Valuing Bicycling and Walking with Dollars and Sense: Estimating the Health Benefits of Investing in Active Transportation

Walking and bicycling advocates and public health professionals have a deep and intuitive understanding of how active transportation creates more livable cities by preventing greenhouse gas emissions, improving community health, and saving households money on transportation costs.  However, communicating the value of these benefits to transportation and land use policy makers can be difficult.

 To effectively interact and converse with policy makers who are unfamiliar with the benefits of bicycling on a conceptual level, advocates are in need of a shared language.  Qualitative statements about the value of walking and bicycling investments are often only marginally effective.  Quantifying the estimated impact of walking and bicycling can draw interest; further monetizing the economic impact of active transportation can turn policymakers’ heads and  create a strong case in competing for scarce funding dollars.

Valuing Bicycle and Walking with Dollars and Sense will demonstrate a method to calculate the dollar benefit of bicycling and walking activity using publicly available data, the majority sourced from US government programs and studies.  The poster will highlight the methodology, which focuses on monetizing the values of lower transportation costs, increased community health, and reduced vehicle emissions.  The resulting figures demonstrate the high economic benefits of bicycling and walking facilities in contrast to their low cost, making the case for prioritizing bicycling and walking infrastructure even during times of constrained funding availability. This quantified return on investment coupled with local data on chronic disease can paint powerful picture that supports planning, policy and long term investment.

This model has been used in successful grant applications, planning and design processes in communities throughout the US.  The poster will highlight of couple of examples that illustrate how to communicate the results of the benefits analysis.