Bicycle commuters encouraged by bailout

It took a global financial meltdown, but last month's $700 billion bailout, or Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, includes a provision offering an incentive to encourage bike commuting.

Granted, it's a minuscule benefit. But it's still there.

The incentive is outlined in the Transportation Fringe Benefit to Bicycle Commuters under the Transportation and Domestic Fuel Security Provision of the bailout package.

Basically, it says that, effective Jan. 1, employers can offer their employees a tax-exempt transportation benefit of $20 per month for purchasing, maintaining or storing a bicycle "if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee's residence and place of employment."

The definition of "regularly used" is not spelled out in the law and is among the details likely to be ironed out with the Internal Revenue Service before the holidays.

Reaction to the law is understandably mixed.

The American League of Bicyclists, which has been pushing for legislation for seven years, and the act's sponsor, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., trumpeted it as a step in the right direction.

League President Andy Clark said, "It may not be a total game-changer — it's still a relatively small break — but it gets us closer to the kind of treatment that cyclists in the U.K. and other parts of the world have had for years."

Others say $20 is a pittance compared with the incentives offered employers for employees who bear the expense of parking cars ($210 per month) or who use mass transit ($115 per month).

On the league's Web site, www.bikeleague.org, the organization responds to that justifiable complaint:

"Proponents of the (incentive) certainly wish it were higher. In fact, the initial request was for $80 a month. ... However, many Congressional members had concerns about the program in general and, specifically, with the $80. Ultimately, the $20 per month figure was the result of compromise to enable the provision to move forward.

"Our challenge now will be to ensure that the program is implemented effectively to demonstrate that there is a demand for such a benefit. We can then go back to Congress to increase the monthly benefit."

Some, of course, have a problem with it being attached to the bailout package as part of the assortment of pork intended to get it passed. That's Washington politics. But at least it seems that the politicians no longer will be ignoring the elephant-in-the-room issue of the past 30 years: the need for a multipronged energy policy weighted toward alternatives to fossil fuel.

Despite the recent bottoming out of gas prices, it's probably a safe bet to say prices will be back up, or at least remain volatile. And the bike, simple and pure, is among the many tools for cutting our vulnerability to oil prices.

According to Blumenauer's Web site, more than half of the working population in the U.S. commutes five miles or less to work and studies have shown that when people have the right accommodations for biking, such as safe bike passage, showers and other facilities, 40 percent are more likely to bike to work.

"Bicycles offer the strongest potential for reducing single-occupancy automobile trips," he says.

Time will tell if the bike commuter incentive will translate into more people using their bikes to get to work. At best, it may be more symbolic of future progress — sparked by necessary financial incentives — on issues of energy, health and pollution in the years to come.

Reach David Quick at 937-5516 or dquick@postandcourier.com.