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 km 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 0.25 euro (RM1.10) per km biked to work, the transport ministry said in a statement on June 2.