Governments Should Start Paying People to Bike to Work

A financial incentive is only effective if the finances of an endeavor are the primary reason why fewer people chose to embark. As the article explains, European countries tend to have fewer barriers to bicycling, and so a financial incentive to commute by bike is a perfectly logical next step in encouraging bicycle uptake.

But North America has huge hurdles to bicycling, not least including: sprawling suburbs, dangerous motorists, poor bicycle infrastructure and maintenance, and few practical routes. So a financial incentive to bike to work doesn't really fix any of those

To the article's credit, they did recommend this in tandem with fully-funded bike infrastructure. But it's worth focusing on where incentives genuinely work in North America: ebike purchase rebates.

Ebikes are undisputably getting more Americans and Canadians into a bike saddle, because they enable riders that might have physical limitations, or might be trapped in circuitous suburbs that historically favored the range of automobiles. But while ebike prices have come down, they're still fairly high for most people. And so a purchase incentive is exactly the right solution to solve that, not only getting more bikes to more people, but also increasing the demand and bringing economies of scales. This also applies to support and maintenance, as more bikes means more shops, more technicians, and more parts networks. And more riders will need more accommodations, like parking, wayfinding, training, and community resources.

Purchase incentives for ebikes are an excellent way to build a local economy around sustainable mobility. After all, how can bike maintenance or trail building be outsourced? The riding of bicycles and its benefits will always be personal and/or local, and that's been proven over nearly 200 years.