Description
This measure provides financial incentives or subsidies for non-single occupancy vehicle modes. Subsidies or incentives can be implemented through active transportation (walking or biking), vanpool/ride sharing, or transit fares.
Implementation Details
- Provide subsidies for transit fares for participating employees to reduce the cost associated with transit
- Partner with private providers such as Enterprise to establish an account and program for commuters to use.
- Subsidize the cost of bike/e-bikeshare programs for participating employees.
Mitigation Potential
Providing subsidies to use alternative modes of transportation reduces vehicle trips and therefore VMT. Related quantification methods include:
Linked Strategies
Equity Considerations
Prioritize subsidies for low-income households and communities with low vehicle ownership rates. Ensure subsidies support access to affordable and reliable multimodal options such as transit, biking, and walking. Monitor equity outcomes using disaggregated data on program usage by income and geography.
Funding Sources
Funding sources include CMAQ grants, Surface Transportation Block Grants, state and regional TDM program funds, employer commute program budgets, and developer mitigation funds.
Implemented in Marin County
Current TDM Implementation
Current TDM Implementation: Marin Transit Connect and Throughout the county, the Bay Area Vanpool Program from MTC’s 511 provides benefits of up to $600 a month off vanpool prices, and TAM provides an additional Vanpool incentive of up to $3,600 per vehicle.
Bay Area Air District’s Regulation 14, Rule 1 requires covered employees to offer 1 of 5 commuter benefits program options. The commuter options include some financial based programs (a pre-tax payroll deduction or a direct subsidy toward transit/vanpool costs), some are service-based programs (an employer-run shuttle or vanpool), and policy-based programs (an equivalent alternative benefit or a company-wide telework policy).
TDM Benefit Locations
Other agencies and jurisdictions can implement vanpool benefits like the County of Marin for their employees and encourage local businesses to do the same. This TDM measure can benefit a wide range of employer types, but particularly those whose employees have limited access to transit or a lot of employees coming from zero- or one-vehicle households.