Lessons from a Hard Won Parking Reform Victory: Cash-Out in Washington DC

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Reinventing Parking this time looks at a successful parking reform campaign in Washington DC and the lessons for similar reform efforts everywhere.

The episode is a lightly edited recording of a Parking Reform Network event on 30 March 2021. 

The event featured Cheryl Cort, Policy Director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth which is a non-profit in the Washington DC region. 

She spoke about the long and difficult effort she led to persuade the DC Council to enact a parking cash-out law, the “Transportation Benefits Equity Amendment Act” which passed in April 2020.

Read more details below. Or check out the latest Reinventing Parking podcast episode.  


 

The new law requires employers who provide free or subsidized parking to also offer benefits to employees who choose other ways to commute to work, such as taking transit, walking or biking. It is an important reform because free workplace parking is a large incentive to drive to work and implementing workplace parking fees typically results in significant shifts towards other options. 

Cheryl's talk and the Q&A that followed is especially valuable for the numerous useful insights for parking reformers everywhere. 

If you need more details, the Coalition for Smarter Growth has an excellent detailed report which documents the campaign and is full of useful tips (like these below) for parking reformers. 


By the way, I am increasingly integrating my parking efforts into the Parking Reform Network. So expect to hear more about and from PRN in future episodes. You can find out more (and join!) at parkingreform.org.


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