Blumenauer Bill Would Level the Field for Commuter Tax Benefits

"Our goal is to lay out a budget-neutral alternative that gives people some choices," he said. "One of my favorite options here is giving people the opportunity to cash in their employer-provided parking. Giving a commuter the opportunity to say, I'd like to take that money and buy a bike and a bus pass and enrich my life and my health." He acknowledges that bike commuting isn't for everyone. But he says that acknowledging bicycles as a legitimate transportation option is an important step. "Will everybody do it? No," he said. "But it's an affirmation of people's choices. And giving people choices ... These are things that slowly but surely, they don't tilt the playing field, but they level it."

I asked Blumenauer what kind of pushback he expects on the legislation.

"There are some people for whom the symbolism bothers them," he told me. "They try to portray it as anti-car -- or that we're trying to socially engineer. As if there's no social engineering involved if you have lavish subsidies for the single-occupant automobile commuter and little or no commensurate benefit for people who burn calories instead of fossil fuel."