Economy
Walking and bicycling are affordable forms of transportation. Many studies have shown that support for and investment in pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure results in economic benefits for individuals, businesses, and communities. These benefits are also linked to other areas related to health, safety, the environment, and more.
- An Economic Benefits: Activity-Friendly Routes to Everyday Destinations from Smart Growth America and National Complete Streets Coalition summarizes a broad range of economic benefits due to walking, biking, and other forms of active transportation a two-page visual brief. Shares that projects that support walking, biking, and moving actively using assistive devices cost over 75% less to build per mile compared to typical, car-focused transportation projects. These projects also increased property and sales tax revenue by up to 10 times.
- The Protected Bike Lanes Mean Business report from PeopleForBikes and Alliance for Biking and Walking outlines how walking and biking benefits businesses. The report compiles hard data and showcases interviews with 15 businesspeople in five U.S. cities where protected bike lane networks are expanding quickly: Austin, Texas; San Francisco, California; Portland, Oregon; Chicago, Illinois; and Washington, DC.
Health
- A 2019 report from Rails-to-Trails Conservancy calculates health costs avoided due to physical activity, healthy and active people save an average of $630 (in 2019 dollars), compared with those who are inactive or insufficiently active.
- A 2010 report from American Public Health Association and Urban Design 4 Health, Inc. estimates the hidden costs of transportation-related health outcomes. The national health costs of obesity/overweight were estimated at $142 billion; the health costs related to air pollution from traffic were estimated at $50-80 billion per year; and the annual cost of traffic crashes was estimated at $180 billion (all in 2008 dollars).
- The Protected Bike Lanes Mean Business report from PeopleForBikes and Alliance for Biking and Walking explains how biking can improve the physical fitness of employees, resulting in up to 32% fewer sick days, 55% lower health costs, and 52% increased productivity for people who bike regularly.
Job Creation
- In their 2011 study, the Political Economy Research Institute found that bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects created more jobs than road-only infrastructure projects. Bicycle-only projects created the most jobs at 11.41 jobs per $1 million invested, compared to 7.75 jobs per $1 million invested for road-only projects, which had the lowest level of job creation.
- Another 2012 study commissioned by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and referenced in a Rails-to-Trails Conservancy report found that transportation improvement projects for greenways, sidewalks, and bikeways created more jobs than any other type of project at 17 jobs per $1 million spent.
Tourism
- The 2018 Benchmarking Report from the League of American Bicyclists provides numerous examples of how bicycle tourism can spur economic development and job creation in communities. For example, the economic impact of bicycle tourism in the North Carolina Outer Banks is estimated to be $60 million annually.
Local Economy and Business Benefits
- The Protected Bike Lanes Mean Business report from PeopleForBikes and Alliance for Biking and Walking outlines how walking and biking benefits businesses. Multiple studies have found that those who bike to businesses make more frequent trips and spend more per month than those who drive.
- A 2019 report from Rails-to-Trails Conservancy finds that a modest public investment in completing trail and active transportation networks within and between communities could result in an annual economic return of $73.8 billion. These benefits include access to safe and seamless walking and biking routes; improved health and social connectivity; new opportunities for economic growth; and access to jobs, education and culture. In the substantial scenario, economic benefits nearly double to more than $138.5 billion annually.
- A 2020 report on the economic effects of bicycle infrastructure on 14 corridors across U.S. six cities from researchers at Transportation Research and Education Center, Portland State University finds that improvements such as bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure had either positive or non-significant impacts on the local economy as measured through sales and employment.
- A 2018 report from Victoria Walks (Australia) shares research that finds that walking interventions can increase the number of people entering shops and local businesses by up to 40% and retail rents by 20%.
In Relation and Comparison to Motor Vehicles
- According to the 2019 Urban Mobility Scorecard from Texas A&M Transportation Institute and INRIX, the cost of congestion for the nation in 2017 was $179 billion, accounting for an additional 8.8 billion hours driven and 3.3 billion gallons of fuel purchased by urban Americans due to congestion. For the average auto commuter, the cost of congestion was $1,080 in 2017.
- According to AAA, the average annual cost of owning and operating a new vehicle in 2020 is $9,561; the League of American Bicyclists and the Sierra Club finds that the cost of biking is $308 a year; and walking is free.
- Complete Streets are designed to provide safe access to all users, including pedestrians and bicyclists. In their 2015 Safer Streets, Stronger Economies report, Smart Growth America found that their Complete Street projects averted $18.1 million in collision and injury costs in one year. In some cases, the avoided collision costs in the first year alone exceeded the entire project cost. The projects also cost less per mile than average arterials roads, and they achieved significant results despite these lower costs.
In Relation to Real Estate
- Active Transportation and Real Estate: The Next Frontier 2016 report from the Urban Land Institute explores the interconnections among walking, bicycling, and real estate. It also provides case studies of places that have invested inactive travel which resulted in increased real estate values and advanced other goals relating to the environment, economy, and health.
Examples by Cities and Towns
- A 2012 report from New York Department of Transportation found a 172% increase in sales by using the sales receipts to compare retail activity before and after a street redesign in New York City found that transforme streets into pedestrian plazas.
- A 2018 paper published in the Journal of Transport & Health found that, on average, single family homes in Orlando, FL near Complete Streets had 8.2% and 4.3% higher home value appreciation and home value resilience than their counterparts in the adjacent non-exposed control area during housing market boom and recession, respectively. Further, on average, single family homes exposed to Complete Streets experienced relatively higher, at 2.7% and 1.6%, home value appreciation and home value resilience than their control counterparts around the nonadjacent auto-oriented control roads during housing market boom and recession, respectively.
- A 2019 paper published in the Transportation Research Record investigated the economic benefits of bikesharing in commercial areas immediately adjacent to bikesharing docking stations in Washington, D.C. The study found that 20% of businesses surveyed within a 1/10 of a mile of a bikeshare station reported a positive impact of bikesharing on sales, and 70% identified a positive impact on the area. In addition, 61% would have either a positive or a neutral reaction to replacing car parking in front of their business with a bikeshare station.
- A 2019 paper published by researchers at UC Berkeley found that Nice Ride Minnesota bikesharing riders spent an average of $1.25 per week on new economic activity that would likely have not occurred without the bikesharing system, which resulted in approximately $29K of new economic activity per season in the Twin Cities.
- In 2016, the City of Toronto (Canada) removed 136 on-street parking spots and installed a pilot bike lane on a stretch of Bloor Street, a downtown retail corridor. No negative economic impacts associated with the bike lanes was found: Monthly customer spending and number of customers served by merchants both increased on Bloor Street during the pilot.
- In a 2017 paper published in the Journal of Transport & Health, researchers used the Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) to estimate the health and economic benefits of promoting bicycling, public transportation, and traffic calming throughout the last decade in Barcelona, Spain. Researchers found that between 2009 and 2013, the number of walking and cycling trips registered on working days in Barcelona, Spain increased by 26.7% and 72.5%, respectively. This resulted in an average annual economic benefit of 47.3 million EUR due to walking and of 4.7 EUR million due to cycling (averaged over 5 years), assuming that future benefits are reduced by 5% per year.
