Action Alert: Protect Bicycle Commuter Benefits

Lauren LeClaire

Written by
October 29, 2014

MassBike joins the League of American Bicyclists in asking you to contact your U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators and request that they co-sponsor The Commuter Parity Act and The Commuter Benefits Equity Act. These bills ensure that ALL commuters - including bicyclists - receive benefits. We need this now because transit benefits fell to $130 a month from $245, the bike benefit stayed at $20, but the parking benefits went up to $250 from $245.

Now there is a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would repeal the bike benefits entirely. We would like you to contact your U.S. Senators and Representatives asking them to

    • Prevent the bicycle commuter benefit from being repealed
    • Increase the bicycle commuter benefit from $20 to $35 a month
    • Make bike share memberships eligible for either the bicycle commuter benefit or the transit benefit, which supports combining biking and transit for your commute

Tell your elected federal officials today that you want them to co-sponsor HR 2288: The Commuter Parity Act and S.1116: The Commuter Benefits Equity Act. These bills will address the current benefit disparities.
HR 2288: The Commuter Parity Act will change the pre-tax transit and parking benefits to $220 a month each, make the bike benefit $35 a month, and include members of bike shares (like Hubway) in the bike benefit.

S.1116: The Commuter Benefits Equity Act is the Senate companion bill that will keep bike benefits and balance the transit and parking benefits.

We want these bills passed during the Lame Duck session and ready for 2015, so please take action today.