Cyclists are paid to cycle to work

CYCLISTS in some companies will be paid to cycle to work from today as part of a trial for a scheme launched by Transport Minister Frédéric Cuvillier.

They will receive 25 centimes for each kilometre covered in a scheme similar to those set up across French companies to reimburse workers’ travel expenses.

Mr Cuvillier said the six-month experiment, being done with a group of around 20 companies and a potential 10,000 employees, would check how well people responded to the plan and how many got involved.

Coming after the weekend’s nationwide Fête du Vélo, he said it was an “ecological incentive” to persuade people to switch transport. “Public transport and car costs are already reimbursed and I want the bicycle to become a separate mode of transport.”

Some of the companies involved are: Caisse d’Épargne Normandie in Bois Guillaume, Crédit Coopératif in Nanterre, Air Lorraine in Metz, MMA insurance in Le Mans and Vélogik in Lyon.

The scheme has a few rules, with employees barred from combining it with other transport schemes – company help with a rail season ticket for example – unless it is for a combined rail-road journey.

At the end of the six-month trial the ministry will look at where it has succeeded and where it has fallen short and then, if useful, extend it across a wider sector.

Related story: Cyclists get paid for biking to work Photo: Atout France - CRT Bourgogne - Alain Doire