Bicycles, how many benefits!

A Dutch survey focused on the link between cycling and the benefits regarding both health and…wallet. Therefore, it is not just physical well-being, but it also results in economic affluence. The study, under the title of « Bicycle in Holland: quantify health and related econoomic benefits » examined the situation of Holland, where cycle mobility is a mass phenomenon.

At the present time, twenty-seven per cent of every travel in Holland is made by bicycle. The survey displays that the investment of half a million euros per year made by the government and spent for financing new bicycle lanes and bicycle parking areas has produced economic and health-related benefits equal to nineteen million euro annum.

The reason is that cycling improves fitness, warding off a series of disease with high fees for health care, improves productivity in the workplace and in school desks and, why not, also affects the family budget by reducing expenses under the heading « fuel ».

By the estimates, for every euro invested in favour of sustainable mobility within the city there is an economic return of thirteen euros. Without forgetting the bigger incomes of local small shops, the cutting of the air pollution, source of serious (and expensive) health problems, a better life quality in general.

Physical inactivity costs a lot, under every point of view. According to a study published by Isca (International sport and culture association), half a million of European citizens die every year due to diseases related to physical inactivity. But in the experts’ opinion, by succeeding in reducing such a level even by only fifth, it would be possible to save one hundred thousand lives in Europe and around sixteen million euros annum.