D.C. City Government Considers “Cash for Close-in Urban Living”

by Elana Schor

The nation's capital is proposing to use money from the Obama administration's economic stimulus law for a pilot program that would give grants of up to $3,000 for suburban commuters to move closer to transit or their place of work.

washington_metro_washington_d_c_dc123.jpgThe interior of a D.C. Metro station. (Photo: PlanetWare)
The Live Near Your Work grants being weighed by D.C. would use $90,000 to offer incentives for 30 local workers to move within 1.5 miles of their office, a half-mile of a Metro rail station or a quarter-mile of a bus stop.

The program would be an "experiment" along the lines of "cash for clunkers," the city's Department of the Environment director told the Washington Examiner:

"The biggest driver of how much energy somebody uses is where they live," said George Hawkins, DDOE director. "We're trying to get people to live closer to where they work. It's not a lot of money, but it's something we want to pilot to see how it goes."

Incentive programs that aim to encourage work-accessible living patterns are already in place in Baltimore, Minneapolis, and Chattanooga, Tennessee.