Latvia: Tukums calculates benefits of encouraging occasional cyclists to ride more often

Tukums is a small town in Latvia. The town was part of the Supporting Policy and Action for Active Environments (SPAcE) project, funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme.

In Tukums, WHO/Europe’s health economic assessment tool (HEAT) was used to persuade decision-makers to invest in cycling and walking by demonstrating the economic benefits of increased levels of cycling across the city.

The project team worked with a research agency to conduct the population survey “Assessing the performance of Tukums municipality services”, which included questions on cycling. The survey found that:

• 12.5% of people in the city use their bicycle every day;
• 16.9% use it at least once a week; and
• 12.3% use it less than once per week.

The team decided to focus on occasional cyclists and calculate the health impacts of encouraging them to cycle more often. It saw this as a more realistic strategy than encouraging non-cyclists to start cycling.

It used HEAT to answer the following question: What would be the value of persuading everyone who has a bicycle and cycles at least occasionally in Tukums to cycle 3 times a week? Trip length was assumed to be 3 km, in line with European average data.

The HEAT calculation showed that targeting only those people who have cycled in the last year and encouraging them to cycle 3 times a week would result in 3 fewer deaths annually. This is valued at €2.5 million per year.

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