Bailout plan includes tax breaks for bike commuters

Odd & surprising mention of a tax break for bicycle commuters in the new 1-trillion dollar iteration of the Wall St bailout bill:

Wind power developers, disaster victims, college students, teachers and millions of taxpayers and businesses stand to see substantial benefits from the tax relief package that lawmakers added to the huge financial rescue plan.

So will more narrowly focused groups, including motor sports racetrack owners, film producers and bicycle commuters.

Bike Commuter Benefit: Allowing employers to exempt from taxation what they spend on some fringe benefits for workers who commute to work by bicycle, for example reimbursing the cost of parking the bikes. Cost: $2 million.

The bailout seems like a staggering case of corporate welfare to me (free marketeers are suddenly not so ideological when things go really sour...), but this rider is an interesting recognition of the benefits of bike commuting.