An Assessment of the Expected Impacts of City-Level Parking Cash-Out and Commuter Benefits Ordinances

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Contact Information: Operations Feedback at OperationsFeedback@dot.gov

U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
Office of Operations
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
ops.fhwa.dot.gov

March 2023
FHWA-HOP-23-023

Table of Contents

[ Notice, Non-Binding Contents, and Quality Assurance Statement ] [ Technical Report Documentation Page ] [ List of Acronyms ]

• EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
  • Background
  • Scenarios
  • Analysis
  • Results
• CHAPTER 1. BACKGROUND
  • Parking Cash Out
  • Employer Paid Commuter Benefits
  • Pre Tax Commuter Benefits
  • Policy Scenarios Introduction
  • Peer Review Group
• CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
  • Parking Elasticities
  • Travel and Transit Elasticities
  • Considerations in Applying Elasticities
  • Considerations for Monthly and Daily Parking Cash Out
  • Equity
• CHAPTER 3. CITY AND SCENARIO SELECTION
  • Scenarios
  • Cities
  • Data and Methods Summary
  • General Assumptions
• CHAPTER 4. RESULTS
  • Discussion
• CHAPTER 5. REFERENCES
• APPENDIX A. IMPLEMENTATION RESOURCES
• APPENDIX B. ADDITIONAL SCENARIOS CONSIDERED FOR ANALYSIS
• APPENDIX C. DATA AND ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY
  • Data Sources
  • Calculating Travel Impacts
  • Calculating Resulting Congestion, Environmental, and Safety Impacts
• APPENDIX D. ADDITIONAL RESULTS
  • Daily Citywide VMT Reductions for Affected Commuters Only: Scenarios 1 and 2
  • Scenario Extensions to Exempt Small Employers: Scenarios 1A and 3A
  • Free Versus Partially Subsidized Parking
• APPENDIX E. RESULTS BY CITY
• APPENDIX F. NON-EMPLOYEE FINANCIAL IMPACTS: EMPLOYER COSTS AND GOVERNMENT TAX REVENUES
• APPENDIX G. ADDITIONAL EQUITY DISCUSSION
  • Census Data Comparisons
  • Household Travel Survey Data
  • Additional Considerations

List of Figures

• Figure 1. Graph. Percent Reductions in daily citywide commute VMT by scenario and city.
• Figure 2. Graph. Percent reductions in daily citywide commute VMT by scenario and city.
• Figure 3. Graph. Estimated raw reductions in daily citywide commute VMT (in thousands of VMT) by scenario and city.
• Figure 4. Graph. Estimated percent reduction in daily peak period delay by scenario and city.
• Figure 5. Graph. Annual CO₂e reductions by city and scenario.
• Figure 6. Graph. Annual NOx reductions by city and scenario.
• Figure 7. Graph. Annual PM-2.5 reductions by city and scenario.
• Figure 8. Graph. Annual fatal and incapacitating injury crash reductions by city and scenario.
• Figure 9. Graph. Annual fatal and incapacitating injury crash reduction VSL estimates by city and scenario.
• Figure 10. Graph. Percent reductions in daily citywide commute VMT for Scenarios 1A and 3A compared to citywide results.
• Figure 11. Graph. Estimated raw reductions in daily citywide commute VMT (in thousands of VMT) for Scenarios 1A and 3A compared to citywide results.
• Figure 12. Graph. Percent reductions in daily citywide commute VMT for Scenario 1 full vs. partial subsidy comparison.
• Figure 13. Graphs. Vehicles per adult in household (HH) by employee wage income.
• Figure 14. Graphs. Primary commute mode by employee wage income.
• Figure 15. Graph. Los Angeles income and free workplace parking distribution.
• Figure 16. Graph. Los Angeles income and transit benefits distribution.
• Figure 17. Graph. Washington, D.C., region income and free workplace parking distribution.
• Figure 18. Graph. Washington, D.C., region income and transit benefits distribution.
• Figure 19. Graph. Chicago income and free workplace parking distribution.
• Figure 20. Graph. Chicago income and transit benefit distribution.
• Figure 21. Graph. New York City region income and free workplace parking distribution.
• Figure 22. Graph. New York City region income and transit benefit distribution.
• Figure 23. Graph. Philadelphia income and free workplace parking distribution.
• Figure 24. Graph. Philadelphia income and transit benefit distribution.
• Figure 25. Graph. Indianapolis income and free workplace parking distribution.

