More information about the Monthly Parking Pass

Happy National Dump the Pump Day - I have not noticed any additional transit riders today.  I wonder how many people it would take switching to mass transit from cars to lower the demand for gasoline and lower the price of crude oil.

So I had signed up in May with WageWorks to obtain the $11.25 monthly parking pass.  They deducted the $11.25 from my pay and sent me a Parking Debit Card with the $11.25 balance.  However, when I went to the MetroRail Transit Village to purchase the pass, the debit card did not work.

I called WageWorks this week to find out why the Debit Card was declined.  It turns out, because of the IRS regulations they need to clearly separate Transit and Parking.  There is a $130/month limit on Transit and $130/month limit for Parking.  The MetroRail Transit Village credit card processing shows up as a Transit purchase and is not allowed on the Parking Debit card.  Another example of why Federal one size fits all rules do not work.  $120 in transit and $11.25 in parking are OK for South Florida but $130/month in transit and parking in the Northeast does not go too far.

So I needed to change the plan I am on and file a special processing form to be reimbursed the $11.25 for my out of pocket parking pass purchase.  The costs of handling the $11.25 parking pass transaction is quite high.  I need to fill out a PDF form, attach the receipt, fax it to WageWorks and they will mail me a check.

Yesterday and today the Tri-Rail trains have been having quite a few issues with delays.  My VIP alerts email folder is full of messages about delays for yesterday and today.  For the last two weeks, the trains have been mostly on time.  Some of the alerts are attributing the delays to signaling issues.  Tri-Rail needs a little more transparency.  Commuters are not going to switch to mass transit unless it is reasonably reliable.

Yesterday, I drove to the train and when I got to the gate, realized I forgot my wallet.  I went home and retrieved it.  I would not have been able to catch the 7:00 train so I decided to drive instead.  Amazingly I got to Dania in 30 minutes.  That is Sunday morning drive time.  You've got to love summer traffic patterns. 

I found this interesting article (quoted below) about why people do not like to ride mass transit.  The main point is the value of time.  It does take more time to use public transportation, 2 hours vs 30-70 minutes driving.  For me, putting the extra time to use answering emails and watching training videos is a good investment of the time.

The only way to diminish reliance on the automobile is to create a mass transit system that is superior to the automobile by the standards of automobile users. In many circumstances the most effective system is the automobile and the only way to cut use of private automobiles is by supplying public automobiles, like rental cars and taxis. The sci-fi vision where you go up to a vending area, pop in a credit card, and drive off in a waiting car, needs serious consideration. Where density is high enough, the only way to cut reliance on private autos is with mass transit that is competitive with automobiles in out of pocket cost, speed, and convenience.

My next research project will be to find out if I can setup an tax deductible carpool for my sons' commuting expenses to high school.  After a little research, it looks like there is not way to make commuting to school a pre-tax expense.

National Dump the Pump Day 2015 - next Thursday June 18

Enter for a chance to win a free one month pass! HERE

Pledge to Ride Public Transportation on, Thursday , June 18th

Leave your car at home and ride the bus or train on Thursday, June 18th and participate in the 10th annual national Dump the Pump celebration by using public transportation instead of driving.

Pledge to ride public transportation on Thursday, June 18th and you could win a FREE monthly pass on Broward County Transit, Miami-Dade Transit, Palm-Tran or Tri-Rail.

Rules & Regulations

The Pledge
I pledge to ride public transportation on Thursday, June 18th and join millions of commuters across the country as part of National Dump the Pump Day.

Windows Shows Hostility to Commuters!

Yesterday was the day after patch Tuesday and Windows update applied updates to my VMWARE Fusion Windows machine.  I forgot how annoying Windows updates are!  Waiting for 28 updates to apply before being able to shutdown.  When the updates were taking too long, I unplugged my MacBook pro and walked to the Train with it open while the updates were applied.  It took the whole 7 minute walk to apply the updates, in addition to the 5 minutes it ran while at my desk.

Then when I got to the MIA Airport terminal, the first Metro-Rail train was taken out of service.  When I turned to the schedule kiosk to see when the next train would arrive, the kiosk system rebooted its Windows system and applied patches.  I wish I had taken a picture of the screen.  Why on earth would you reboot train schedule kiosks at rush hour.  For that matter why would you use Windows to run a kiosk display?

First Month of the WageWorks Auto-Renewal - not the smoothest!

This is the first month where my commuter benefits were pulled out of my May 30 payroll for the $120 Regional EDP Pass and the $11.25 monthly parking pass.  It was not as smooth as I would like it to be.  It required a lot of phone calls, faxes and time to straighten it all out.

The $145 that was withheld from my pay did not get placed on my Commuter Debit card, as I expected.  Instead, WageWorks automatically replenished my EasyCard with $120 for the Regional EDP Pass.  I had to make three phone calls to WageWorks and Tri-Rail to figure out where the $145 went to.  At first they said I should have received the pass in the mail.  However, I tapped into the Tri-Rail station successfully with my EasyCard and was able to use the kiosk to check the status of my EasyCard.  I then needed to call Tri-Rail to see if they were paid $145 or $120.  They were paid $120 so then I needed to call WageWorks to find out where the extra $25 went.  It will be applied to next month's transaction.  I will be looking for this transaction. 

The problem with refilling the EasyCard automatically is that I do not have a transaction and a receipt to pickup my monthly parking pass at Dadeland South.  I need to go to the Overtown Transit Village to get the parking pass.  This is really inconvenient because the hours are only 8:00am to 5:00pm weekdays.  This morning I took the 7:30 Metrorail arriving at Overtown station just after 8:00am.  I tried to purchase the parking pass with the Parking Debit card.  It was declined!  I will need to fillout a form on the WageWorks site to obtain a refund.  I purchased the parking pass with another card and headed back to the train.  I caught the Green line train to TriRail station and was about 5 minutes too late to catch the 8:30 Tri-Rail train.  Unbelievable, Tri-Rail trains start running hourly at 8:30. The next train is 9:30.  So rather than sit around outside at the Tri-Rail station, I caught the next train south to the airport.  At the airport I transferred to the next northbound train and waited patiently until 9:21 to start heading north.  And got this blog post written.


So today my commute will take a total of three hours (7:30 to 10:30) because of the need to obtain a parking pass at the Overtown Transit Village.  It has also taken several phone calls and faxes to straighten out the replenishment issues and declined debit card.  There needs to be a better way to obtain the monthly parking pass! 

One good thing though. It was good to see that the July transaction is correctly setup for $120