{"id":4856,"date":"2009-08-21T10:53:38","date_gmt":"2009-08-21T16:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=4856"},"modified":"2009-08-21T10:53:38","modified_gmt":"2009-08-21T16:53:38","slug":"cash-for-clunkers-car-bike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/cash-for-clunkers-car-bike\/","title":{"rendered":"A Greener Cash for Clunkers: Trade Your Car for a Bike"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>If you’ve kept an eye on the federal government’s “Cash for Clunkers<\/a>” program (which will end on Monday), you know that it’s been a huge success on a number of fronts: hundreds of thousands of people have traded in older, less fuel-efficient vehicles for new models with better gas mileage, and some auto manufacturers are even rehiring. Of course, the program’s had its downsides, also: dealers have complained about slow reimbursements, and some environmentalists have worried that the fuel economy requirements weren’t quite stringent enough.<\/p>\n Portland, Oregon-based businessman Joe Doebele has another complaint about the program: there’s nothing in it to get commuters to shift from four wheels to two. Rather than just throw stones, though, Doeble decided to do something about this shortcoming: he’s started his own “cash for clunkers” program at his cargo bike shop Joe Bike<\/a>.<\/p>\n [social_buttons]<\/p>\n OK, yes — Doebele has a personal financial stake in getting more people on bikes. But he’s also right about some of the shortcomings of Cash for Clunkers. He told the Oregonian<\/em>‘s Hard Drive blog<\/a>:<\/p>\n I realized that if people are driving a clunker, they probably don’t have too much cash to spend on a new car and we’re asking them to go deeper into debt to drive more… My Cash for Clunkers program is partly out of a sense of humor and partly out of economical activism.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Joe Bike Cash for Clunkers<\/a> program has two options: your “clunker” can be either a car or a bike.<\/p>\n While the Joe Bike program probably won’t get quite as many clunkers off of the road as the federal initiative, it’s a fantastic means of promoting bicycling as not only a greener means of transportation, but also a much more economical one.<\/p>\n Know of other alternative “cash for clunkers” efforts? Share them…!<\/p>\n Image credit:<\/strong> jyri at Flickr<\/a> under a Creative Commons license<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you’ve kept an eye on the federal government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program (which will end on Monday), you know that it’s been a huge success on a number of [ … ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":4884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[823,1069,42,3031,3808,28,1586],"yoast_head":"\nTrade Your Car — or Your Bike — for a New Bike<\/h3>\n
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