Here's how a couple of phrases could end up paying off big time for those of us who ride to work. Legislation rolling through Congress would extend the definition of transportation in tax law to include bicycling. That change would allow employers to offer certain benefits — that could even include cold, hard cash — to employees who cycle to work.
This sounds similar to a system that's been in place in Great Britain for some time. Of course, if it's as similar as I think it is, employer participation is voluntary. Tell your senators and representative you think this change would be a good idea. This has the tire marks of a League of American Bicyclists lobbying effort all over it.
My plan had been to post this a week ago and include a link from the league leading to prewritten letters that could then be sent with a handful of mouse clicks to our senators and representatives. However, reading through the league's letters, I noticed that they were using bill numbers from the last session. I e-mailed to point this out but never heard back. Maybe it was my smart-ass comment about Mark Foley having been a sponsor in the last session (I did not say a pedophile can't like bikes or that he could not offer me a financial incentive to ride to work). A check today reveals the league has removed the prewritten letters from its site instead of correcting them. Anyway, if you're feeling compelled to prod your elected officials, the correct bill numbers are S. 858 and H.R. 1498.
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