What are some advantages of bicycling to work? Two groups of workers in Vermont, can tell us.
About a dozen employees at Stark Mountain Woodworking in New Haven are taking participating in the company's health plan that pays them $500 each for a bicycle and another $500 each for completing 650 miles by the end of the year.
The plan was hatched by co-owner Skimmer Hellier after arriving to work by bike one day early this summer. Since then, the workers are getting in better shape and arrive at work with more energy, reports the Burlington Free Press.
Being handy with tools and machinery, the cabinetmakers are intrigued by the bike technology. Also, the company has hired a new cabinetmaker who happened to be a former mountain bike technician to look after the bikes.
The health plan instituted by Hellier and partner Louis DuPont could become more common among businesses if the Bicycle Commuter Act ever passes Congress.
Tax credits
Introduced by Oregon Democrat Earl Blumenauer, HR 807 would give a tax credit to employers who pay their employees up to $100 a month for bicycling to work. It would be added to the tax code's transporation fringe benefit package, which now includes vanpools. Imagine, getting paid to bicycle.
Unfortunately the bill, which was cosponsored by Florida Republican Mark Foley (yep, the page e-mailer), was slotted over to the House subcommittee on health where it has sat since February 2005.
Teaching by example
The Burlington Free Press also reported on about a dozen teachers at Colchester High School who discovered recently that they've been riding their bicycles to school during the fall months. Some started this year; another has been riding since the '70s.
Although it hasn't been an organized effort, the teachers do hope that students will pick up the idea of bicycling -- if not now, then later.
A science teacher in the group also started logging their total miles on a spreadsheet and learned that since school started, they've prevented 600 pounds of carbon dioxide -- a greenhouse gas -- from escaping into the atmosphere.
