Reply to What would it ACTUALLY take for you to consider biking or taking the bus, in lieu of motoring?

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "What would it ACTUALLY take for you to consider biking or taking the bus, in lieu of motoring? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would need affordable housing and better schools in DC to live near enough to my job to bike.

For metro: I suppose I could drive and park at the metro and then metro to work - but that would take longer than driving and cost more than gas ([b]I get free parking at work[/b]). [/quote]

This is a major factor in people's choices. When there is free parking, people are more likely to choose to drive by themselves than when they have to pay for parking.[/quote]
That people take cost into consideration of their choices is not revolutionary insight. Time is also a cost that people take into consideration, which is something that you don’t seem to understand.[/quote]

OP's question is: What would it ACTUALLY take for you to consider biking or taking the bus, in lieu of motoring?

So one answer is: if people who currently don't have to pay for parking would have to pay for parking.[/quote]

However, life is offing hard enough as it is, and [b]we shouldn't use sticks when we can use carrots[/b] to shape behavior, especially when what we'd consider as carrots is the bare GD minimum public service in Capitals around the world.  
Let's continue to make it easier to use transportation modes that aren't cars. Take the burden of transporting thousands of independent kids to school away from parents in their personally-owned vehicles. Continue to grow public transit and protected bike lanes so that as they become safer and more convenient, they become the obvious choices.

The only "stick" we really need to step us is enforcement of traffic rules in the city, including ensuring MD and VA scofflaw drivers with tens of thousand of dollars in unpaid tickets for their dangerous driving and parking habits pay those tickets and fix their behavior.[/quote]

We can use sticks as well as carrots. In setting policy, we usually do use sticks as well as carrots. If you even think it's a stick to stop subsidizing "free" parking, vs. simply removal of a carrot to reward driving.[/quote]
A company providing their employees parking is not a “subsidy”. [/quote]

Of course it's a subsidy: a parking subsidy. Under certain circumstances, it's even a considered a fringe benefit by the tax code. Just like it's a transit subsidy for my employer to pay for my Metro fare. [/quote]
You just noted that it is an employment benefit but still try to claim it’s a “subsidy”. My free advice is to stop trying to pretend to be an economist, you don’t sound as clever as you think you do.[/quote]

It's possible for the same thing to be an employment benefit and a subsidy. For example, the employer contribution to health insurance, which subsidizes employees' health insurance.

In fact, DC law recognizes "free" parking as a subsidy. Employers who have employees who turn down parking benefits must offer a Clean Air Transportation Fringe Benefit in an amount equal to or more than the market value of the parking benefit minus the employee's contribution to the parking expense subject to the maximum tax-free benefit allowed by the IRS. [/quote]
I sincerely hope that you are getting paid to do this, because the only other explanations for why you are monitoring this thread and posting replies from 7 AM to 2 AM are somewhat worrying.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics