Congressman Sponsors a Bill to Pay People Riding Bicycle To Work

House Democrat Joseph Crowley recently sponsored a new bill that would allow employer to provide a tax-free bike-sharing subscription to its employees.

Bike sharing is a system usually managed by city administration to reduce traffic congestion by promoting icycle as alternative mode of transportation. The system provide a bicycle sharing stations all over the city, where user can rent the bicycle from one station, ride it to the destination, and return the bicycle in the nearest station. Many bike sharing systems offer a free 30-45 minutes rental fee, or an inexpensive one to encourage people to use the transportation.

So far, bike sharing system in China is the largest in the world, and other countries are catching up. In order to promote bike sharing in the U.S, a congressman, Joseph Crowley sponsored HR 4104, named Bike to Work Bill. According to Forbes, with over 30 bike-sharing systems across the U.S. and more on their way, it is likely the time for such idea has come.

The bill was already introduced in the House of Representative on November 19. Nevertheless, Forbes mentioned that the possibility for the bill to pass is only 2%, according to experts in the govtrac.us.

Bike sharing system enable the city administration not only to reduce traffic jam, but also to reduce pollution. Countries that already have bike sharing system try to encourage more citizen to use the system. Offering incentive to employees who ride bicycle to work is one of the initiative.

In other news, Britaly Post reported that Massarosa, a small town in Tuscany made a debut of a Bike to Work Scheme. Funded in full by the money from road fines, the scheme is to be tested for a year on fifty people selected in the course of a regular competition open to all local residents.

Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France and Britain already have paid bike to work program. They provided various type of incentives for employees who ride bicycle to work, such as tax breaks, payments per kilometer and financial support for buying bicycles. Last year, 20 French companies and organizations that employed total 10,000 people agreed to pay incentive for employees based on the distance they bike to work..

However in UK, Bike Biz, is afraid the govenment will ditch its paid bike to work program. Bike Biz also mentioned that many bike shops are heavily dependent on the sales made through the Cycle to Work scheme, an initiative introduced in the Finance Act 1999.

In order to encourage people riding bicycle to work, U.S. legislator think it is necessary to provide incentive for both company and employees, as other countries have done the same.