A non-profit group in the People’s Republic of Denver is going to pay folks of color in the low income bracket up to $200 a month to save us all from climate change.
All participants have to do is ditch their cars for a bike ride to the store, work, or other non-recreational trips at least once a week.
It’s part of the Denver Streets Partnership program to help reach random climate goals by paying 85 people to ride a bike once a week. Seems like a legit solution to it all.
And this group can afford it. A glimpse of their tax filings shows they’ve got a couple of million in the bank.
Some of the 85 participants will also get $500 towards the purchase of a bike or bike parts, bike pants, whatever.
KDVR reports that participation is open to everyone to apply. The primary qualifications are if cars are their main mode of transportation, and they live in Denver.
But priority will be given to residents of historically disinvested communities in danger of gentrification, people of color, and people with lower incomes.
That’s $2,400, nearly $3,000 for the for the bonus package, for riding a bike somewhere 52 times a year.
That’s like, $58 a bike ride.
So how exactly will this program incentivize the rest of Denver to ride their bikes for free?
From their website:
Our goal is to research what incentives work best to encourage people to choose riding a bicycle more often instead of driving and to get the incentives into the hands of people who could benefit the most.
We can’t argue that paying people good money is always a good incentive for just about any chore. We predict that paying people to ride a bike once a week will be a successful motivator for residents, no matter their skin color or income level.
And Godspeed if it stops the evil climate monster from killing us all in our sleep.