{"id":13309,"date":"2011-08-22T13:51:42","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T19:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sustainablog.org\/?p=13309"},"modified":"2011-08-22T13:51:42","modified_gmt":"2011-08-22T19:51:42","slug":"bicycling-benefits-economic-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/bicycling-benefits-economic-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic Growth: Another Benefit of Bicycling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bike-lane.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13310\" title=\"bike lane\" src=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bike-lane.jpg\" alt=\"a road lane for bicycling, skating, and walking\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bike-lane.jpg 500w, https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/bike-lane-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A few months ago, I took note of Jay Walljasper&#8217;s arguments for <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/transportation-funding-for-bicycling-an-economic-no-brainer\/\">public investment in bicycling infrastructure<\/a>: in short, government spending on trails and bike lanes pays off in terms of increased ridership. That&#8217;s a good thing, of course &#8212; people are emitting less carbon and getting more exercise &#8212; but what about financial payoff? Isn&#8217;t that the ultimate goal of investment?<\/p>\n<p>We can argue about what kind of return public investment should seek, but we may not have to in this case: <a href=\"http:\/\/corporate.sky.com\/documents\/pdf\/press_releases\/2011\/the_british_cycling_economy\">a new study from the London School of Economics<\/a> shows that <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/bicycling-facts\/\">bicycling<\/a> creates economic growth in the UK: about\u00a0\u00a3230 per cyclist per year, or\u00a0\u00a32.9 billion for the British economy as a whole. Among the drivers of this growth:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>28 per cent increase in volume of cycle sales in 2010, generating \u00a31.62b<\/li>\n<li>\u00a3853m further contribution to the UK economy through the purchase of cycling accessories and bicycle maintenance, resulting in total retail sector sales of \u00a32.47b<\/li>\n<li>Over \u00a3500m generated in wages and \u00a3100m in taxes from 23,000 employed directly in bicycle sales, distribution and the maintenance of cycling infrastructure<\/li>\n<li>Health benefits save the economy \u00a3128m per year in absenteeism<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, does this represent a huge segment of overall economic growth in the UK? Probably not. But it does represent a measurable return in terms of jobs created and tax revenues generated&#8230; in short, a solid investment.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, we can&#8217;t just transpose this scenario on other countries, but we&#8217;ve also seen evidence of the economic benefits created by building bicycling infrastructure in the United States: the Political Economy Research Unit&#8217;s findings that, in at least one case, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sundancechannel.com\/sunfiltered\/2011\/01\/bike-lanes-jobs-baltimore\/\">building of bike infrastructure created more jobs than road construction<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, there are plenty of folks out there (maybe even a few reading this right now) that will see &#8220;government spending,&#8221; and immediately respond with &#8220;That&#8217;s bad&#8230;&#8221; But if we&#8217;re seeing financial payback from that spending &#8212; in addition to lower carbon emissions, cleaner air, and healthier citizens &#8212; isn&#8217;t that exactly the kind of &#8220;spending&#8221; we want? Doesn&#8217;t that represent fiscal responsibility?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve read through the report, but no doubt didn&#8217;t pick up every detail the first go-through&#8230; so if you see something that needs highlighting, do so&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/lifeandstyle\/2011\/aug\/21\/cycling-3bn-uk-economy-study?CMP=twt_fd\">The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Image credit:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/gallery-142054p1.html\">SVLuma<\/a>\/<a href=\"http:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\">Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few months ago, I took note of Jay Walljasper&#8217;s arguments for public investment in bicycling infrastructure: in short, government spending on trails and bike lanes pays off in terms&nbsp;[ &hellip; ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":13310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,13],"tags":[823,5289,10,5290,5291,202],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bicycling Benefits: Jobs and Economic Growth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The benefits of bicycling don&#039;t just extend to your health and environmental impact: a new UK study shows economic growth created by more people biking.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/bicycling-benefits-economic-growth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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