Study Says Bicycling Can Save Cities Billions of Dollars
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Bicycling is good for your health. Check. Bicycling is better for the environment than driving a car. Check. Bicycling can save cities billions in health expenses per year. Say what? Say check.
Environmental Health Perspectives published findings from a study by scientists at the University of Wisconsin that reveal shocking relief for wallets from simply switching to two wheels. Focusing on eleven metropolitan cities in the upper Midwest, the study surveyed the economic and health benefits of swapping a car for a bicycle for trips less than five miles in length.
Scientists factored in data on air pollution, medical costs, mortality rates, car accidents and physical fitness and "found that if inhabitants of the sample region switched to bikes for half of their short trips, they'd create a net societal health benefit of $3.5 billion per year from the increase in air quality and $3.8 billion in savings from smaller health care costs associated with better fitness and fewer mortalities from a decreased rate of car accidents," reports GOOD.
Researchers were conservative in their study, assuming Midwesterners would only bike when the weather was in its prime, which equals only about four months out of the year. GOOD noted that Minneapolis was named the country's best city for biking in 2010, so their assumption is most likely false.
We hope a similar study is conducted in California, as a study by Environment California revealed that the top five smoggiest metropolitan areas in the country in 2010 were in the Golden State. L.A. ranked as the third smoggiest metropolitan area in the U.S. And Los Angeles is not an ideal place to get sick. A health care infographic released during the summer ranked L.A. as the sixth most expensive city for sicklings.
A potential future study would evaluate the effects of mass transit on health and pollution. Jonathan Patz, a physician and co-author of the Midwest study, told NPR, "Studies have shown that if you take mass transit, you'll get about 20 minutes of decent walking," adding that it's a topic for the next analysis.
