France is paying people to bike to work

Ian Gavan/Getty Images

France is paying people to bike to work
(Image credit: Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

How do you get more people to bike to work? For France, the answer to that question is simple: Pay them.

Yes, France is launching a six-month trial program that will pay people a small stipend — 25 euro cents per kilometer — when they ride to the office. The government hopes the plan will up ridership by 50 percent, and will re-assess whether to continue it later this year. As Treehugger notes, similar efforts in Belgium and the Netherlands helped boost ridership in those nations.

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Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.