Annals of Cycling – 10

An occasional update on items from the Velo-city.

________________________________________________________________________

HOW CYCLING WILL SAVE THE ECONOMY

Elly Blue tries to make the case:

Imagine getting a $3,000 to $12,000 tax rebate this year. Now imagine it coming again and again. Every year it grows by around a thousand dollars.  (That’s)  actually a conservative estimate of how much you’d save by ditching your car, or even just one of your cars — and getting on a bicycle instead.  (Full article here.)

Click here for larger version.

________________________________________________________________________

GOOD NEWS / BAD NEWS

An update on bike-sharing systems around the world.  And an analysis of cycling fatalities in the U.S. over the last decade.

________________________________________________________________________

WHAT’S NEXT?

Chris Keam in the current issue of Granville asks:

… what might we expect after voters go to the polls if another cycling-friendly council is installed at city hall? Three central figures in the debate say planning, education and communication are as important as painted lanes and concrete barriers in building the bike lane ahead.

Myself, Arno Schortinghuis and Suzanne Anton respond.

________________________________________________________________________

TRUE COST ACCOUNTING

From the Portland Tribune:

Portland has spent an estimated $57 million on its biking infrastructure, to the chagrin of many who feel the money would have been better spent elsewhere. Even with that investment, just more than 6 percent of Portland residents commute by bike. And that makes a groundbreaking study published last week in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health that much more interesting – and important.Swiss epidemiologist Thomas Gotschi, who, incidentally, has never visited Portland, decided to put together the first-ever cost/benefit analysis on biking in a U.S. city. He chose Portland …

Now, some of Gotschi’s calculations are probably a bit of a stretch from a purely scientific point of view. But his main point – that during the next 30 years Portland residents could save as much as $594 million in health care costs because of the city’s investment in biking – bears noting

________________________________________________________________________