation Demand Management.
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Authors:
- Kaufman, Matthew
- Choe, James
- Grant, Michael
- Greenberg, Allen
- Sethi, Sonika
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC, United States
- Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
- Date: 2018
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: References; Tables;
- Pagination: 20p
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Cities; Employee benefits; Parking; Personnel motivation; Policy; Subsidies; Taxes
- Geographic Terms: United States
- Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Finance; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Policy;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01665973
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 18-06020
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Apr 12 2018 1:38PM