Landing the best parking spot usually requires a big promotion. Wishard Health Services is providing choice parking to employees who carpool.

As a carrot to encourage carpooling, whose benefits include reduced air pollution and less highway congestion, Wishard in July gave carpoolers priority parking spaces in the hospital parking garage and in an employee-only lot.
 

Wishard Health is latest to get aboard regional carpooling, providing “priority” parking spaces to employees sharing rides. (Wishard Health is latest to get aboard regional carpooling, providing “priority” parking spaces to employees sharing rides.)

Wishard is among 380 local employers teaming with Central Indiana Commuter Services, a federally funded organization operated through a partnership with the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority.

CICS, which helps people find carpool partners, also helps coordinate vanpools and encourages people to ride the bus, bike or walk to work.

The service has also tried to overcome obstacles to carpooling, such as the fear of an urgent situation that will require access to a car while at work. CICS offers free emergency taxi rides home.

It also notes that employers can establish pre-tax spending accounts for vanpool costs and tax-deductible subsidies of up to $230 a month.