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It’s not. A simple approach that has succeeded in putting over a half million commuters on bikes in the United Kingdom was a creation of an annual tax exemption. The “cycle to work” scheme encourages employees to cycle and allows employers to reap the benefits of a healthier workforce, not to mention the benefits to the population as a whole, including drivers. After all, one more bicycle on the road means one less automobile fighting for precious space. Plus less pollution in the air and less natural resources to be dug out and transported across the planet.

The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Belgium all have bike-to-work schemes, with different incentives such as tax breaks and financial support for buying bicycles. Paris is experimenting with paying people to cycle to work. Twenty companies and institutions employing a total of 10,000 people have signed up to pay their staff 25 euro cents (33 cents) per kilometer biked to work, according to France Transport Ministry.

Could similar programs be implemented in Canada? Federal elections are just around the corner and perhaps one of the three parties hoping to govern would think that a tax incentive scheme to encourage cycling for Canadians is a smart idea, worth including on their platform. Even better would be a campaign by public interest groups such as CAA, business associations, environmental and health NGOs. I suspect that an electronic petition signed by hundreds of thousands of people would even spark the attention of our current federal and provincial leaders.