Free parking is the most common fringe benefit offered to workers in the U.S. Is it any wonder, then, that 91 percent of them drive to work — or that most of them drive solo? The cost of this parking subsidy is about 1 percent of the gross national product and four times the amount of funding for public transit.
1. An Invitation to Drive to Work Alone
Ubiquitous Free Parking • Effects of Employer-Paid Parking: Seven Case Studies • Effects of Employer-Paid Parking: A Mode-Choice Model • Other Evidence of the Effects of Employer-Paid Parking • Employer-Paid Parking Discourages Carpooling • Commuter Parking in the Context of All Parking • Conclusion: An Invitation to Drive to Work Alone
Endnotes
2. Cashing Out Free Parking
Parking as a Status Symbol • California's Parking Cash-Out Law • Benefits of Parking Cash Out • Daily Cash Out • Partial Cash Out • What Will Happen to All the Empty Parking Spaces? • The Potential for Parking Cash Out • Conclusion: Free to Choose
Endnotes
3. Parking Cash Out: The Tax Angle
Asymmetric Tax Exemption for Employer-Paid Parking • Is Employer-Paid Parking Wage Discrimination? • The Tax Expenditure for Employer-Paid Parking • Parking Cash Out: Two Tax Penalties • Removing the Tax Penalties • A Revenue Windfall for Federal and State Governments • Paying for Parking with Pre-Tax Income • Paying for Transit and Vanpools with Pre-Tax Income • Transportation and Tax Equity • Conclusion: Slow Advances
Endnotes
4. Parking Cash Out: Evaluating the Effects
Eight Case Studies • Case Study Methodology • Summary of Travel Changes after Cash Out • Emission Reductions and Gasoline Savings • Consistency with Previous Research • Cost of Parking Cash Out • Benefit-Cost Analysis of Parking Cash Out • Distribution of Benefits • Employers Praise Parking Cash Out • The Legislative Analyst's Report
Conclusion: Subsidize People, Not Parking
Endnotes
5. Parking Cash Out Compared with Five Alternatives
Alternative 1. Offer Transportation Demand Management Programs • Alternative 2. Require Employee Trip-Reduction Programs • Alternative 3. Remove the Tax Exemption for Employer-Paid Parking • Alternative 4. Increase the Tax Exemption for Transit Subsidies • Alternative 5. Tax Workplace Parking Spaces • The Brightest and the Best • Conclusion: Truth in TDM
Endnotes
6. The Politics of Parking Cash Out
Rationale for a Cash-Out Requirement • Why California Enacted the Parking Cash-Out Law • How California Enacted the Parking Cash-Out Law • Failed Attempt to Repeal the Cash-Out Law • Require Cash as a Condition for Tax Exemption • Allow Employer-Paid Parking in Cafeteria Benefit Plans • Conclusion: Align the Tax Code with Our Objectives
Endnotes
Appendix A. Converting Traffic Congestion into Cash
Appendix B. List of References
Figures
1-1.Parking Prices and Mode Choices
4-1.Commuter Mode Shares Before and After Parking Cash Out
4-2.Commuter Mode Shares in Southern California, 1990-1996
Tables1-1.Share of Automobile Commuters Who Park Free at Work
1-2.Employer-Paid Parking Increases Solo Driving: Seven Case Studies
1-3.Employer-Paid Parking Increases Driving to the Los Angeles CBD
1-4.Employer-Paid Parking Reduces the Rewards for Carpooling
2-1.Employer's Cost of Offering Free Parking (For 100 Employees)
2-2.Transfer Cost versus Real Cost (Costs and Benefits Per Employee Per Month)
2-3.
Changes in Travel to the City Center after Parking Prices Are Doubled
2-4.Comparing the Cost of Partial versus Full Cash Out
2-5.Employer-Paid Parking Spaces in the United States in 1994
3-2.Paying for Parking from Pre-tax Income: Tax Savings at the University of California
4-1.Commute Subsidies Before and After Cash Out
($ Per Employee Per Month)
4-2.Summary of Travel Changes after Parking Cash Out
4-3.Emissions Reductions after Parking Cash Out (Per Employee Per Year)
4-4.Cash-Out Results Compared with Previous Research (Cars Driven to Work Per 100 Employees)
4-5.Subsidy Per Employee Before and After Cash Out ($ Per Month)
4-6.Benefits and Costs of Parking Cash Out (Per Employee Per Year)
4-7.Demographics of Travel to Work
5-1.Distribution of Subsidies in a TDM Program
6-1.Effects of Offering the Option to Cash Out Six Million Rented Parking Spaces
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