Greece: Trikala estimates value of increasing number of cyclists and distance travelled

Trikala is a small city in central Greece. The Municipality of Trikala was part of the Supporting Policy and Action for Active Environments (SPAcE) project, funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme.

The city developed an action plan that focused primarily on increasing cycling through investment in cycling infrastructure. It used WHO/Europe’s health economic assessment tool (HEAT) to support the case for more investment in cycling across the city.

The municipality’s project team carried out a survey among citizens, which included questions about cycling habits and more general questions about views towards active travel. The survey found that cyclists in the city used their bicycles 5 days per week on average, for a mean distance of 1.8 km. It also estimated that there were 5000 regular cyclists in the city.

The team used these data to calculate a number of HEAT estimates, including the following values:

  • the current levels of cycling: €748 000 per year;
  • if the number of cyclists increased by 3% over 10 years: €8.9 million;
  • if the municipality helped to increase the mean distance cycled by 500 metres over 10 years: €9.4 million; and
  • if the municipality increased the number of cyclists by 3% and increased the mean distance cycled by 500 metres over 10 years: €11.3 million.

These figures will be used for the duration of the SPAcE project and afterwards, to make the political and economic case for investment in cycling across the city.

Full details of this case study are available on the SPAcE website.

Supporting Policy and Action for Active Environments (SPAcE) website