Break Out The Bikes

Today is Bike to Work Day, an annual event promoted by the advocacy group League of American Bicyclists. Don't expect the streets of Polk County to be teeming with bicyclists, however. In truth, it's not exactly been a widely celebrated occasion in a nation in which less than 0.5 percent of commuters choose to bike to work.

Still, times are changing. According to The Associated Press, Americans have been buying upward of 18 million bicycles a year as gasoline prices continue to climb.

"People are riding bicycles a lot more often, and it's due to a mixture of things. But escalating gas prices is one of them," Bill Nesper, league spokesman, told The AP last week. "We're seeing a spike in the number of calls we're getting from people wanting tips on bicycle commuting."

But if more Americans are trying to get out of their cars and onto bikes, they haven't been getting much help from their public policy-makers. In Europe, where gas has been a lot more expensive for a lot longer, governments are going to great lengths to encourage bicycle commuting.

Paris, for instance, has established bicycle-rental stations all over the city, and made it both cheap and convenient for would-be riders to access them. Two million rentals took place in just the first 40 days of operation.

COMPLETE STREETS ACT OF 2008

And in London, officials plan to spend nearly $800 million to develop a system of "bike boulevards" throughout the city center. "Planners hope the London system will attract a 'critical mass' of cyclist," syndicated columnist Neal Peirce wrote recently, "even diverting 5 percent of people from their cars, and tubes and buses, it's estimated, would result in 1.7 million cycle trips each day."

Two bills currently before Congress could help greatly facilitate the rise of cycle commuting in America.

The Complete Streets Act of 2008 would require states and metropolitan-planning organizations that receive federal transportation funding to consider ways to better accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists and mass-transit users when roads are designed, built or improved.

"Making our streets bike and pedestrian friendly … not only promotes healthier lifestyles, it lowers the amount of traffic congestion that many people deal with every day," U.S. Rep. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a sponsor of the bill, said recently.

Another bill, the Bicycle Commuter Act, would extend tax benefits to employers who give their workers cash reimbursements to help defray the cost of bicycle commuting. The tax code already provides a so-called "transportation fringe benefit" to encourage employees to carpool or use mass transit to get to work.

Bike to Work Day may not yet be an idea whose time has come. But Americans are growing increasingly anxious about gas prices, traffic congestion and the consequences of sedentary lifestyles. To the extent government can encourage bicycle commuting as a viable alternative it certainly should do so.