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.
- Yeah, last time I tried to bike home from work, I got run off the road by a semi and narrowly missed a patch of blackberry bramble. The bike lanes evaporate once you're out of city limits, and there's not even shoulders to ride on, so I won't be trying again until that's fixed.
- Agreed. This very much feels like a tertiary strategy. Far more obvious would be doing things like simply ending parking minimums - a policy that would take zero time and money to implement, and which would then encourage businesses to encourage their customers and employees to cycle, since they would then benefit from the cost savings of a smaller parking lot.
  
  Exactly. Bad zoning that mandates excessive parking and low density basically guarantees car-dependency, no matter what sort of transit or bike infrastructure you try to layer on top, just because shoving in the space for cars forces the actual destinations to be too far apart.
  And that's not even all. I've come to realize that The Problem is basically always the zoning code. Not just sprawl and car-dependency, but also a whole bunch of less obvious stuff like global warming, obesity, depression, and even inequality/racism/political polarization. There's a great YouTube video titled "The Housing Crisis is the Everything Crisis", but the one dot the guy doesn't connect is that the housing crisis is itself caused by bad zoning!
- This measure would help in my American city. It's already pretty friendly to biking despite the challenges which do still apply, but some people would absolutely be pushed over the edge with another incentive. Not all of America is created equally. We're getting new bike lanes every couple of months here. Right in front of my house the other day actually.
- While we still had a frontier, people otherwise wouldn't have went west also due to similar reasons as why the people of today prefer cars. The incentive of free land worked anyways. I'd argue land incentives are just extreme financial incentives.

In America, better put all the money into infrastructure changes that prioritize bikes and pedestrian safety. Make sure that bike routes do not impede on pedestrian routes, and install physical barriers to keep cars from running over both cyclists and people walking.
Good luck selling these kinds of ideas to the people who get their money from automotive lobbyists
- Trek, if you're reading this, start bribing politicians!
- Everyone is shitting on this idea but you can do more than one idea at a time. Especially as a way to open people's minds to an improving infrastructure.
- in America, if all the money went directly to the politician's pockets, that's the only way it'd happen

I commute 55 miles every day.... I ain't biking my potato loving ass to work. They need to start building more rail and stop building things far apart.
- Oof, this is why I try to move as close as possible to where I work. It can be a pain in the ass but is 100% worth it. If I had to drive 55 miles to work every day I'd hate it and either move closer or get a closer job. I did that with a 25 mile commute after less than a year.

My county is ranked number 5 in the USA for bicycle fatalities. Number 1 is the county just north of us, number 3 just south, and number 2 on the other side of that one. The other county adjascent to mine is number 10. Tampa Bay is #1!
I fantasize about public transportation and feeling safe on commute.

I'd settle for it being feasible to bike to work. I don't have to get paid the experience

Hong Kong has the largest outdoor escalator system in the world. If you take it, there's a machine halfway up that'll give you a free credit on your bus pass every day. Pretty great solution.

I could do it. It’d take me an hour (or longer) for what is a fifteen minute drive, and would require me to ride on some very busy roads during rush hour, but I could do it. Will I? Absolutely not.
- Would you do it with safe infrastructure? plenty of people drive that long to get to work.
  
  Absolutely. If I didn’t have to worry about some idiot in his giant-ass truck running my ass over for a kick, I’d gladly do it. I love my e-trike and wish I had more cause to use it.

Lol yeah that'll happen
- Belgium gave tax incentives for cycling to work. Not sure if it's still the case.