You read that right -- Denver wants to pay you to ride your bike.
It's part of a pilot program run through the city's Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency. Selected participants can earn a few hundred dollars by riding their bikes over a few months.
The program is funded through the Climate Protection Fund, a 2020 voter-approved sales tax that raises $40 million annually for climate initiatives. The fund requires the city to spend the money on a number of clean energy and climate resilience projects, including clean transportation programs like biking.
"Transportation is the number two leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions and the number one leading cause of air quality in Denver, and so our transportation team is really concerned about, 'How do we reduce single occupancy vehicle trips?'" said office spokesperson Chelsea Warren.
The office is putting $150,000 toward three pilot programs experimenting with paying Denverites to ride their bike instead of taking a car. The initiative will be run through three transportation access organizations, including West Corridor focused on west and southwest, Denver Streets Partnership focused on the city at large, and a third organization which is still in the contracting process.
How do the programs work?
All three organizations will operate slightly differently to measure success with the pilot concept.
With the West Corridor program, Denverites in west and southwest Denver must have access to a bike, know how to ride and be at least 18 years old. Up to 400 participants can get up to $150 each for riding their bike between April and June. The program will also have different lotteries and bonuses to earn extra money.
"We want to reduce greenhouse gasses, so all of our programs, all three of the fundees, are focusing on recruiting folks who currently do a lot of their travel by driving, and then switching those trips to biking," said Erica Hine, Senior Program Specialist for West Corridor. "Our biggest measure of success is just seeing that we actually are affecting car travel."
The Streets Partnership program offers three options for payment:
- Up to 85 participants could get paid $1 per mile, up to $200 per month.
- Up to 15 participants can get up to four hours of coaching, up to $500 toward purchasing a bike or accessories, and up to $200 at the end of the program for using the bike weekly during the three-month program.
- Up to 15 participants can get both forms of payment.
The West Corridor program is tracking ridership based on "the honor system," Hine said. It's unclear how the other two programs will track how much participants hop on their bikes.
Hine said part of the pilot's goals -- and the Climate Protection fund -- involves focusing on marginalized communities.
"Another measure of success with the Climate Protection Fund is reaching 50% of our participants are going to be from underserved or disinvested communities, and that has a very broad definition," Hine said. "That could mean the neighborhood they are in, whether it's a disinvested neighborhood, it could mean the color of their skin, it could mean their age."
Interested Denverites can sign up for the West Corridor program here and the Streets Partnership program here. The deadline to sign up is Feb. 29.
