Getting paid to bike to work
 

Has anyone ever heard of paying people to ride their bikes to work?
Some program in Contra Costa County in California is paying 10 newbies $100 for helmet-lock-tuneup. Then 52 cents a mile in Safeway gift certificates and full reimbursement for mass transit.

http://www.bikingbis.com/blog/_archi...8/3626398.html

If I was a business owner I would certainly offer bonuses and incentives for those choosing to cycle to work or use environmentally friendly means.

I am not a business owner though. In fact I work for a transportation company. We use immense amounts of diesel (we have 500+ trucks on the road). Damn, I am ashamed to show my face in this forum now...

Thanks a lot for making me point these things out widget...

$0.52/mile
My commute ~ 30mi r/t
30 x 0.52 = $15.6/day x 4 days = $62.40/week

Dang! I wouldn't need to pay for groceries any more.
That's $250/month I could be spending at the LBS!

From TFA, it looks like it tops out at $200 a month. Although that's still a nice chunk to get for riding a bike.

The Bicycle Commuter Act is essentially a way of "paying" you to ride your bike to work. If it ever passes. In a sense I'm paid to ride the train/bus, since I get a subsidy for my pass.

A local employer in town pays people $1.00 per trip (so $2.00 per day roundtrip) when they bike commute. They are in the bike industry, so it fits.

Scot

We get refunded the cost of a parking permit (~$250/yr) if we sign a form and promise to never drive to work. I haven't in over two years!

So it's kind of like this:

Drive: Pay $250 or $600 per year for parking
Not Drive: Receive $250 a year for not parking

We also get some free hourly car rentals on a quarterly basis. I haven't used mine in a while, but I did have a couple of hours of fun visiting friends at another workplace in a new Cobalt last November for free.

Gee, if the federal government ever decided to do something like this, I'd be willing to bet that transportation costs over all would go down.

Imagine if the government chose to pay folks to bike commute vice fund a new freeway or add lanes to existing roads. What a concept.

Rather then give tax credits to oil companies, how about mileage credits to cyclists. Look how much driving is subsidized in our society... with everything from limited access freeways to free parking and even the aforementioned oil tax credits... (and don't get me started on the 6000lb vehicle tax credit... ).

Perhaps it is long past time for cyclists to get some of their share too.

I like the way QBP does it: http://www.qbp.com/commuting.html

My wife gets paid, but it's per trip not per mile. And it's for any non single-occupancy vehicle, not just bikes. So, carpool or bus would work too.

Man, I wish my employer dished out like that! Guess I'll just have to be satisfied with the gas savings. . .

This is a great idea. I would rather see it as a case by case, lead by example sort of thing for businesses though. The last thing we need is the government telling us another thing that we can or cannot do.

Eric

Don't worry. Your real fault is subscribing to what I've come to call the 'Environmental Assumption Fallacy'. Not every one in the commuting forums rides to work to save the earth, and some of us get quite offended when those kinds of assumptions are made. I actually commend you for working for a transportation company--one of the mass-consumers, mass-producers or service providers--that provides a market and demand for the type of infrastructure that allows us to commute safely everyday.

Commuters need to remember that they only find value and happiness in a cycle commute because it is by choice (practical evidence can be seen in the alcohol ? thread). Where no choice exists, no value exists. When you support environmental programs (especially those pushed by the government, not employers latching onto trendy issues) you work to undercut the productive forces that give us jobs to commute to and that have consistently created cleaner and healthier technology because it is profitable to do so. (Podolak, this last paragraph is in response to a pervasive and common mentality that I've noticed, and not directed at you.

/I'm feeling a bit snarky today :)

Cheers,
Steven.

Steve,

Your point is well received. I appreciate you taking the time to point this out. I had not taken in to serious consideration what you have stated. I will now, going forward. I guess I just assumed everyone here is out to save the world. My sincere apologies.

Don't be ashamed, I'm not. Heck, the company I work for has 17,000 trucks. At least they are in the process of turning them all down to save fuel.

No hard feeling whatsoever! I'm just glad I didn't piss you off. I can come off a little to aggressive sometimes. In fact, I know my 'philosophy' exists alongside only about .0001% of the rest of the population so I try to insert it in conversation whenever the subject effects me (like in a commuter thread). I could just mind my own beeswax, but what fun would that be :p

Improve Air Quality
 

Actually, each partipant will recieve up to a total of $200.00 each month in Safeway gift cards and transit reimbursement.

Also, as stated in the bikingbis blog:

"The goal of the program is to provide training so participants become familiar with their rights and responsibilities as bicyclists. We want them to feel safe on the road and become ambassadors for bicycling in their communities.

"... We also would like the participants to incorporate bicycling into their lifestyle. ... The overall goal of the program is to decrease the number of short trips to work and for errands and thus improve air quality in our communities."

You have to own or have access to a vehicle to participate? Lame.

That looks like a nice deal. At least it could help pay for all the protein recovery shakes that I drink. Atlanta, GA hills are a challenge when you're tired, the pollen count is high and there are lots of pollutants in the air in the summer. We have a program here that gives out gift cards depending on how many car-free commutes you take per month. Seriously though, I ride because it clears my head and makes me feel good. Passion for the ride is a better motivator than money for me.

From what I have read about the program, its focus is on the novice rider that may not have the training or skills sets to ride to work on a regular basis. It provides them with a foundation, so they have the confidence to commute to work by bicycle. So, it does not seem to be the incentives that are the most important part of this program. What is important is the League of American Bicyclist training and the suppport an encouragement of the program.

I'm another one that doesn't do it to "save the world", whatever that means.

I want money! I want money! It could pay for more of my biking accessories!

So your wife drives a tandem? :D

Required to attend/sit through 10 hours of LAB education classes and own/use helmet? Double down on the Lame Claim.

Thanks for offering the "Bikin biz,' link. Its now a favorite.

No reasonable amount of money would make up for it monetarily for me. I spend an extra 45 minutes a day riding instead of driving. If I worked those as overtime (I'm allowed to work as much OT as I want to) that would translate to about $25/day after taxes. So in rough terms it costs me about $500/month to commute by bike. Subtract off the $60/month I'd pay for gas, add $130/month for the cost of the car divided into 12 years (so far, and the car will go much longer), it's still costing me about $310 a month to commute by bike. OK, I wouldn't work that much overtime, but it definitely cuts into it by more than what it would cost me to drive even if I had to buy a new car every 10 years to do it.