As part of Norway’s ongoing European Mobility Week celebrations, around 10,000 NOK (€1,200) was handed out in the town of Lillestrøm to pedestrians and cyclists in “reverse toll money”. The money symbolised the health benefits of walking and cycling, including better fitness, improved air quality and more efficient transport.
Cyclists received around €12, while pedestrians gained €11. Calculations carried out by the Norwegian Directorate of Health shows that active transport provides the state with a saving of 52 NOK (€6) per kilometer for pedestrians and 26 NOK (€3) per kilometer for cyclists. An average bike trip in Norway is 4 kilometers, providing a health benefit of 100 NOK (€12), while an average walking trip is 1.7 km, worth almost 90 NOK (€11)
The only thing I have to say about this is . . . EXCELLENT!
This is not a light-weight, happy go lucky, feel-good idea. It is world class economics. Full cost pricing: All you have to do is run the numbers and you can see where it is best to spend the taxpayer money.
Let’s look at a contrasting example. Today in many cities around the world parking is supplied for work commuters at either no or well less than market prices. This functions not only as an asymmetrical incentive to encourage car use (for trips in which there may be perfectly good alternatives) but also is often fully or in good part tax-deductible. In other words, we are in such cases using the taxpayers hard-earned money for provide incentives for yet more car travel. And those are often quite big numbers.
Why do we have to make things so often so complicated for ourselves?
Now all we ask of Lillestrøm is that they have a good look at the numbers with the concerned national administrations, and consider turning this into a permanent policy. Go Lillestrøm!
* Note: Lillestrøm, a city of 15,000, by the way, has 7 cycle routes with a total length of 747 km.
Article Source: http://www.mobilityweek.eu/news/view/article/2014/09/18/pedestrians-and-cyclists-receive-reverse-toll-money-in-norway
* Make sure you also check out Paying people to cycle to work? –
France has started a six-month experiment with paying people to cycle to work, joining other European governments in trying to boost bicycle use to boost people’s health, reduce air pollution and cut fossil fuel consumption.
Several countries including the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and Britain have bike-to-work schemes, with different kinds of incentives such as tax breaks, payments per kilometer and financial support for buying bicycles.In France, some 20 companies and institutions employing a total of 10,000 people have signed up to pay their staff 25 euro cents (34 U.S. cents) per kilometer biked to work
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About the Norwegian Environment Agency
The Norwegian government and the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament) determine the ambitions of our environmental policy. The Norwegian Environment Agency’s primary tasks is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, manage Norwegian nature and prevent pollution. Play a key role in shaping Norwegian environmental policy.
– http://www.miljodirektoratet.no/no/Om-Miljodirektoratet/Norwegian-Environment-Agency/
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About the editor:
Eric Britton
13, rue Pasteur. Courbevoie 92400 France
Bio: Founding editor of World Streets (1988), Eric Britton is an American political scientist, teacher, occasional consultant, and sustainability activist who has observed, learned, taught and worked on missions and advisory assignments on all continents. In the autumn of 2019, he committed his remaining life work to the challenges of aggressively countering climate change and specifically greenhouse gas emissions emanating from the mobility sector. He is not worried about running out of work. Further background and updates: @ericbritton | http://bit.ly/2Ti8LsX | #fekbritton | https://twitter.com/ericbritton | and | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbritton/ Contact: climate@newmobility.org) | +336 508 80787 (Also WhatApp) | Skype: newmobility.)
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And the “glorious” USA, for a SHORT TIME, awarded bike commuters the incredible total of…$20 per month, IF their employers joined in the program.
Anyone else out there as “proud” as I am?
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Unfortunately such thing will never happen in Russia. My schoolchildren live next to the school and how they can not to show off if not to come to the school by Bentley or Maserati. Nevertheless to say that they have 1.200 Euro pocket money))
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