Posts about Commuter Benefits

Senate passes transportation bill: The Senate passed a 2-year transportation bill with strong bipartisan support and plaudits from many quarters. It would also restore transit tax benefits to $230/month, as last year. Leaders are urging the House to take up the Senate version. (Streetsblog, Examiner, The Hill) (Comment)

VRE down, MARC up: After the transit benefit dropped from $230 to $125, VRE ridership went slightly down, while MARC's went up. The increase in gas prices could be counteracting the lower transit benefit. (Examiner) (Comment)

What's not passing Congress: John Boehner postponed action on the House transportation bill. (Huffington Post) ... The Senate transportation bill got "bogged down" by unrelated Republican amendments on Egypt, conctraception and more. (The Hill) ... The transit tax benefit didn't make it in to the payroll tax cut deal. (Transportation Nation) (Comment)

Transit benefit going down: As feared, transit benefits will shrink next year. Drivers, meanwhile, get slightly more parking benefits. (Streetsblog) (Comment)

Commuter benefit likely ending: The commuter tax benefit is likely to decline from $230 to $125 per month as of January 1, as the Senate has recessed and is unlikely to return until 2012. (Transportation Nation, Erik Weber) (Comment)

Breakfast tweets: Drops on Metro

by David Alpert • December 14, 2011 8:08 am

Photo by nevermindtheend on Flickr.

Weekend ridership falls on Metro after aggressive trackwork starts (Examiner, @kytja, @perkinsms)
Crime on Metro drops in 3rd quarter of 2011 (Post, @vebah)
A group of senators is pushing to extend the commuter tax benefit before it runs out (The Hill, @ajfroggie)
Even the Competitive Enterprise Institute opposes GOP plan to subsidize roads with oil drilling revenue (National Review, @MilesGrant)
Study shows WI "non-users fork over $779 per household for roads, as opposed to $50 for transit" (Streetsblog, @MilesGrant)
Whole Foods in Riverdale Park delayed again; town unhappy with proposed connection to surrounding n'hoods (Patch, @justupthepike)
In DC, you're 4x more likely to have somebody drive into you on purpose than anywhere else on the planet (NPR, @cityglaze)
Staunton News Leader calls on @BobMcDonnell to support a higher gas tax (News Leader, @MilesGrant)
London Tube Map made out of Drinking Straws by artist Kyle Bean (The Slow Hunch, @nickgrossman, @perkinsms)
Gabe Klein grew up in a Virginia ashram and played D&D with Rivers Cuomo (Grid Chicago, @Naparstek, @bogrosemary)

19 comments

Tags: commuter benefits, Gabe Klein, links, Metro, Riverdale Park

Transit benefit will shrink by half: The federal commuter tax benefit will be cut in half January 1 even as parking perks increase. Riders nationwide are campaigning to preserve the higher limits. (Patch, Examiner, Forbes) ... Contact your representatives! (Comment)

Metro ridership going down: Metro ridership could decline up to 5% next year, and even more if the federal government doesn't renew transit benefits for its employees at the level of the last 2 years. (Examiner) (Comment)

SmarTrip changes coming: Per IRS rules, SmarTrip cards will soon hold separate accounts for parking and transit fare. The cards will reload SmartBenefits automatically. Sadly, Congress may lower transit benefits while raising parking benefits. (Post) (Comment)

Few takers for NIH bike benefit: NIH is offering a $20/month bike benefit to reduce car traffic, but few employees are taking NIH up on the offer. Reducing the number of parking spaces would be a cheaper and more effective solution. (Gazette) (Comment)

Blumenauer wants better commuter benefit: Congressman Blumenauer (D-OR) wants to create permanent mode parity across the commuter benefit to promote non-SOV commuting, including doubling the bike benefit to $40/month and allowing cyclists to take transit benefits in addition to the bike benefit. (BikePortland, Grist, Gavin) (Comment)

Parking

Could transit benefits attract zoo members?

by Mitch Wander • January 4, 2011 11:06 am

Any avid "zoogoer" will tell you that becoming a Friend of the National Zoo (FONZ) is a no-brainer. For car owners, one perk stands out among the generous benefits: free parking.

