dcbiker

Today my employer offered the $20/month bike commuting subsidy that was approved as part of the bank bailout bill. It means that I can be paid $240 a year, and my employer gets a tax exemption.

My dilemma is this: I will have to give up a $60 or so per month bus and subway subsidy, which I use going from Arlington, Va., to Washington, D.C., on days when the weather is terrible or I just don't feel so good. The public transportation cost is about $2.60 round trip. I also use it sometimes on my lunch hour or on weekends. Occasionally I give this card (which frequently builds up to the $300 limit) to a former foster child who has a long commute (until she loses it.)

So I probably use more than $20 a month on the card but not a lot more, since I bike the six miles each way most days, even in January.

I am tempted to take the subsidy just as a sign of support for bike commuting. I am famous in our quite staid building for being the guy in the grubby clothes on the elevator. But I feel like I am losing money. What do you think?

Bruce Rosar

I think that the act of commuting by bike is a visible sign of support and that taking a subsidy isn't.

But that's just me.

buzzman

The $20 amount was a compromise in order to get the bill finally passed. I suggest that if you are entitled to the more substantial public transit discount then accept that one- it's the minimum amount that the bike bill should have provided for but didn't.

Sacrificing $40/month because you feel it supports biking seems a bit extreme to me. I'd take the bigger check and give a little more to my local bike advocacy group if that were my concern.

Artkansas 

Take the bus subsidy for when you need it and ride your bike. No problem.

uke

...so you're asking if you should take a $40 pay cut for no good reason? Personally, I wouldn't. YMMV.

dobovedo

+1

evblazer

Wow it is an either or? Back when I did mass transit I could have taken the parking benefit too except I rode my bike so they wouldn't pay for my bike locker parking

I would just keep on with the pass that is definately more important to your situation.

Yan 

What you should have done is to have taken the parking spot, bolted a bike rack on it, and locked your bike to the bike rack. When someone asked you why you're wasting a perfectly good parking space, you would have said, "That's not space. Space is for ******g astronauts."

Severian

Importantly... the 20 bux per month is an employer benefit for putting in facilities for people who want to bike in (bike racks, lockers, showers etc) not a direct benny to the employee... or so I understand the wording.

JinbaIttai

Is this $20 a month thing with your company only, or is this some federal thing that I missed because I live under a rock? Any helpful links anybody?

crhilton

The subsidy is to help you not to tally bike commuters. Skip the bike subsidy.

crhilton

Yes, you live under a rock. The bailout bill had an item about a $20 a month subsidy for those who commute to work by bicycle more than, I think, 11 times a month. It's done on a month by month basis by your employer: So you have to work through your employer.

It starts in January 2009.

buzzman

the bill provides some tax benefits for employers but like the public transit benefit it is a direct benefit to the employee at an amount of $20/month. You have misunderstood the wording.

Bicycle Commuter Act explained...

In a nutshell:

no1mad 

Said fringe benefit is offered at the sole discretion of the employer.

buzzman

yep.

don't know why you pulled my quote for that comment- were you thinking I was implying otherwise?

slloth

I would go with whatever option gives you more money. If I read it right you get $40 more a month with the transportation subsidy correct? It's kind of a no brainer to me. I don't know about you but I don't work for fun I work for $.

no1mad 

No. I just merely clicked on the reply with quote link. I was hoping that the quote from the LAB about the benefit would also appear in my post as well. It was my intent to clarify that the benefit is totally voluntary on the employer's part. Meaning, for anybody who's been living under a rock, that any employee who wants that benefit has to ask their employer. And as I understand, said employer can say 'no', and that would be the end of that particular benefit with that particular employer, period.

Your forum-fu is much stronger than mine

Hot Potato

Its a wash. You use about twenty bucks a month on the transit card. You get to feel good about donating the remainder of the card to someone less affluent than you.

If you take the bike subsidy, the money goes directly into you pocket, for whatever you want. If you are old enough, I would spend it on beer. (hey, what's better than free beer?)

So, which is better for you, free bus passes or twenty bucks you can do with what you want?

dobber

Is this a trick question?

wildergeek

At least you have a choice. My employer told me that since such a small number of people would use the benefit, they aren't interested in offering it.

InfiniteRegress

You're already doing the most important thing possible to promote cycling - you're using a bike to get to work! I would do whatever is the most financially beneficial for your situation, which sounds like it's going to be taking the public transit benefits and NOT the $20/month bike benefit.

sharkey00

Keep the transit pass. If you want to support cycling join an advocacy group.

In my situation my employer gives me a pass worth 1800 dollars a year (though I only need 1000 so 1000 would be the actual cost if I had to but it myself) or I can get the bike benefit for 240 a year? No thanks.

anielsen

The statement that I received from my employer says that I can choose which benefit I want on a month-by-month basis, so I plan to get the transit benefit in the dead of winter when I'm likely to ride the train more and to get the bike benefit the rest of the year. This is good for me because I get more transit benefit than I can use and if I don't use it, it's taken away from me. The $20 for riding will actually mean more money for me in the long run.

dcbiker

Well, it's nearly unanimous that I should take the transit subsidy. I really only would have taken the bike subsidy so the employer couldn't drop the subsidy, saying "Nobody wants it." Then nobody would get it in the future, even if the subsidy was increased. (My employer didn't give us an either/or option). But one of my colleagues plans to take the subsidy, so that's no longer an issue.

Berniebikes

Maybe it's me. Right is right. Wrong is wrong.

Your employer gives you a subsidy to ride public transit and not drive a car. Nice benefit for you. Generous of your employer. Ask yourself if the employer would give you the benefit if you wrote them and said I don't generally use public transit but ride my bike most of the time, and by the way I usually give 2/3 of the use of the public transit card to my former foster child for her benefit. How do you think they would respond?

I agree, you have a choice to accept the public transit subsidy for your use, or to accept the $20 bike fringe benefit, since even when you ride your bike you also will occasionally use the public transit. I don't agree that the diversion of that benefit to someone else is entirely proper, but that's your choice based on your own sense of ethical behavior.

The use of the card by someone other than you would probably be frowned upon by your employer, and my guess is they would view that as unethical and take action to better 'define' the benefit, same way they would probably take it away if they found you were accepting to give to someone else but were still driving a car every day to work.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth.