Denver will pay people to ride bikes

[FireLane]

This is a pretty cool idea. Unsurprisingly, it's coming from the most Mustachian state:

https://denverite.com/2024/02/14/biking-paid-program/

The program is funded through the Climate Protection Fund, a 2020 voter-approved sales tax that raises $40 million annually for climate initiatives. The fund requires the city to spend the money on a number of clean energy and climate resilience projects, including clean transportation programs like biking.

“Transportation is the number two leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions and the number one leading cause of air quality in Denver, and so our transportation team is really concerned about, ‘How do we reduce single occupancy vehicle trips?'” said office spokesperson Chelsea Warren.

The office is putting $150,000 toward three pilot programs experimenting with paying Denverites to ride their bike instead of taking a car.

I don't know how many cars this could actually take off the road, but maybe they're counting on a ripple effect. Once people get that small incentive to kickstart a different behavior pattern, they'll start doing that more often. And if more people realize it's possible to bike rather than drive, it'll nudge them toward doing the same.

[crocheted_stache]

Good start!

California is moving slowly toward e-bike rebates. The current version seems to be a pilot program for (income?-) qualified households: https://www.calbike.org/bike_purchase_incentives/

Some cities also have e-bike rebates. Mine goes through exactly the same form and process as the rebates for efficient home appliances.

One organization where I volunteer will reimburse for bicycling as though you took the equivalent trip on transit. Getting that to happen involved the dedicated efforts of a previous volunteer.

And yet, parking downtown is "validated" (i.e. refunded) if you patronize various restaurants and retailers there. Electric vehicles (read: cars) come with incentives that would pay for entire e-bikes.

Mostly, I've only ever been "paid" for biking in the sense of not burning gas to get where I'm going, and not needing to purchase, maintain, and insure another car. It pays handsomely, but it's invisible to most people.

[Cranky]

Denver does not seem to have very robust biking infrastructure based on our visit last fall. If they put their money into that, the results might be better.

[Tasse]

I'm bummed to have missed the signup window!

Cranky, I'm in the Denver suburbs, but I have been very impressed with the biking infrastructure here. One key is that there are tons of bike/pedestrian trails that aren't on streets, including tunnels under most major roads. So if you're looking for infrastructure on the street (i.e. bike lanes), you're missing the best stuff. I can ride 15 miles to downtown Denver, primarily along the river, only crossing a handful of streets the whole way.

Admittedly, that doesn't help you get from place to place downtown, which I can't comment on.

[Cranky]

I'm bummed to have missed the signup window!

Cranky, I'm in the Denver suburbs, but I have been very impressed with the biking infrastructure here. One key is that there are tons of bike/pedestrian trails that aren't on streets, including tunnels under most major roads. So if you're looking for infrastructure on the street (i.e. bike lanes), you're missing the best stuff. I can ride 15 miles to downtown Denver, primarily along the river, only crossing a handful of streets the whole way.

Admittedly, that doesn't help you get from place to place downtown, which I can't comment on.

I saw more paths in Lakewood than actually in Denver!

[spartana]

Good start!

California is moving slowly toward e-bike rebates. The current version seems to be a pilot program for (income?-) qualified households: https://www.calbike.org/bike_purchase_incentives/

Some cities also have e-bike rebates. Mine goes through exactly the same form and process as the rebates for efficient home appliances.

One organization where I volunteer will reimburse for bicycling as though you took the equivalent trip on transit. Getting that to happen involved the dedicated efforts of a previous volunteer.

And yet, parking downtown is "validated" (i.e. refunded) if you patronize various restaurants and retailers there. Electric vehicles (read: cars) come with incentives that would pay for entire e-bikes.

Mostly, I've only ever been "paid" for biking in the sense of not burning gas to get where I'm going, and not needing to purchase, maintain, and insure another car. It pays handsomely, but it's invisible to most people.

SoCal Air Quality Districts use to have (and I believe they still have) a program called Replace Your Ride which give you a voucher of up to $9,500 to replace your older higher polluting vehicle with either a new or used EV, Hybrid or fuel efficient ICE vehicle. Or you can get a smaller amount and get a public transit voucher or an E-bike. For EVs they also throw in $2000 towards installing a home charger. I believe that this doesn't effect your ability to qualify for any EV tax rebates by either the manufacturer or the state. It's income based on a sliding scale as well as has some rules about what kind of cars you can turn in but I qualified for the full amount a few years ago - older Ford Ranger and lower taxable income -  and even went thru the process and it was pretty easy to do. I didn't end up doing the program but might be something others are interested in.

ETA: Just checked and it said voucher amount were planned to go up to $12,000 and E-bike and transit amounts were approx $7500. It only took me a month to get approved for a voucher back in 2018 or 2019 so not sure if that timeline still holds. I think most here wouldnt qualify anyways due to income.

https://xappprod.aqmd.gov/RYR/

[crocheted_stache]

Good start!

California is moving slowly toward e-bike rebates. The current version seems to be a pilot program for (income?-) qualified households: https://www.calbike.org/bike_purchase_incentives/

Some cities also have e-bike rebates. Mine goes through exactly the same form and process as the rebates for efficient home appliances.

One organization where I volunteer will reimburse for bicycling as though you took the equivalent trip on transit. Getting that to happen involved the dedicated efforts of a previous volunteer.

And yet, parking downtown is "validated" (i.e. refunded) if you patronize various restaurants and retailers there. Electric vehicles (read: cars) come with incentives that would pay for entire e-bikes.

Mostly, I've only ever been "paid" for biking in the sense of not burning gas to get where I'm going, and not needing to purchase, maintain, and insure another car. It pays handsomely, but it's invisible to most people.

SoCal Air Quality Districts use to have (and I believe they still have) a program called Replace Your Ride which give you a voucher of up to $9,500 to replace your older higher polluting vehicle with either a new or used EV, Hybrid or fuel efficient ICE vehicle. Or you can get a smaller amount and get a public transit voucher or an E-bike. For EVs they also throw in $2000 towards installing a home charger. I believe that this doesn't effect your ability to qualify for any EV tax rebates by either the manufacturer or the state. It's income based on a sliding scale as well as has some rules about what kind of cars you can turn in but I qualified for the full amount a few years ago - older Ford Ranger and lower taxable income -  and even went thru the process and it was pretty easy to do. I didn't end up doing the program but might be something others are interested in.

ETA: Just checked and it said voucher amount were planned to go up to $12,000 and E-bike and transit amounts were approx $7500. It only took me a month to get approved for a voucher back in 2018 or 2019 so not sure if that timeline still holds. I think most here wouldnt qualify anyways due to income.

https://xappprod.aqmd.gov/RYR/

Thanks for this, spartana. It's helpful to know what other regions and localities are doing, so I can advocate.

[spartana]

Good start!

California is moving slowly toward e-bike rebates. The current version seems to be a pilot program for (income?-) qualified households: https://www.calbike.org/bike_purchase_incentives/

Some cities also have e-bike rebates. Mine goes through exactly the same form and process as the rebates for efficient home appliances.

One organization where I volunteer will reimburse for bicycling as though you took the equivalent trip on transit. Getting that to happen involved the dedicated efforts of a previous volunteer.

And yet, parking downtown is "validated" (i.e. refunded) if you patronize various restaurants and retailers there. Electric vehicles (read: cars) come with incentives that would pay for entire e-bikes.

Mostly, I've only ever been "paid" for biking in the sense of not burning gas to get where I'm going, and not needing to purchase, maintain, and insure another car. It pays handsomely, but it's invisible to most people.

SoCal Air Quality Districts use to have (and I believe they still have) a program called Replace Your Ride which give you a voucher of up to $9,500 to replace your older higher polluting vehicle with either a new or used EV, Hybrid or fuel efficient ICE vehicle. Or you can get a smaller amount and get a public transit voucher or an E-bike. For EVs they also throw in $2000 towards installing a home charger. I believe that this doesn't effect your ability to qualify for any EV tax rebates by either the manufacturer or the state. It's income based on a sliding scale as well as has some rules about what kind of cars you can turn in but I qualified for the full amount a few years ago - older Ford Ranger and lower taxable income -  and even went thru the process and it was pretty easy to do. I didn't end up doing the program but might be something others are interested in.

ETA: Just checked and it said voucher amount were planned to go up to $12,000 and E-bike and transit amounts were approx $7500. It only took me a month to get approved for a voucher back in 2018 or 2019 so not sure if that timeline still holds. I think most here wouldnt qualify anyways due to income.

https://xappprod.aqmd.gov/RYR/

Thanks for this, spartana. It's helpful to know what other regions and localities are doing, so I can advocate.

Some Norcal air quality districts had/have the same program so might be something close by your area. The Bay area and San Joaquin and several otherair districts had them at least until 2023:
https://www.baaqmd.gov/funding-and-incentives/residents/clean-cars-for-all/eligibility

[crocheted_stache]

Some Norcal air quality districts had/have the same program so might be something close by your area. The Bay area and San Joaquin and several otherair districts had them at least until 2023:
https://www.baaqmd.gov/funding-and-incentives/residents/clean-cars-for-all/eligibility

That's the one, thanks. I need to make sure the right people know of it and we don't reinvent the wheel... or if we do, that we actually improve upon it.