Photo by Smithsonian's National Zoo on Flickr.

A quick cost-benefit analysis shows why drivers appreciate the free parking benefit, in particular. Up to three hours of parking in the zoo lots would cost $15 according to the recently revised parking rates.

A household, for example, pays $60 tax-deductible dues per year. Even in the unlikely case that the family exclusively joined the for the free parking, the break-even would be four trips at the most. Four trips in a year is nothing for folks who love to visit our zoo.

Drivers receive free parking. For those who travel to the zoo by transit, bike, or foot, what kind of perk could the National Zoo offer that would create equally compelling reason to join?

It's important to note that parking is not necessarily the main or only reason that people become a FONZ. Some donors join the zoo at the household or individual member level (or higher) simply because they want to support the National Zoo. Some members like the reciprocal discounted or free admission at over 100 other zoos and aquariums.

The discounts on food and souvenirs are nice. And there's the not-so-widely-publicized free bag of animal crackers for members' children at the customer service/stroller rental kiosks. All of these benefits, a cool magazine and supporting the zoo accrue to members whether someone uses the zoo parking lots or not.

Increasing visitor traffic arriving by means other than car would help the zoo, even beyond the increase in people able to enjoy and appreciate the animals. More foot traffic at the exhibits would drive additional concession revenue. Heavy vehicle congestion on busy days often causes the zoo to use its finite police force to direct traffic. Full parking lots lead to long waits in idling cars, unsatisfied visitors who decide to leave rather than wait and increased attempts to park on nearby neighborhood streets.

A FONZ member benefits program for non-drivers would need to be compelling for visitors and easy for the zoo to administer. It also would need to make financial sense to the zoo, with the new benefits costing the same if not less per member visit than the costs of offering free parking. (This posting will not examine the costs of free parking, as it has been covered and debated in other postings.)

Bus/Rail: Could the zoo and Metro develop a way to provide discounts on Metro Rail or Metro Bus trips when FONZ members visit the zoo?

Bike: Could the zoo permit the setup of Capital BikeShare locations with special incentives for FONZ members when they dock a bike at the zoo? Could the zoo, in partnership with local bike shops, purchase discount gift cards for distribution to zoo members who park their own bike in a designated area at the zoo for at least a certain amount of time?

Walk: Could the zoo provide additional FONZ member benefits for those who walk to the zoo from their neighborhood or hotel?

Car: Could the zoo modify existing free parking benefits to encourage families or friends with multiple memberships to carpool instead of each using their free parking with a separate vehicle?

Understandably, it's easy for the zoo to provide free parking. It's a well established process in use by recreational facilities and malls around the world. It's easy to verify whether someone arrived by car. (However, as the January 1, 2011 change in parking rates from unlimited to "up to three hours" shows, a site needs to ensure that the free parking is not abused.)

Transit, bike, or foot benefits for zoo members would take some analysis and integration by the zoo and potential partners such as Metro and Capital Bikeshare. These new benefits would not be free, though neither is the existing parking benefit truly free.

How could the National Zoo could provide these or other innovative benefits for FONZ members who arrive by transit, bike or foot?

37 comments

Tags: commuter benefits, free parking, National Zoo

Transit benefit passes, but a little late?: The $230/month transit benefit passed Congress as part of the tax bill. Many workers can continue deducting that pretax, and federal workers will get it for free. But some employers might take a month or two to switch back if they already reduced the benefit to $120 as expected, and also the extension will be up for renewal or expiration next year. (Examiner) (Comment)

More on the federal transit benefit: Most people think the transit benefit is only a subsidy for federal employees, but there's much more to it, and good reason to keep it at the $230 level. (Marketplace From American Public Media) (Comment)

Transit benefit preserved: The tax break that allows pretax deductions for transit of up to $230—equal to the longstanding deduction for parking—was retained in the tax bill that passed the Senate yesterday. The extension will only last a year, though, assuming the bill passes the House. (Baltimore Sun) (Comment)

