Congress retreats, St. Louis advances

At the end of this month, unless Congress is convinced to act otherwise, the tax benefit to the individual for transit will be cut nearly in half.

As it stands right now, the amount an individual spends, up to $230 a month, on his or her commute in a vanpool, train or bus, can be deducted from his or her paycheck, tax free. That’s the same amount the federal government allows people to get deducted from their paychecks for parking. After December 31, the transit benefit could be reduced to $120. The parking benefit is not at risk; it will remain the same.

Click here to tell Congress to protect this crucial benefit – for everyone, regardless of how he or she gets to work.

I have trained myself to look for the hidden costs of publicly funded or subsidized infrastructure projects. It’s simple to see that the hidden cost here is more cars on the road – and this at a time when we’re just beginning to see measurable increases in the numbers of cylists and pedestrians. Increasing numbers of cyclists on the road is tied to one thing – a sense of safety. De-incentivizing people to travel by vanpool, train, or bus is the opposite of what we need to see happening. Encouraging people to get back into their single passenger vehicles comes at great cost: it not only makes the roads less safe for everyone, but it is far less healthy for the individual than active transportation. Essentially, it’s subsidizing poor air quality, an overburdened storm water system, and sedentary lifestyle-related disease.

And it leads people to need a place to park once they’ve driven to work. Parking lots are not-so-hidden costs that represent nothing more than the loss of economic and social activity that would better utilize that square footage.

As most of you know, I ride my bike to and from work nearly every day. When I leave the office for a meeting that I cannot ride or walk to, I take the MetroLink whenever possible. If my meeting is at a university, a hospital, or a corporate center, my host very often graciously offers to validate my parking. It would be a better use of funds for them to acquire vouchers from Metro to encourage (and reward) people to use “efficient transportation.”  But no one has ever said yes when I say I didn’t drive and ask if they have a Metro voucher for me instead.

However, I see great potential for movement toward greater sustainability and livability in the City of St. Louis. The City held its first Sustainability Summit this week. Kudos to the City – every department was represented at the Summit, setting the stage for an integrated, systems approach to change. I hope we’ll see similar a similar commitment and comparable initiatives in St. Louis County, St. Charles County, and the entire region.

It will only be through these kinds of commitments that the hidden costs of our publicly funded infrastructure projects will be scrutinized. What I hope we’ll begin to see is increasing, personal investment in our community, our “home”; a willingness, on everyone’s part, to ask: “Who does this benefit and how?”

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