To consolidate, disseminate, and gather information concerning the 710 expansion into our San Rafael neighborhood and into our surrounding neighborhoods. If you have an item that you would like posted on this blog, please e-mail the item to Peggy Drouet at pdrouet@earthlink.net
Friday, August 1, 2014
It's Amazing How Many More Commuters Would Drive Less if They Didn't Get Free Parking
The lure of the space overwhelms almost all other commuter benefits.
If you're an employer in a major metro area, it's in
your best interest to offer a commuter benefits plan for every worker,
regardless of their preferred travel mode. That typically means free
parking for drivers, subway or bus pass programs for transit riders, and
secure bike storage as well as maybe showers for cyclists. This seems
only fair, like a bit of a win for everyone involved.
Thing is, commuter benefits for everyone can end up being a loss for
the city itself. That's because the lure of free office parking is so
great that it not only neutralizes the other benefits, it actually
entices some commuters into their cars and out of the alternative mode
they might otherwise prefer. So what looks at first like a balanced
policy in fact ends up favoring drivers—and that means more traffic for
the whole city.
To illustrate the problem, let's consider a new analysis of commuter benefits
from Virginia Tech transport scholars Andrea Hamre and Ralph Buehler.
Hamre and Buehler analyzed a household travel survey of 4,630 people
with full-time jobs in the metro Washington, D.C., area (both in the
city core and the inner suburbs). The survey noted each person's commute
mode as well as any commuter benefits received at work.
Using the data, Hamre and Buehler predicted the probability of
commuters driving alone or taking transit to work, based on the benefits
package their employer offers. We converted that data into the charts
below.
At baseline, when employers offer no commuter benefits at all, the
probability of driving alone to work is nearly 76 percent, with taking
transit at 22 percent (below, orange dots). As expected, when a company
offers only free parking and no other benefit, the probability of
solo-driving nearly hits the roof, reaching 97 percent (blue).
Similarly, when a company offers only transit benefits and nothing else,
probability of taking the bus or train breaks 76 percent, and driving
becomes less appealing (light blue).
So
far, no surprises. But take a look what happens when a company gives
employees both free parking and transit perks. These commuter benefits
don't cancel each other out. If they did, we'd expect to see
probabilities similar to the scenario when there were no benefits at
all. Instead, we find the probability of driving alone to work in this
scenario increased relative to nothing—reaching roughly 83 percent, compared to 16 percent for transit (below, dark blue).
When
we pull in data on cycling and walking, little changes. These two modes
were both at or below 1 percent probability for most benefit scenarios
(they peaked at 2 percent walking and 1 percent cycling when only
bike-ped benefits were offered, with no other commuter perks). Even when
we add these tiny probabilities to transit for the previous benefit
scenarios and create one lump alternative mode, driving alone still
dominates. And when we add bike-ped benefits to the mix with free
parking and transit perks, the probability of driving actually rises toward 87 percent (below, purple).
So
here's the trouble: As far as a city is concerned, its transportation
system may actually function better when employers offer no
commuter benefits than when all workers are covered regardless of mode.
Benefit scenarios that include free parking "overwhelm or render
insignificant" any perks related to public transportation or other
alternative modes, in the words of the researchers. Hamre and Buehler
conclude:
While benefits for alternatives to driving are associated with
individuals choosing to walk, cycle, and ride public transportation,
free car parking is associated with driving, and the joint provision of
free car parking along with these other benefits may blunt the efficacy
of efforts to get commuters to walk, cycle, and ride public
transportation to work.
Again, it's hard to blame a company for offering free parking,
especially if it draws talented workers from parts of the suburbs with
poor transit. There are plenty of ways to emphasizealternativecommutes,
of course, but few employers do so to the exclusion of other modes;
just 7 percent of people in the D.C. survey worked at places with
transit-only commuter benefits. And in cities with transit systems less
robust than the D.C. Metro, that approach is no doubt tougher.
In the end, what the data give us is yet another example of how incentives to ride transit aren't enough to shift commuter preferences on their own. If cities want real change, they need to create disincentives to drive or park, too.