Chart of the Day: Parking Subsidies

Here’s a chart from a piece up at Streetsblog that shows which income groups get access to subsidized parking from their workplace via the “parking commuter tax benefit.”

 

commuting subsidy chart

There are two main problems with the kind of parking subsidies that are common in many workplaces. First, they go mostly to the wealthiest groups of people, as this chart shows. Second, they make congestion worse by encouraging people to drive.

…as Streetsblog says:

The result: The country spends $200 billion a year on transportation — much of it on road expansion justified as a congestion reduction tool — while simultaneously encouraging people to make congestion worse by driving downtown during rush hour and parking for free.