Paying people to cycle to work

Jawgap

This is about to be introduced in France

French workers could soon be paid for getting on their bikes and cycling to the office, under a scheme set to be announced by the government on Wednesday.
It won't make you rich but it will get you fit.

Workers at companies in France could soon be given financial incentives for pedaling to work, under a new scheme called "plan vélo", set to be revealed on Wednesday.

In a bid to boost health and the environment Transport Minister Fredéric Culliver is set to announce a raft of measures to get people out of cars and onto the greener two-wheel mode of transport.

The stand-out proposal is a plan to encourage companies to reimburse employees between 21 and 25 centimes per kilometre pedaled to work, in return for an exemption of certain payroll charges.

25 cent a kilometer would be a nice incentive!

efb

Is the Cycle to Work Scheme not effectively doing that?

ezra_pound

efb wrote: »

Is the Cycle to Work Scheme not effectively doing that?

???

fits

f I were to bus to work every day it would cost me 6 euro a day. I think not having to pay that is a nice incentive. Last job I had I forked out 400 a month on diesel and another 200 on car loan.

godtabh

Happens here already. Some companies offer an expense for cycling to work/ meetings

C3PO

Jawgap wrote: »

This is about to be introduced in France



25 cent a kilometer would be a nice incentive!

Some people on here would make a nice few bob in that case!

velopeloton

Cycling is on the up in France.
FFC have more members than at any time in it's history.
5% of the population cycle on a daily basis up for 3% a decade ago.

The payment to cycling is a trial scheme as part of the new transport plan. The government want to double the use of bikes over the next decade.
Cycling is worth 4.5 billion Euro to the French economy and supports 35,000 jobs. They want to double this also.

Fines for parking in a cycling lane are to increase to €135 from €35.
Train stations are to get secure bike parking.
30kph to become the norm in urban areas.
No parking within 5 metres of a pedestrian crossing.
On street parking spaces to be reduced.
Cyclist allowed to cycling both directions on one way streets.
Cars overtaking cyclists are to be allowed to cross solid white lines.

The UMp main opposition party have criticized the payment plan as not going far enough and have called for a tax incentive scheme for bike purchase.

"This is not a cycling plan but it is a war plan against motorists!" Protested Roger Braun, CEO of the Automobile Club.

Jawgap

I'm not sure how you'd police / audit something like that. But it would be interesting if, beyond the C2W Scheme there was an ongoing incentive to use the bike on a day to day basis for commuting.

Maybe the payment should go up in the winter!

slideshow bob

Revenue allow for flat rate travel expenses for work journeys by bike:
Individuals who are obliged to use their bicycle in the performance of the duties of their employment can claim 8c per km.

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/it51.html

Alek

Wow. Its like 450e per annum for me. How do I claim it?

Pinch Flat

I worked it out at €2,400. Nice.

Alek

I worked it out at €2,400. Nice.

100km daily?

Seweryn

€3,750,- for me, nice.*


*if they pay all the extra mileage on commutes that I get lost .

Cyclepath

Let me see, 28km round trip cycled 4 days per week for about 46 weeks of the year, at 25c/km works out at €1288 p/a.

I'm moving to France, they've got Decathlon too...

Inquitus

If you had a 45km commute each way, which I would assume is at the upper end of what is reasonable, that's over a ton a week in the arse pocket!

ednwireland

Surely they would be better reducing public transport costs imo

Pinch Flat

Alek wrote: »

100km daily?

yeah, I'm a beast. OK, here's how I worked it out:

200km /week x 48 weeks = 9,600 km annually @ .25c / km = €2,400?

Pinch Flat

Inquitus wrote: »

If you had a 45km commute each way, which I would assume is at the upper end of what is reasonable, that's over a ton a week in the arse pocket!

Please, nobody dare post this on the motoring forum. It would probably destabilise the country. :pac:

Hmmzis

ednwireland wrote: »

Surely they would be better reducing public transport costs imo

Riding a bus or train doesn't get you fit though. There are much bigger savings to be had in the long term if people would get generaly fit.

Alek

200km /week x 48 weeks = 9,600 km annually @ .25c / km = €2,400?

Ok, I was referring to the Irish rate of 0,08c :-)

In France, mine would be €1200 :-)

petethedrummer

Hmmzis wrote: »

Riding a bus or train doesn't get you fit though.

There's nothing to stop you doing lunges in the aisle.

lennymc

510 km/week * 48 weeks = 24480 km, @ .25c / km = €6120!!!

