Parking Cash-Outs Benefit Employees, Businesses, and Cities
By Aaron Westling, State Smart Transportation Initiative
Research from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) finds that strategies such as providing parking cash-outs, offering commuter benefits, and eliminating subsidized parking could drastically reduce commute VMT in cities. The study also concluded that the implementation of these strategies and the resulting decline in VMT could reduce congestion, emissions, and serious traffic crashes.
FHWA analyzed the potential impacts hypothetical parking cash-out programs and commuter benefits ordinances could have on travel behavior in nine major cities. The report defines a parking cash-out as a benefit where, “employers that provide free or subsidized parking at work also offer employees the option to take an equivalent cash payment, tax-free transit benefit, or tax-free vanpool benefit instead of the parking subsidy.”
