The Issues:
- Scarce parking supply costs businesses in many ways as listed below:
- Employee frustration
- Tougher recruiting
- Poor customer or visitor access
- Hampered operations
Expensive parking is a financial burden, whether paid for by the company or the employee. Many companies try to offset that burden by offering free parking for their employees, but that encourages driving alone and makes less efficient use of a costly company resource.- Parking is a major economic cost of business. Whether hidden in a building lease or purchase package, or identified as a separate line item, parking costs are a significant business expense.
- Surface parking: Average cost per month - $30-$50 per space
- Decked parking: Average cost per month - $85-$130 per space
Many companies take parking for granted, but it is an expensive business resource whose cost you could most likely reduce. Commuter benefits programs can lighten the burden on employers and employees by promoting more efficient commuting and lower parking demand. Every parking space you save, because an employee shares the ride, means more money you can save or more people you can serve.
Listed below are just a few of the commuter benefits you can offer to help reduce the demand for and cost of parking:
- Design a formal or informal telework program. Employees either work from home or from a nearby telework center, thus reducing the need for parking spaces.
- Implement a bicycling or walking program. More bikes equals less cars - less cars equals less need for parking spaces.
- Design a parking program. Provide a parking "cash out" program (the exchange of a parking space for money which the employee will agree to use for transit), or implement free or reduced-fee parking for carpools and vanpools (for employers who currently have fee-based employee parking) or parking fees to discourage single-occupant vehicles (for employers who previously offered free parking).