Elly Blue, a phenomenal writer and researcher I met at LA’s first Bike Summit a few years ago, just published an excellent piece on Grist about a potential solution to our health care crisis: bikes!
A recent analysis of the health savings resulting from the bicycle infrastructure in Portland, Ore, came up with stunning results. If the city builds out only the infrastructure it currently plans, the researcher found, it will break even by 2015. By 2030, Portland will have saved $800 million — partly in fuel costs but primarily in health care and the value of reduced mortality. For every $1 we spend, $5 is saved.
And that doesn’t take into account a multitude of other factors. It’s been shown again and again thatthe benefits of bicycling outweigh the risks, that not bicycling is more dangerous in the long run, and that being sedentary is worse for your health than nearly anything else. When kids, particularly, don’t get enough physical activity and good food, they are set up for a lifetime of ill health.
-Elly Blue, “Pedaling away from the health care crisis“, March 28, 2011, grist
This isn’t some slick bike industry promotion, it is an article grounded in real world data and scientific findings.
I’d like to blockquote the entire thing here, but you’ll have to click on through to her article “Pedaling away from the health care crisis” published on March 28, 2011 for grist.