List of Tables

• Table 1. Percent reductions in daily citywide commute VMT by scenario and city.
• Table 2. Employee populations, mode shares, and parking rates by city.
• Table 3. Percent reductions in daily citywide commute VMT by scenario and city.
• Table 4. Estimated raw reductions in daily citywide commute VMT by scenario and city (assuming “most likely” 2x telework scenario and approximated to the nearest one hundred thousand).
• Table 5. Estimated annual dollars saved for all commuters due to delay reductions.
• Table 6. Summary of core input data.
• Table 7. Opportunity costs of driving for Scenario 1.
• Table 8. Comparison of reductions in VMT at worksites offering parking cash out (Scenario 1) using different calculation approaches.
• Table 9. Comparison of drive alone mode shares at worksites offering parking cash out (Scenario 1) using different calculation approaches.
• Table 10. Seattle Employer Transportation Benefits Survey data summary (data provided courtesy of Commute Seattle).
• Table 11. Seattle Employer Transportation Benefits survey data (provided courtesy of Commute Seattle) and scaling factors calculated with Equation 10 and Equation 11.
• Table 12. Average delay (minutes/VMT) metrics from TRIMMS v4.0.
• Table 13. Added delay with respect to VMT from TRIMMS v4.0.
• Table 14. Percent reductions in daily affected commuter VMT by scenario and city (with comparisons to citywide impact).*
• Table 15. Percent reductions in daily citywide commute VMT for Scenarios 1A and 3A compared to citywide results.
• Table 16. Estimated raw reductions in daily citywide commute VMT for Scenarios 1A and 3A compared to citywide results (assuming “most likely” 2x telework scenario, rounded to the nearest one hundred thousand).
• Table 17. Percentage of employees receiving free and subsidized parking in select cities.
• Table 18. Free and partially subsidized parking opportunity cost values used in analysis.
• Table 19. Impacts on citywide all commuter VMT in Boston and Cambridge.
• Table 20. Impacts on congestion, emissions, and safety in Boston and Cambridge.
• Table 21. Impacts on citywide all commuter VMT in Chicago.
• Table 22. Impacts on congestion, emissions, and safety in Chicago.
• Table 23. Impacts on citywide all commuter VMT in Houston.
• Table 24. Impacts on congestion, emissions, and safety in Houston.
• Table 25. Impacts on citywide all commuter VMT in Indianapolis.
• Table 26. Impacts on congestion, emissions, and safety in Indianapolis.
• Table 27. Impacts on citywide all commuter VMT in Los Angeles.
• Table 28. Impacts on congestion, emissions, and safety in Los Angeles.
• Table 29. Impacts on citywide all commuter VMT in New York City.
• Table 30. Impacts on congestion, emissions, and safety in New York City.
• Table 31. Impacts on citywide all commuter VMT in Philadelphia.
• Table 32. Impacts on congestion, emissions, and safety in Philadelphia.
• Table 33. Impacts on citywide all commuter VMT in San Diego.
• Table 34. Impacts on congestion, emissions, and safety in San Diego.
• Table 35. Impacts on Citywide All Commuter VMT in Washington, D.C.
• Table 36. Impacts on congestion, emissions, and safety in Washington, D.C.
• Table 37. Employee wage income by vehicles per adult in household (HH): % of employees in wage category in vehicles per adult category.
• Table 38. Employee wage income by primary commute mode: % of employees of wage category in commute mode category.
• Table 39. Summary of the best available household travel survey data related to each city.

List of Equations

• Equation 1. The number of employees with access to free or subsidized parking.
• Equation 2. Standard opportunity cost of forgoing a parking cash out offer.
• Equation 3. Per day monthly parking rate, weighted by CBD population.
• Equation 4. Average cash out offered, weighted by CBD population.
• Equation 5. Average benefit taken (opportunity cost of driving for Scenario 1).
• Equation 6. VMT reduced using TRIMMS.
• Equation 7. Percentage reduction in vehicle travel using travel elasticity.
• Equation 8. Percentage reduction in vehicle travel.
• Equation 9. Reduction in vehicle miles traveled for Scenario 1.
• Equation 10. Scaling factor equation when the mid or large size employer offering is greater than the citywide offering.
• Equation 11. Scaling factor equation when the mid or large size employer offering is less than the citywide offering.
• Equation 12. Sample calculation.
• Equation 13. Sample calculation.
• Equation 14. Total emissions reduced for pollutant p.
• Equation 15 a-c. Calculating all peak VMT.
• Equation 16 a-c. Percent change in congestion (vehicle minutes of delay), Method 1.
• Equation 17. Percent change in congestion (vehicle minutes of delay), Method 2.
• Equation 18. Marginal added delay.
• Equation 19. Percent change in congestion (vehicle minutes of delay), Method 3.