Transit will soon be second class again for feds: The federal employee transit benefit is likely to return to $120. For years it was about half the $230 parking subsidy federal employees can enjoy until the recent stimulus bill, but the temporary fix will expire December 31. (Post, Gavin) (Comment)

And...: Amtrak will continue operating VRE for two more weeks, because Keolis isn't ready, leading to lots of finger-pointing (Kytja Weir/Examiner) ... Martin O'Malley and Bob Ehrlich are tied in a new poll (Alan Suderman/Examiner) ... Unless Congress acts, transit riders will go back to having a smaller pretax commuting benefit than drivers. (Renata Silberblatt/Mobilizing the Region) (Comment)

Budget

Is the federal transit benefit actually bad?

by Michael Perkins • May 18, 2010 2:57 pm

The federal government should discontinue the transit benefit.

Photo by aliciagriffin.

Now that I have your attention, hear me out.

Federal employees in the national capital region get direct transportation up to $230 per month, which they can use to pay for transit or vanpool service. To qualify for the benefit, they have to give up parking privileges.

While this policy encourages transit use and discourages single occupancy vehicle commuting, it does that in a way that encourages Metro and other transit providers to increase fares. The policy also ignores the benefits to society and to employees of shorter commutes, like those on bikes or on foot. Eliminating both the transit and parking benefits and providing employees with flexible funds for transportation would remove these problematic incentives.

When WMATA proposes increasing peak hour fares, many commuters are not affected, because they receive a transit subsidy which covers their whole commute. This reduces the pressure on WMATA to hold down fares for everyone, and encourages a fare policy that attempts to raise peak fares even higher to collect more of this subsidy. Meanwhile, the cost difference between peak rail and bus grows, causing poorer residents to take much longer and less efficient bus routes to save money.

Another example of a transit agency reacting to this policy was when Fairfax Connector raised the fare on their Reston to Pentagon express routes. The $7 one-way fare was over the $230 limit, but what kind of support do you think an increase of 133% would have if most of that change were paid by riders?

The policy encourages long-distance commutes, by making a short bus or rail ride effectively the same cost as an extended ride on MARC or VRE. But those shorter rides don't cost the regional governments the same. Commuter rail infrastructure is expensive, and VRE, for example, is becoming limited in capacity by their railway fleet. Long-distance Metro riders take up space in crowded railcars which could go to people currently being left at stations because the cars are full.

The policy of free, unlimited transit ignores an even cheaper, self propelled mode of transit: walking and cycling. A work colleague lives just two blocks away, and has a five minute commute. Another rides his bike from Alexandria more than one day a week. Yet my commute, from Falls Church, receives more government support, even though theirs is even more energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and healthier.

So how could we change this? First, instead of giving away parking and then giving everyone free transit of they don't use it, give everyone the same amount of money that they can use on any mode they like. Start charging market rates for parking, but increase pay by something like $150 a month.

Walking or biking would be encouraged, transit riders would be encouraged to choose shorter commutes where they can, and driving would still be discouraged, but allowed. The policy would be more flexible, allowing people to choose to occasionally ride a bike, take transit or even drive, paying only for what they use, rather than having a choice between unlimited parking or essentially unlimited transit. Transit providers would no longer be able to see federal employees as a ready source of revenue without complaints. They would likely have to seek a more balanced fare policy that spreads out the cost among all riders.

Most importantly, charging people for what they use is efficient and fundamentally fair. The federal government and other employers with similar policies should encourage this efficiency and fairness by giving every employee a flat benefit and changing free parking to paid parking.

51 comments

Tags: cash-outs, commuter benefits, fares

Taking away their fare share: Montgomery County may eliminate "super fare share," a program where the County pays some of an employer's transit benefit on a declining scale over ten years for employers in Metro-accessible areas. If the cuts go through, many employees will face a spike in their commuting costs. (Gazette) (Comment)