Mudar a mobilidade urbana: do discurso à acção política

Manifesto da MUBi para as Eleições Legislativas de 2022


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https://www.facebook.com/mubi.pt/posts/6703709279669861

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Ao invés do Cycle to Work Scheme que a MUBi costuma apresentar como proposta (algo que não aconteceu neste manifesto), acho esta medida mais interessante porque é mais justa e fácil de fiscalizar. Ainda vai a tempo de ser negociada com o futuro governo.

A first-of-its-kind municipal law now requires many employers in Washington, D.C. to provide cash to workers who turn down their company-sponsored parking benefits — and experts say it could serve as a model for other American cities that want to de-incentivize car commuting.

After more than a year stuck in regulatory limbo, local leaders in the nation’s capital are finally enforcing the Transportation Benefits Equity Act of 2020, which requires “that employers … offer a ‘Clean Air Transportation Fringe Benefit’ in an amount equal to or more than the market value of the parking benefit” for employees who turn down the company-provided space.

The new requirement is based on parking expert Donald Shoup‘s innovative “parking cash-out” model, which studies have shown is an effective tool to disincentivize car use.

California enacted a similar cash-out law in 1992. The California Air Resources Board examined the law’s effects in a travel study of 1,694 commuters at eight firms in Southern California. The [1997 study] (California's Parking Cash-Out Law | California Air Resources Board) found that after employers offered the cash option, solo driving to work fell 17%, carpooling increased 64%, transit ridership increased 50%, and walking or biking increased 39%. These changes reduced vehicle travel to work by 12% — equivalent to removing from the road one of every eight cars driven to work. Employers reported that parking cash out was cheap, easy to manage and fair. It also helped them to recruit and retain workers.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-14/what-s-wrong-with-free-parking-at-work

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Compliance with the cash-out law costs employers little because the laws in both California and D.C. apply only to parking spaces an employer rents from a third party. When a commuter cashes out a parking space, the money the employer previously spent to rent the parking space becomes the commuter’s cash allowance, and the firm breaks even.

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Leicester is now set to become the second [city in UK]: it is consulting on proposals to charge companies with more than 10 parking spaces £550 a year per space from next year. It is up to employers to decide whether to absorb the cost or pass it on to their staff. It could raise £450m in the next decade to invest in a new fleet of electric buses, an expanded cycle network and train station renovations.

The power to raise a “workplace parking levy” (WPL) from local businesses was introduced by Labour more than 20 years ago.

Others have expressed concern about the impact on low-paid workers. A spokesperson for the AA said: “Given that WPL when passed on to employees is a flat-rate local tax, it hurts lower-income workers more and disproportionately.”

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