General Cycling Discussion - Will the government pay you to ride?

I remember hearing or reading that there are US government programs or incentives (federal or state) to use alternative energy or green vehicles.

Question: Do they consider bicycles alternative energy or green vehicles?

If so: Do any of you know where one can find information about these programs and incentives? Tax breaks, tax deductions, payouts?

Thanks
Wayneburg

Do any of you know where one can find information about these programs and incentives? Tax breaks, tax deductions, payouts?


There's a bill before the US House that would extend this nationwide, go to http://www.bikeleague.org/educenter/hr1265.pdf.

The key thing to remember if this happens is that you have to work for a participating business and your boss reimburses you, not the government.

There may be some state governments offering incentives like this to support commuting now.

Scott (yes, this is my first bikeforums post)

This is a good idea. But in reality how many of us work for a company that would be a participateing business? And how many of us have employers that would reimburse us?

I'd be out in the cold, since I don't work full time- I mainly do independent contractor work and work part time at several different locations.

I called the IRS last year and asked them how they could have these great programs for the hybrid cars where you can get like $4000 in tax breaks, while a bike gives zero pollution emmission and gets no tax breaks. The woman on the phone sympathized with me, and she agreed with me, but she just said it wouldn't be happening anytime soon.

Maybe if Segway scooters linked up with the League of American Cyclists, there could be a big push from alternative transportation advocates for more tax breaks.

Personally, I think the government should reimburse cyclists for up to $4000 or half the cost of the bike (whichever is cheaper for the government), provided that you get insurance in the event of an accident, and you can prove it is your primary mode of transportation- and no... I have no idea how to be able to prove that.

Koffee

wow...so...would messengers qualify for said compensation, or would they get screwed over because it's in their job description to ride a bike?

I was contracted down to a large company for a while, they used to have a policy in place to reimburse their employees who car pooled, took the bus, or road bike to work. They would get something like $2 a day, also the company commonly had vehicles for employees to use for business. BUt if you did one of the previous to get to work, in a emergency you could check one of these vehicles out. That ended after a while since people abused the system, they would get together with another to state they carpooled but in reality they never did.

I work for Washington State & we have a Commute Trip Reduction plan that pays $2/daily round trip if you do at least 40% of your one way commute distance each way by car pool, bus, walk/run, or bike. Only qualifier is you have to have a potential pool of at least 100 employees to start up the program. Our office has been doing it for a few years now. Out of 100 we have 3 year round cyclists plus a few more fair weather types. Uses the honor system & there aren't any abuses as far as I can tell. We had several bike commuters already when the program began & Its what got me back into cycling again. Somehow I manage to spend all my CTR $ and then some. Come join us in the upper left hand corner of the USA. Don