In D.C., Employers Will Refund Workers Who Leave the Car at Home

"A first-of-its-kind municipal law now requires many employers in Washington, D.C. to provide cash to workers who turn down their company-sponsored parking benefits," reports Kea Wilson for Streetsblog USA.

The Transportation Benefits Equity Amendment Act, as the new law is called, took a few years to get across the finish line, but now that it the law in the nation's capital "it could serve as a model for other American cities that want to de-incentivize car commuting."

According to Wilson, the law "is based on parking expert Donald Shoup‘s innovative 'parking cash-out' model, which studies have shown is an effective tool to disincentivize car use." Wilson notes that California and Rhode Island have passed laws achieving a similar effect, "but neither applies to workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, and both offer generous exemptions for employers located in regions that already have good air quality, or that don’t have strong transit networks that workers could realistically use instead of driving."

A lot more detail on the new law is included in the source article below.