Federal Bailout Helps Cyclists, Well Their Workplaces
by anita • January 15, 2009 • News • 2 Comments
When I read the news, I thought the blogosphere was lying to me but it turns out NPR posted something so it must be true, right? Well it is official! According to a new federal law enacted as part of the $700 billion financial bailout entitled the “Bicycle Commuter Act” companies can receive a $20/month tax credit per commuting employee. The money can be passed down to the employees or used in some other bike friendly way…one hopes. It sounds great for bike friendly business owners, but I have my doubts about larger companies.
[Hear more via Minnesota Public radio here.]
It’s typically the larger employers that have the transit benefit programs already in place. It turns out the Bike Commuter Benefit is a little more work, though — there are established programs for the existing transportation benefits, and nobody has quite figured out how to administer bike benefit yet.
Interesting. I know that transit benefits are included in some companies via TransitCheck (a pre-tax unlimited monthly subway card) but it will be interesting to see how things pan out for the bike benefits locally – the administration, ect.