Finland: Finland makes HEAT guidance documents widely available in the country

WHO/Europe’s health economic assessment tool (HEAT) is extensively used across Finland. The Fit for Life programme, funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, has translated and published HEAT documents online. The Finnish-language HEAT guidance documents include examples of values recommended for use in Finland as well as case study examples.

HEAT has been promoted extensively at the national level in Finland, and has been applied in at least 12 metropolitan and rural areas. In many cases, HEAT analyses are commissioned by municipalities and managed by WSP, an environment and planning consultancy. Below are several examples.

National walking and cycling strategy

This strategy aims to increase the share of walking, cycling and public transport from 32% to 35–38% of all trips, with a corresponding decline in car transport, by 2020. This would increase walking and bicycle trips by 20% in 2020 compared to 2005.

A project team used HEAT to estimate the value of these increases, and found that:

• walking would yield an average annual benefit of €257 million; and
• cycling would yield an average annual benefit of €82 million.

Helsinki

A project team conducted benefit–cost calculations on a proposed high-quality bicycle network in Helsinki. It ran the calculations for an investment of €10 million/year and of €20 million/year. It used a transport model to estimate the predicted increase in cyclists.

In both cases, the resultant benefit–cost ratio was 7.8 : 1, with health having by far the greatest impact on predicted benefits.

Helsinki City

Helsinki City’s employees took part in a survey to determine the value of current levels of walking and cycling, and its potential increase if they were willing to change their travel behaviour. The survey found that 17 000 people walked and cycled, at a value of €9 million/year for walking and €13 million/year for cycling.

Survey respondents said that they were willing to walk and cycle more, and this additional active travel was valued at €3.9 million/year for walking and €7.8 million/year for cycling.

Tampere

The City of Tampere has an objective to increase cycling and walking to 37% of all journeys – a 27% increase in walking and a 10% increase in cycling – by 2021. The modal split in 2014 was 31%.

The City used HEAT to estimate the following values of this increased walking and cycling:

• cycling would yield an average annual benefit of €5.4 million and a total benefit of €111.7 million; and
• walking would yield an average annual benefit of €3.3 million and a total benefit of €67.8 million.

Espoo

The City of Espoo has an objective to increase the modal split of cycling from 8% to 15% by 2024. It used HEAT to estimate the value of the health benefits from achieving this objective, which came to €8.3 million per year.

Kokkola

The City of Kokkola has an objective to increase the modal split of cycling from 15% to 20% by 2020. It used HEAT to estimate the value of the health benefits from achieving this objective, which came to €1.1 million per year.