Introduction: Why is bicycling good for the economy?
Each year several new studies come out that help make the case that investments in
safe and attractive bicycling pay economic dividends. We’ve added dozens of sources
(and about 10 pages) to this report since it was originally released in 2009.
The research can get technical, but the principles are simple:
• People who ride bikes buy bikes. This puts people to work in bicycle shops and
apparel stores.
• People who ride bikes buy other things, too. Bike‐accessible business districts
benefit by catering to these customers.
• People on bikes are also more likely to make repeat trips to their local stores.
• People who ride bikes on vacation buy food, have travel costs, and pay for
lodging. Bicycling tourists bring millions of dollars to cities and towns across
the country that wouldn’t otherwise end up there.
All that spending means jobs ‐‐ and tax revenue ‐‐ for communities. But people who
ride bikes also save money.
• With the money saved from lower travel costs, people who ride bikes have
more of their money to spend on local businesses.
• People who ride bikes can save their companies money on health insurance
costs.
• Developers, cities, and individuals can save money on parking costs by
providing space‐efficient, low‐cost bike parking instead of expensive car
parking.
The best way to attract people who ride bikes and accrue all of these benefits is by
building infrastructure that makes it more attractive for people to ride. Building that
infrastructure creates jobs, and it does so extremely cost‐effectively. In fact, there’s no
better job‐creating bang for your transportation buck.
• Road projects are materials‐intensive. Much of a road project budget goes to
materials. By contrast, bicycling and walking projects are labor‐intensive.
Bicycling and walking project create more jobs per dollar than road projects.
• A built‐up city can add capacity for new bicyclists much less expensively than
new capacity for drivers.