United Kingdom/Scotland: Glasgow values its Strategic Plan for cycling

Glasgow City Council published a Strategic Plan for Cycling in 2010 which included the vision that cycling would be the biggest participation activity in the city by 2020. Researchers from the Glasgow Centre for Population Health used the HEAT to quantify the potential economic benefits arising from current and future levels of cycling.

The researchers used data, on travel to work and to study, from the 2001 national census, together with counts of cyclists entering the city at specific entry points over a two-day census period.

The 2001 census data indicated that 600 Glasgow residents commuted in and out of the city centre resulting in a total of 1200 trips per day, each with a mean trip length of 4 km. The HEAT estimated that this led to a mean annual benefit of nearly £1 million (€1 084 000).

Estimates of the value of potential increases in cycling, due to the new strategic plan, showed that the mean annual benefit was just over £3 million (€3 769 000) in 2009, increasing to over £4 million (€5 095 000) between 2009 and 2012.

The authors concluded:

“…this analysis contributes to the evidence base on the public health benefits of cycling and adds further weight to the arguments that promoting cycling represents extremely good value for money for both individual and public health.”