Next thing you know, people might start walking
It’s long been the case in the U.S. that companies could get tax breaks on money they spent assisting employees in driving cars to/from work (including the vehicle itself, fuel, parking, etc.). Some crazy hippies or eco-terrorists or some such have proposed the radical idea that similar tax breaks should also exist in support of people cycling to work. H.R. 1498 would (according to the League of American Cyclists):
provide bicyclists with a similar tax benefit to that currently enjoyed by transit users and car parkers, through voluntary, employer-run programs. This small incentive to ride rather than drive to and from work should be seen as an important element of broader efforts to tackle climate change as well as traffic congestion, obesity and other critical challenges.
That clearly sounds like a terrible idea - it’s obviously my Great American Right to be fat, lazy, and drive a big-ass SUV whenever humanly possible, and lord knows the tax code should encourage such behavior whenever and however possible.
Wacko loonies who would actually wish to support such nonsense, however, can read the text of the bill or even contact your congress critters and publicly express your silly ideas.
I did, and it was fun!
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June 28th, 2007 at 08:17
For me the issue isn’t a tax break or anything like that, the issue is route and sprawl. I would love to ride my bike to work, even if it is about 10 miles. The problem is that there is no way to get from home to work without crossing a major highway. Let’s say I am still brave enough to do that. Then I still have to contend with no shoulders or bike paths. Manifest Destiny is still with us and it can be seen in suburban sprawl, how we embrace the car as an absolute symbol of freedom, and how we as a nation build. Everything is far away and even if it isn’t, walking there is impratical because sidewalks and paths don’t exist.
Sure, the tax break is a good idea but I am sorry to say that I think it will do little to make it easy and practical for people to power themselves to work. Our nation has a love affair with the auto and I just don’t see that changing.
June 28th, 2007 at 09:37
I suspect there are very few people for whom this sort of tax credit would be a make or break issue. The ones that want to bike to work (and can), probably will regardless. I suspect this is also true to car drivers, however, and it does seem fair to provide cyclists with comparable support.
Your concerns about routes and more “on the ground” support are, I suspect, the real issue for most folks. My sister is one of the few people I know personally who has consistently biked to work in several major urban areas, and it has been a major commitment on her part to do so.
While I agree that most of latter 20th century America was totally designed with car ownership in mind (there are no other explanations for the sprawl of places like L.A. and Houston), it seems that there is also a huge cultural awareness problem to overcome. Here in Morris the ground is flat, the distances are short, and the traffic is minimal to non-existant. Perfect for biking. Yet my son and I walking and biking in together is such a novelty that people regularly comment on it. Huh? Everyone (or nearly so) in this town ought to be on a bike, at least during the non-frozen months (which is at least half the year). The bumps in gas prices seems to have led to a slight increase in the number of (student) bikes on campus in the last year, but there’s still a heck of a lot of people driving three blocks to get to campus.
That’s not bowing to the inevitable of bad urban design, that’s a cultural disease that can and should be addressed. It would certainly help if planners and law makers kept pedestrians and cyclists at the front of their thinking instead of last if at all.