Aurevoir!!

Pinch Flat

lennymc wrote: »

510 km/week * 48 weeks = 24480 km, @ .25c / km = €6120!!!

Aurevoir!!

Chapeau!

Inquitus

lennymc wrote: »

510 km/week * 48 weeks = 24480 km, @ .25c / km = €6120!!!

Aurevoir!!

Nouveau vélo chaque année!

lennymc

Just to clarify, I don't currently do that, but if someone were to give me 6 k to do it, I would do it. Would be a nice way of earning a new bike every few months.

Alek

Commuting 100km daily in France would give me equivalent of my current wages. Au revoir guys!

Hmmzis

petethedrummer wrote: »

There's nothing to stop you doing lunges in the aisle.

Well, maybe at off peak hours but I'd like to see people trying to do lunges on the luas or a DB at rush hour.

buffalo

Reminds me of the Olympic stunt in Russia - do 30 squats to earn a train ticket.

petethedrummer

Hmmzis wrote: »

Well, maybe at off peak hours but I'd like to see people trying to do lunges on the luas or a DB at rush hour.

The results would be sexy.

mcgratheoin

Commuting doesn't count though

tomasrojo

Yeah, I think the Irish rate doesn't include commuting, just "performance of your duty" -- i.e what you get up to once at work.

Hmmzis

petethedrummer wrote: »

The results would be sexy.

Opinions on that could differ I think but that would be a whole new discussion for the Party Bus. :cool:

rubadub

efb wrote: »

Is the Cycle to Work Scheme not effectively doing that?

That scheme was complicated, I know of several employers would not do it they should have just removed VAT on all bikes, so school kids would be encouraged too. The only 2 people I know of who I heard availed of it do not cycle to work.

I see feck all kids cycling to school nowadays, then these kids go directly into driving cars with little previous road experience, not to mention no experience on how to drive around cyclists i.e. if they did cycle a lot they might drive differently. Since they are becoming more of a minority instead of having respect you get this "teach them a lesson" style driving, which I never saw or heard of growing up & cycling to school.

CramCycle

rubadub wrote: »

That scheme was complicated,

I disagree, we had lots of part timers and university students working in our evening/night lab. If it wasn't for the scheme they would not have been able to afford the scheme. They did not use it to save money but pay by installments as a lump sum was not a possibility. Any company that had trouble with the scheme needed to fire their accountant/payroll department.

C3PO

rubadub wrote: »

I see feck all kids cycling to school nowadays ....

Funnily enough I asked my 11 year old son, the other day, how many kids cycle to his school and the answer was zero ... not one!! And that includes the Senior School! In fairness I'm sure part of the reason is probably to do with the huge school bags full of books and additional sports bags and equipment that they all have to carry daily!

mcgratheoin

C3PO wrote: »

Funnily enough I asked my 11 year old son, the other day, how many kids cycle to his school and the answer was zero ... not one!! And that includes the Senior School! In fairness I'm sure part of the reason is probably to do with the huge school bags full of books and additional sports bags and equipment that they all have to carry daily!

+1, my brother in law is a teacher and he is the only person in his entire secondary school that regularly cycles to work. It picks up to 4 or 5 in the summer, but it's still ridiculously low compared to when I was in school.

Jawgap

C3PO wrote: »

Funnily enough I asked my 11 year old son, the other day, how many kids cycle to his school and the answer was zero ... not one!! And that includes the Senior School! In fairness I'm sure part of the reason is probably to do with the huge school bags full of books and additional sports bags and equipment that they all have to carry daily!

How old are you? It's all iPads now:D

One problem is the lack of facilities at the schools - my sons go to a school that was built in the last five years - it has six bike racks.

It's a vicious circle - I asked the principle why there were so few bike racks (for a school that will eventually cater for over 600 kids) and he said there was no demand for them - kids won't cycle to school. He didn't get it that if perhaps better facilities were provided it might encourage more cycling.

My two occasionally cycle, but given the school is within walking distance they've no 'need' to cycle. Plenty of people in the estate drive their kids.....

Undercover Elephant

My daughter started cycling to school about this time last year. She was the first in Junior Infants to do it. At the time there were maybe two bikes in the rack. Now it's full on any day it isn't raining - and I'd say two thirds are from Juniors to Class 2.

Admittedly a dozen or so out of 200 is not wildly impressive, but it's better than a year ago. I think it has to be normalised somehow, especially among the very young kids.