Legislators José Ramírez, Edgardo Araya and Laura Garro proposed to create a tax on owners of public parking lots that would finance the construction of networks of roads and parking lots for cyclists, as well as other special infrastructure.
The initiative aims to promote and regulate the use of bicycles as a means of transport and recreation that benefits health, and which is an alternative to conventional mobility in urban and rural areas.
It also aims to declare mobility and cycling security a public interest to promote this means of transportation through the ministries of Public Works and Transport, Health, Environment and Energy, Public Education, Public Security, National Registry, Costa Rican Railway Institute (INCOFER), municipalities and public transport companies.
The tax would be created in favor of the Financing Fund for Mobility and Cyclical Safety and would apply to businesses qualified and authorized by the municipalities.
According to the initiative, this is the scale of monthly rates:
-9 or less vehicles: 18% monthly rate.
-From 10 to 20 vehicles: monthly rate of 20%.
-From 21 to 40 vehicles: monthly rate of 22%.
-More than 40 vehicles: monthly rate of 24%.
The municipalities would be in charge of valuing the real estate, invoicing, collecting the tax and processing the judicial charges that correspond in cases of non-compliance.
The project establishes that the resources would be used for the following works and activities:
-Creation of cycling networks and cycle-pedestrian paths.
-Construction and adaptation of equipped parking lots for bicycles and bicycle rental centers.
-Placement of specialized vertical and horizontal luminous signals for cycling traffic.
-Elaboration of specialized cartography , placement of cyclical itinerary signal and diffusion between tourist entities to inform cyclists and tourists.
-Conferences, cultural activities and educational initiatives suitable for the promotion of cycling.
-Projection and planning of tour itineraries and associated infrastructure.
-Agreements with INCOFER to promote intermodality between bicycle and train, particularly in the placement of bicycle parking lots in the areas of stops and railway stations.
-Agreements with public transport companies for the integration between that transport and the use of the bicycle, as well as the placement of structures to carry bicycles in public transportation.