More than half of the 14 million Americans who ride on public transportation each weekday are commuting to work.

 

 

It Pays to Use Transit

In workplaces across America, people are taking advantage of pre-tax programs that save them money on retirement, dependent care, and medical bills.  In San Francisco, employees can now save even more money to help pay for transit passes and van pool expenses in a pre-tax program known as the Commuter Benefits Ordinance.  A concept originally introduced in New York City in 1987, San Francisco’s landmark ordinance goes beyond encouraging and incentivizing companies to help the city reach its environmental goals.  Effective January 2009, any company in San Francisco with 20 or more employees must offer one of three options that will encourage workers to ride transit instead of drive for their daily commutes to and from work.   In order to comply with the new ordinance, companies can either allow employees to use up to $230 a month in pre-tax wages to purchase transit passes or van pool rides, pay for employees’ transit fares on any of the area mass transit systems, or offer free shuttle services between home and work on company-funded buses or vans.

The ordinance was originally intended to reduce San Francisco’s 2012 greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels, but its rewards extend far beyond this initial goal.  In addition to giving employees incentives to take public transit – which helps to reduce traffic and improve air quality – local business owners found that companies actually save money on taxes with this kind of program.  San Francisco’s new Commuter Benefits Ordinance will allow employers to save up to 9 percent on payroll taxes, and employees save up to 40 percent on their transit costs.  In a sample size of almost 300,000 Commuter Benefit users, the program has saved more than $340 million in gasoline annually, approximately 8.7 million pounds of carbon emissions everyday, and more than $129 million in payroll and commuting cost savings for both employers and employees.

In the Chicagoland region, companies can opt to participate in the RTA/CTA Transit Benefit Program.  Under the current program, employers can either give employees up to $230 a month to commute to work by mass transit or vanpools in exchange for a tax deduction, allow employees to use pre-tax income to pay for transit or vanpooling, or share commuting costs with employees by offering a set amount of tax-free dollars to be applied towards commuting expenses. In place since 2001, only 3,000 companies were enrolled in the program as of March 2005. A recent study found that after pre-tax transit benefit programs are implemented, employee transit ridership typically increases by 10 to 40 percent and that even a 10 percent increase in transit ridership would save 135 million gallons of gasoline a year.  The Chicago region loses $7.3 billion every year due to congestion.  To help address our pressing congestion issues, Chicago would greatly benefit from a more aggressive implementation of the existing Transit Benefit Program.

Photo courtesy of Roi Brooks

For Additional Information:

 

 

• Commuter Tax Benefits for a Better Chicago - Attend a local roundtable to learn more about this program
• Commuter Benefits Ordinance 199-08, San Francisco – City and County of San Francisco
• RTA Transit Benefit Program – RTA

 

NEWS

Local News

Illinois to Ask LaHood for $300 Million – Journal of Commerce “Illinois will ask Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to award $300 million to a multi-year project to untangle its congested freight and passenger rail lines, under a $1.5 billion discretionary funding account LaHood will allocate from the Recovery Act.”

Flurry of vendors commit to MetraMarket – Chicago Journal “Local and regional names lead the list of specialty vendors expected for the soon-to-debut food emporium in the West Loop’s long-planned MetraMarket.”

Illinois law provides funds for intermodal facilities – Progressive Railroading “Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn recently signed the Intermodal Facilities Promotion Act, which is designed to encourage business development along the state’s freight-rail lines.”

Shutdown of RTA's paratransit service averted – Chicago Tribune “Under pressure from the federal government, the Regional Transit Authority on Thursday approved stopgap funding that averts a threatened October shutdown of paratransit service for some 40,000 disabled riders.”

County votes no; RTA referendum fails to get cash – Post-Tribune “Lake County Commissioners snubbed a request for money to pay for a referendum on creating a four-county Regional Transportation Authority, further tangling the prospects for holding the vote as scheduled for Nov. 3.”

Residents weighing in on transit plans for 2040 – Chicago Tribune “The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) is giving northeast Illinois residents a chance to weigh in on every aspect of plans to guide development and transportation in the region through 2040.”

Illinois grabs big chunk of stimulus cash – Crains “Illinois received $504 per person in federal stimulus spending through July 20, well above the national average of $397 per person and 13th-most of all states.”

Fall debut for Metra Web site and online ticket sales – Daily Herald “Metra riders will be able to opt for plastic as well as cash starting Sept. 9 when they buy tickets.”

World News

States Seek Slice of Rail Funding – Wall Street Journal “States applied for billions of dollars for passenger-rail projects Monday, marking the start of a stimulus program designed to kick-start high-speed rail service in the U.S.”

Who owns transit data? – CNET “In some metro areas, transit agencies make data--routes, schedules, and even real-time vehicle location feeds--available to developers to mash into whatever applications they wish. In others, the agencies lock down their information.”

Stimulus funds in California mostly go to routine projects, study says – Los Angeles Times “Critics say the money is being used for projects that would have been built anyway, instead of on ways to change how Californians live. Case in point: Army latrines, not high-speed rail.”

After Fatal Crash, Metro Still Wary Of Letting Computers Control Trains – “Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. reiterated last week that trains will not run automatically again until he is satisfied that ‘all the aspects of what occurred on June 22 have been corrected.’”

Public transportation stalled by US recession-study – Reuters “Faced with dwindling funds and increased demand, public transit agencies across the U.S. are weighing service cuts or fare increases to deal with budget deficits, with San Francisco raising its ticket fees the most over the last year.”

Is China on Track for Suburban Sprawl? – New York Times “Beijing's transit development is at a crossroads. The capital of the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases is in danger of locking itself into a pattern of Los Angeles-type sprawl with ever-rising CO2 emissions.”

Utah County moving forward with bus rapid transit – Deseret News “Little by little, plans for a bus rapid transit line between Orem and Provo are getting closer to reality.”

Resources

• Transit, Call Centers, and 511: A Guide for Decision Makers – TRB

• Stranded at the Station: The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Public Transportation – T4America

Enjoy Talking Transit?  The content is a result of the research, outreach and advocacy efforts of MPC’s dedicated Transportation team.  You can make a difference on the issues you read about here by making a donation to MPC today, http://www.metroplanning.org/donation.asp.

Contact Information
For comments, suggestions or submissions, please contact Emily Tapia Lopez, Associate, at etapia@metroplanning.org or 312-863-6047.