Staff at Vancouver City Hall will now have to do something many other working Vancouverites have already been doing for years — take the bus or pay for parking.

Council voted Thursday in favour of a new program aimed at getting employees to stop driving to work and take public transit whenever possible, Coun. Heather Deal said.

Staff will be charged market rates of about $6 a day for parking in the underground garage. The city expects to generate about $450,000 from the fees, which will be used to fund a 50 per cent rebate for annual transit passes.

The city also aims to improve bike facilities at city hall and arrange for the use of a car sharing service for the times when employees need a vehicle.

"The Employee Mobility Program … brings in a thing [paid parking] that will be challenging for some employees, but it also brings in incentives for people who take transit, such as decreased prices for bus passes," said Deal.

Currently, the city hall is the only major employer in the area where employees do not pay for parking, according to a report prepared by the city's planning and environment committee, which drafted the mobility program.

The city plans to roll out the program to all city worksites in the future.