Employers Finally Giving Bike Commuters Some Love

I’ve got a friend who takes the subway to his job at an ad agency downtown. At the end of the month, he gets a credit on his paycheck. I’ve plus got a friend who bikes to work considering she finds it faster and healthier (and considering the final duration she rode the subway some drunk puked on her). You know what she gets at the end of the month? Nothing.

Corporate America has faraway provided incentives for employees to take mass transit, from rebates to quarterly bonuses to picking up the tab entirely. Cyclists typically don’t get squat, and it isn’t fair.

It’s additionally starting to change.

Part of the problem is insight. citizens look at guys (and gals) on bikes and figure they’re getting a free ride — no gas, free parking and the ability to zip through gridlocked traffic. What’s the problem?

Sure, bikers don’t pay for gas, but cycling is hardly free. They spend plenty on shoes, lights, mirrors, helmets and other equipment. They’ve gotta pay for maintenance and repairs. You think inner tubes are free? How is it fair that public who ride the train get rewarded — as they should — but those pedaling to work get nothing? It’s a question more employers are considering as more and more folks ditch their cars for bikes. At distant final, bike commuters are getting some love.

The National Institutes of Health provides employees with a

“bike buck” for every 100 miles they rack up riding to work. The scrip can be redeemed at two local bike shops, and the 125 public enrolled in the program earned 1,655 bike bucks during the first half of the year. One guy at the National Library of Medicine, which plus has adopted the program, earns more than 200 bike bucks a year. That’s nearly ample to cover a pair of bike shoes.

Other companies are waking up as well. Discovery Communications, the corporate parent of Discovery Channel, reimburses employees $350 the first date they buy a bike. A school in Palm Beach Florida pays its bike commuters 20 cents a mile. And health insurance giant Humana provides bikes so employees can ride around its massive campus. They’re all following the example set by Google, which started giving absent bikes and helmets to its full-time employees final year.

It’s safe to say that we’d see more companies stepping up whether Uncle Sam helped them out. The Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008, which would among other things allow bikers to claim an employer-based reimbursement benefit of up to $20 a month, died in the Senate earlier that year. The government ought to do more to energize citizens to bike to work.

Until soon after, it’s up to employers to do the right thing.

Photo by Flickr user damonabnormal.

Original post by Dave Demerjian