Hypocrisy, Politics, and the Bike Commuter

Ok, so hypocrisy and politics are synonyms, right?

There was big news for the bike commuter in 2008. Part of some spending bill or another that made its way through the federal government included tax relief for bike commuters. Makes sense. There was already a tax incentive to take public transit. You can (and I do) buy your public transit passes (BART tickets, MUNI pass, CalTrain tickets) pre-tax through your employer. That's a nice benefit, probably reducing the cost of those tickets by 1/4 or more (depending on your highest marginal tax rate). And it makes sense: it contributes to the public good by taking cars off the road, reducing congestion, and reducing pollution/emissions. So here's an added benefit for the bike commuter who removes a car from the road, produces virtually zero carbon emissions, and is probably healthier (costing everyone less in the shared burden of medical expenses).

Or at least that was what it seemed.

Turns out you can only take advantage of the tax credit if you don't take advantage of any other transportation-related tax relief. No double dipping, right? Well . . . you can order any combination of CalTrain, BART, and MUNI tickets, getting the tax break on all of them. Let's say you live in Oakland, but work in Palo Alto? To keep a car off the road you take BART to Millbrae then hop on CalTrain the rest of the way. You use your transportation credit on both. Or you take BART or CalTrain into the City and take MUNI from there. Tax relief for both.

Worse yet (and a generally inexplicable), you can use your pre-tax dollars to buy parking for your car. How on earth does that fit into all of this, and why is the government subsidizing more cars on the road? But on top of that broad question, why can you buy both public transportation tickets and parking pre-tax, but you can't combine your bike commuting tax relief with your public transportation tax relief? I mean that would make sense.

Hypocrisy. Some one should make a law . . .

Maybe I should write my congressperson.

(and if you're a bike commuter who is eligible for the tax credit, ping HR about it)