LA Metro offers up to $600 for households to park a car for five weeks

LA Metro has launched phase two of its One Car Challenge, a pilot that pays up to $600 to Los Angeles County households that park one vehicle at home for five weeks and rely on transit, biking, walking, carpooling or other modes. The initiative builds on a 2023 test in Santa Monica that involved roughly 300 multi-car homes and showed participants were 2.6 times more likely to avoid using an extra car, with a 16.16% rise in walking, biking and transit use.

This round targets about 2,000 households, now opening eligibility to single-car families, and requires participants to be at least 21 and use the GoCarma smartphone app for travel monitoring. Funding comes from a $2 million Regional Early Action Planning grant provided by the Southern California Association of Governments. Officials hope the data will inform long-term strategies to reduce vehicle miles traveled and ease traffic ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, though some residents question the practicality of public transit for their commutes. Interested parties can sign up through Metro’s website.