Biking Saves Lives and Money

A study was published this week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives that looks at the benefits of reducing automobile usage for short urban and suburban trips. The study looks at the 11 largest Midwestern cities (Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis) and it quantifies the potential health and monetary benefits of replacing car trips of 5 miles or less with bicycle travel. The entire study can be found here, or you can just read the abstract here.

The study finds that if half of car trips of about 5 miles (8 km) or less were conducted by bicycle during the months of May to September,* it would prevent 1,100 deaths per year, including 425 fewer deaths from the improved air quality from less cars on the road and 687 fewer deaths from increased physical activity. This would lead to a savings in the entire Midwest region of $7 billion a year. According to the study, this savings is equal to about 2.5% of the total health care cost of the states in this region.

*My hypothesis is the benefits would be even greater if you biked all year, if possible. But it’s great that the study was realistic with the biking season.

About 40 percent of all U.S. car trips are less than 2 miles – yet mile for mile they produce more air pollution than longer trips. There have been many studies that look at the relationship between short car trips and pollution rates, but I thought this particular study was interesting in that it estimates how beneficial it is to replace the car with a bike for short trips. Furthermore, it broke down benefits by each city they studied. I can see that my city, Minneapolis, can save $57 million and 300 lives annually if half of the short trips were done on bikes. City officials can see data like this and realize that investment in biking infrastructure more than pays for itself in decreased pollution and increased physical activity.

Next summer, we’re biking across the country to each major league stadium to raise awareness for the need of youth mentorship programs. But no doubt we are aware of other benefits of biking. Our main goal is to reach youth in need of mentors, but we hope to encourage everybody to bike more. Studies like this really quantify the benefits in a way that can be easily understood.