Romania: Brașov sets out to make cycling a way of life
Brașov is the main urban centre in the central region of Romania, with a population of around 290 000. The town was part of the Supporting Policy and Action for Active Environments (SPAcE) project, funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme.
The Action Plan for Brașov sets out plans for a number of initiatives that promote cycling and walking across the city. This includes the vision of making Brașov “The city where cycling is a way of life”.
A project team used WHO/Europe’s health economic assessment tool (HEAT) to help bring this vision to life and provide some economic justification for investing in cycling. It took data from the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, developed for Brașov Municipality by a consortium funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and published in 2015.
The data showed that 405 000 total trips per day were made across the city; of these, only 0.2% (or 810 trips) were made by bicycle.
Using HEAT, the team estimated the value of increasing this level to those of other European cities based on data from the European Cyclists’ Federation. It calculated 3 scenarios.
If cycling in Brașov increased from 0.2% of all trips to the level in:
- Bratislava, Slovakia, (2% of all trips) then 1.6 lives per year would be saved, valued at €626 000 per year;
- Zagreb, Croatia, (10% of all trips) then 8.9 lives per year would be saved, valued at €3 480 000 per year; and
- Amsterdam, the Netherlands, (32% of all trips) then 28.3 lives per year would be saved, valued at €11 066 000 per year.
These figures will be used to advocate for investment in cycling, and to support future applications for funding to the European Commission.
Full details of this case study are available on the SPAcE website.
