Portland's Transportation Wallet & Similar Efforts

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A recent CityLab article suggests that having a taste of mass transit will get drivers more interested and confident about taking public transit. Eric Jaffee reports that 30 percent of regular car commuters gave up their full-time parking permits after a brief, free-transit trial. 25 percent of them stuck with transit full time.
This study reminded me of a seminar I recently heard by Sarah Goforth about Portland’s Transportation Wallet. This wallet is $100  bus and light-rail, an annual streetcar pass, and an annual bike share membership. This is available only in two areas of Portland; the NW Portland Parking District and in the Central Eastside Industrial Parking District.
These parking districts have a high concentration of commuters, densely populated neighborhoods, are walkable with good transit connectivity, have BIKETOWN station density, and many other qualities that make them good for this trade in. The passes are available to residents and employees who can purchase at 85% off retail cost or get free of cost by trading in on-street parking permits.  
The NW district has a $115 parking permit cost and Eastside has a cost of $225. These permit surcharges were adopted only in 2015/16.
Here is how funding will go for PBOT's transit wallet.
Here is Portland's strategies for getting people off the roads.
These efforts reported by Jaffee and Goforth are in attempts to better manage existing on-street parking, decrease congestion, and make it easier for customers and visitors to find parking. According to the Jaffee article, efforts in other cities look similar in the sense that more folks than ever are turning in their parking permits. The article reads that “Sixty-seven university workers, all with full-time parking permits, agreed to commute by transit for a few days during one trial week and complete follow-up surveys. The participants were generally quite set in their driving ways: 47-years-old and part of a two-car household, on average, with eight never having ridden transit to work” (Jaffee, 2018). Those people who did switch statistically became much happier with their choices. In both Portland and the cities mentioned in CityLabs, policy makers and employers are on board to make the switch too. It costs companies less to dish out parking permits versus these wallets to their employers.
What do you think of these incentives? Do you think that changing the policy landscape involves slow, direct tweaks to behavioral psychology? Or do you think going in with broad strokes will create a bigger impact?
Edited by: Sophie Schmidt


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