Active Transportation for America Report

The Rails to Trails Conservancy, along with Bikes Belong, has produced a report on Active Transportation for America. The report attempts to quantify the benefits of elevating the priority of bicycling and walking in America's Transportation system.

This report quantifies, for the first time, the benefits that America can expect from elevating the priority of bicycling and walking in our nation's transportation system. This case statement for increased investment in bicycling and walking infrastructure evaluates benefits in the areas of transportation, oil dependence, climate change, and public health, and puts dollar estimates to the economic value of these benefits.

The analysis concludes that modest increases in bicycling and walking could lead to an annual reduction of 70 billion miles of automobile travel. More substantial increases could lead to the avoidance of 200 billion miles per year.

The financial value of improved mobility, fuel savings, greenhouse gas reductions, and health care savings amounts to more than $10 billion annually under our Modest Scenario. For the Substantial Scenario, benefits would add up to more than $65 billion every year. These benefits dwarf historic spending for bicycling and walking which was $453 million per year for 2005–2007 under SAFETEA-LU, and a mere $4.5 billion cumulative federal investment in these modes since 1992, when bicycling and walking first received documentable federal funding.

The whole thing is 44 pages long and filled with data (as well as more than a few photos of DC cyclists and use of DC examples) so don't let these highlights below keep you from checking it out. 

Congestion is a direct result when increases in driving exceed the capacity of road infrastructure. Reducing miles driven therefore helps reduce congestion, in particular when driving is reduced during peak hours. Avoiding miles driven can be much more
cost-effective than trying to reduce congestion by expanding highway infrastructure capacity to accommodate increased use.

Bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure costs much less on a per traveler basis. Over the width of one traffic lane, bicycling and walking can move five to 10 times more people than driving,(28) and the costs of pedestrian and bicycle facilities range anywhere from a few thousand dollars per mile to rarely more than $1 million

Comparing parking costs and space requirements provide the same picture. Bicycles use about 10 times less space, and costs can be anywhere in between 30 and 300 times lower than for car parking.

The total savings that would result from shifting more short trips to bicycling or walking could amount to 2.4 billion gallons of fuel for the Modest Scenario, to five billion for the Substantial
Scenario, and between 21 and 45 million tons of CO2 a year, respectively.

Since 1991, Portland has steadily expanded its network of bicycle facilities, and observed a constant growth in bicycling, while crash and fatality rates among cyclists significantly decreased. Between 1991 and 2006, Portland was able to reduce the crash rate by more than 69 percent. In that time period, the number of bicyclists grew more than four fold, while the number of fatalities remained low, between zero and five per year.