Originally Posted by
bragi
I don't agree that the people who take advantage of the bicycle plan will tend to be the less well-paid (i.e., less well-educated) members of the staff. The people I know who commute to work by bicycle (all five or six of them) are all professionals with fairly high incomes. If someone offers you a way to save $600/year, have an exercise program automatically built into your day, and throws in a free bike, what's not to like, even if you are a surgeon?
I'm just speaking for myself here. But if I made $300,000 a year, drove around a luxury car that doubled as a living room and someone said, "ride your bike to work you can save a whopping $600 a year", I'd probably say, "no thanks, I'll ride my pinnarello on the weekends and drive to work."
The reason is because a) my time's worth a lot more than the janitor who's being paid 1/10th my salary, b) I probably have a nice big house far from work, c) i work longer shifts and have more stress and would prefer physically resting on my way home, d) driving would be much quicker going back into the suburbs.
I live in NYC and in moderate traffic, I just break even between riding to work and driving. If traffic is light, it's about half the time to drive. And I don't even mean strolling in the park, I'm really pushing it when I'm riding.