Absolutely. There are plenty of people who have a bike with a flat tyre and a rusty chain and no lights or whatever. They might go back to taking the bus or metro, but if they were offered a free service (effectively) to make cycling a viable option, they'll take it.

I know loads of people who cycle to work because of Ireland's Bike To Work scheme. They can all afford a bike without help, but the extra incentive was enough to get them to start cycling.

Would they go through all of that in the hopes of getting upto $50.00?

Through all of what?

Walking your bike 200m to the closest bike shop?

With 50 EUR, every bike shop does the usual tear fixes: changing tubes, adjusting gears and brake levers, changing break pads, changing the handlebar tape, centering the wheels, and cleaning / oiling.

Those 50 EUR can't cover major damage, but lots of people in Europe have multiple bikes in their basement that are just "rusty" / flat tire / etc. and that they didn't needed during the winter.

> Walking your bike 200m to the closest bike shop?

This also illustrates a secondary benefit of these €50, namely that bike repairs are hyper-local. In addition to making bike repair more affordable for some and helping keep the momentum going on bike commuting, these euros can also drive more commerce to local small repair shops, helping them stay in business.

On July 11, 7-11 offers a free slurpee to all customers. The free slurpee cup is a fraction of the size of any of the already-very-cheap options available for sale.

I have seen lineups out the door and around the block on this occasion. I think this illustrates very well people's well-known tendency to irrationally value free stuff.

I would. I also want to point out that you seem to be trivializing what most people would consider a non-trivial amount of money. That's easily a month of groceries for one person.

I agree that $50 shouldn't be trivialized. That being said, in America that's well below the standard for a month of groceries for one person (unless they're eating all of their meals out or something like that). Here[0] are the USDA food plans with budgets for "food at home". The cheapest category is "thrifty", and even there they budget about $100 per month for a one year old through about $190 for an adult male (those numbers increase by about 20% if it's a one person household rather than a contribution to a family budget).

I don't know how those numbers might compare in France, and there are obviously cheaper parts of the world, but the person trivializing $50 might well be in America where that's closer to a week's grocery than a month's for one person.

[0] https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/media/fil...

Thanks for the link! Perhaps I should have said $50 is a sizable chunk of a monthly grocery budget.

For about a year when I was 19ish I managed to get by on $50-ish/month for groceries, by mainly living off rice and beans, with some eggs and other items thrown in. I don't know if that counts though because I got a lot of goods from dumpsters as well; Whole Foods throws out a lot :O

Now I'm way less frugal when it comes to groceries, probably closer to 3 or 4 times that. And I would still take that $50 for bike repair.

Not sure why you were downvoted.

When I was in college, I also didn't have much more than 50€ for groceries. I did fine, but I also lived in walking distance to everything. Not everyone is as lucky.

Do people think poor people don't commute? 50$/€ is def. a lot for a myriad of people.

Its rare that you bike somewhere you can't just walk to. If you are that poor to need a government handout to fix it, you don't need it just for the bike.

I can cycle to work in about 20 minutes, or walk to work in about 70 minutes. Cycling is convenient for me, walking is not.

Viewing this is as poor people needing a government handout is a very strange interpretation of what's being proposed. It's a public health and environmental nudge.

It's like when sugar taxes are discussed, and everyone says "why don't they make the healthy things cheaper?" Well now getting a bike serviced is being subsidised. But again, it's not even about the money really.

That's ridiculous. A 35 minute commute on a bicycle is a 2 hour walk.

Maybe not, but a properly tuned and lubricated bike is waaaayyyyy more pleasant to ride and may help to encourage increased bike use. It's easier to do stuff when it's pleasant.

I really think so.

We had a pop-up bike repair workshop come around every month at my last place of work and it really increased bike use in the area.