A 2009 study of Bloor Street, a commercial street in Toronto, Ontario showed that encouraging bicycling is good for business: people who had biked and walked to the area reported that they spent more money in the area per month than those who drove there. The study concluded that the addition of bike lanes would be unlikely to harm local business and predicted that commercial activity on the street would likely increase. Three-quarters of merchants surveyed on the street believed that business activity would improve or stay the same if a bike lane replaced half of the on-street parking.^xxv

Businesses can also benefit from the health impacts of their employees bicycling to work. A study of 30,604 people in Copenhagen showed that people who commuted to work by bike had 40 percent lower risk of dying over the course of the study period than those who didn’t and bike commuters average a day fewer absencesdue to illness each year than non-bike commuters. In recognition of these economic advantages and in an effort to attract and retain highly sought-after employees, employers are continuing to add wellness and health management programs ) to encourage healthy habits among employees.

Good for Home Values

Many communities have recognized the broad appeal of bicycle facilities and the impact they can have on real estate values. Arlington County, Va., a silver-rated Bicycle Friendly Community, has set the goal of ensuring that all residents live within a quarter-mile of a bike facility and has currently achieved 90 percent coverage.

Bob McNamara, a Senior Policy Representative for the National Association of Realtors (NAR), a 1.2 million member professional organization, emphasized the importance of transportation choice at the 2009 National Bike Summit. He argued that Realtors sell not just houses, but communities, and that increasing transportation choice increases livability.In 2008, NAR revised its policy statement on transportation to call for the consideration of all transportation types, including bicycling, in every transportation project.

By mapping real estate transactions, researchers have been able to show that bike facilities can have positive, statistically significant impacts on home values. The design identifies the value placed on home proximity to urban bicycle greenways with a statistical formula that controls for other housing features. A study of home values near the Monon Trail in Indianapolis, Ind. measured the impact of the trail on property values. Given two identical houses, with the same number of square feet, bathrooms, bedrooms, and comparable garages and porches – one within a half mile of the Monon Trail and another further away – the home closer to the Monon Trailwould sell for an average of 11 percent more. More studies on the impacts of trails and paths can be found at the National Trail Training Partnership and the Rails to Trails Conservancy.

Savings

Riding a bicycle instead of driving a car has economic impacts that are not always obvious, often because the costs and benefits are borne and accrued by society in general rather than the individual user. Researcher Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute has attempted to quantify the benefits of switching from driving to bicycling. He looked at the benefits of congestion reduction, roadway cost savings, vehicle cost savings, parking cost savings, air pollution reduction, energy conservation, and traffic safety improvements. Litman estimated that replacing a car trip with a bike trip saves individuals and society $2.73 per mile. (A typical two-mile bike trip would save $5.56.) The benefits would be enormous if even a small fraction of the more than 200 billion miles Americans drive each month – nearly three trillion a year – were shifted to bike. (For an indication of just how enormous, consider that nearly 30 percent of all trips in Copenhagen, Denmark are by bicycle. A 30 percent mode-share in the U.S. would lead to an estimated savings of $163.8 billion a month, nearly two trillion dollars a year.)

Employees are losing productive hours of their day while stuck in traffic. According to the Texas Transportation Institute, “Gridlock costs the average peak period traveler almost 40 hours a year in travel delay, and costs the United States more than $78 billion each year…traffic jams are wasting 2.9 billion gallons of gas every year.” There is reason to believe, however, based on the recent decline in driving, that a relatively small shift from cars to other modes could have an outsized impact on congestion. According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), there was a 3 percent drop in traffic on “urban interstates” from 2007 to 2008. This has translated to a nearly 30 percent reduction in peak hour congestion, indicating that “when a road network is at capacity, adding or subtracting even a single vehicle has disproportionate effects for the network.”

In addition to costs related to driving, there are also considerable costs due to physical inactivity that can be reduced by promoting bicycling. The health benefits of physical activity have long been established and researchers from a range of disciplines have been able to show that the physical environment impacts levels of physical activity. There are many different ways to estimate the health cost savings of bicycling. The values vary depending on study design, medical conditions attributed to inactivity, cost data availability, and other variables, but all studies show positive outcomes. The health savings resulting from physical activity, measured in 10 different studies, range up to $1,175 per person, per year. The median annual per capita value of the ten studies was $128.

These savings justify spending on bicycle facilities. A 2009 study in England found that, because of health improvements, congestion reduction, and environmental benefits, a small number of additional regular riders are needed to pay for new cycling infrastructure. For example, the study’s Cycling Planning Model suggests that an investment of £10,000 – $16,521 U.S. – requires just one additional cyclist riding three times a week over the thirty year life of the project.

With the proper investments, it is possible to increase the share of bicycling trips and lead to the economic benefits described above. Countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany, where bicycling levels were decreasing as car-use exploded in 1950s and 1960s, were able to reverse the trend with land-use policies and investments in separate cycling facilities in high traffic areas and traffic calming measures in residential areas. Cities in the U.S., like Portland, Ore., have been able to increase their mode-share by building a complete network of facilities and encouraging urban density. The results of a study of 33 large U.S. cities, (excluding New York City, which is considered an outlier in much transportation research because of its size and high use of public transportation) showed that each additional mile of bicycle lane is associated with an approximate one-percent increase in the share of bike-to-work trips.

Conclusion – A Good Investment Within Reach

Bicycling is popular across America among all types of people. Communities that have fostered that popularity by providing bicycle infrastructure for transportation and recreation have seen considerable economic benefits by attracting businesses, tourism, and active residents.

Neighborhoods become more desirable when traffic slows down and residents have more transportation choices. Businesses can encourage shopping among loyal, local customers by making getting there by bike more appealing. Individuals benefit from increased levels of fitness and health that result in real cost savings and employers have healthier employees who miss fewer days of work.

A modest mode shift from driving to riding has considerable impacts in savings on health, road construction, congestion, and environmental remediation. As examples in the U.S. and internationally demonstrate, this shift is possible – but unlikely without federal, state, and local investments in bicycle facilities to provide drivers with an appealing, safe alternative choice.

Source: bikeleague.org

The Business Case For Active Transportation - The Economic Benefits of Walking and Cycling