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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified the positive impact of making cities more bike-friendly: "integrating health-enhancing choices into transportation policy has the potential to save lives by preventing chronic diseases, reducing and preventing motor-vehicle-related injury and deaths, improving environmental health, while stimulating economic development, and ensuring access for all people." The CDC also recognized that a lack of efficient transportation alternatives to driving and a fear of biking in heavy traffic only encouraged people to continue to drive all or most of the time.

A two-year assessment of Erie County's health needs shows that county residents need to make significant lifestyle changes, including smoking cessation, better nutrition and more exercise. They also need to prevent or control more cancers and chronic diseases, like diabetes, and improve their mental health.

Assuming a one-to-one tradeoff between vehicle trips and non-motorized trips, the DOT report estimated that the program conserved 1.67 million gallons of gasoline and averted more than 30.8 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions between 2007 and 2010. The report also noted that the increase in non-motorized travel and the decrease in automobile trips resulted in notable reductions in other air pollutants that contribute to health problems. It estimates that boosting the amount of pedestrian and bicycle activity in these communities reduced the economic cost of mortality by about $6.9 billion in 2007. Doctors and the broader public health community have long been advocating increasing opportunities for biking and walking as a cost-effective strategy to reduce illness and wasteful spending on reactive health care. The U.S. DOT report, "Report to the U.S. Congress on the Outcomes of the Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program", is available at: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/ntpp/2012_report/final_report_april_2012.pdf.

Barriers to Municipal Planning for Pedestrians and Bicyclists in North Carolina Authors: Kelly R. Evenson, Semra A. Aytur, Sara B. Satinsky, Daniel A. Rodríguez Background: The Guide to Community Preventive Services recommends implementing community- and street-scale urban design, as well as land use policies and practices, to promote walking and bicycling. To better understand barriers to municipal walking and bicycling projects and policies, we surveyed municipal staff in North Carolina.  Methods: We surveyed all 121 municipalities with at least 5,000 persons, and 62% responded. We also surveyed 216 of 420 municipalities with less than 5,000 persons, and 50% responded. The municipal staff member most knowledgeable about walking and bicycling planning was asked to complete the survey. Responses were weighted to account for the sampling design, to reflect prevalence estimates for all North Carolina municipalities. Results: Common barriers to walking and bicycling projects and policies were selected from a 14-item list. For walking, barriers included lack of funding (93% of responding municipalities), other infrastructure priorities (79%), automobile infrastructure priorities (66%), and staffing challenges (65%). For bicycling, barriers included lack of funding (94% of responding municipalities), other infrastructure priorities (79%), automobile infrastructure priorities (73%), issues were not high priorities for the municipality (68%), staffing challenges (68%), and insufficient support from residents (63%). Barriers generally were more prevalent among rural municipalities than among urban municipalities (9 of 14 barriers for walking and 5 of 14 for bicycling; P < .10). limitations The study relied on 1 respondent to report for a municipality. Additionally, job titles of respondents varied with municipality  size.  Conclusions: Health professionals and multidisciplinary partners can assist in overcoming the common local- and state-level barriers

By now, we all know that cycling is good for health, fitness, cutting road accidents, reducing carbon emissions, and increasing energy security (and so on, and on). But what about biking's economic impact--its cyclonomics, if you will? The League of American Bicyclists put a map together to publicize a recent report by its policy director Darren Flusche. Flusche says the most important pieces of evidence for bicycling's economic impact come from business district studies, including ones for downtown Memphis and Long Beach, California. Research (PDF) covering Portland, Oregon, meanwhile, showed that bicyclists spent more over a month than either motorists or walkers. "Those arguments are critical for convincing businesses to allow bike infrastructure in front of their shops, because they are very aware of parking, and they have the perception that most people arrive by car. That's not always the case. You can fit many more bikes in a spot than cars," Flusche says.

In their new book, John Pucher and Ralph Buehler come right out and state their belief in plain English: "Cycling should be made feasible, convenient, and safe for everyone." The editors of City Cycling, just published by MIT Press, aim to further that cause by gathering together as much data as they could find to support their case that "it is hard to beat cycling when it comes to environmental, economic, and social sustainability." This is not a book of impassioned arguments or heartfelt polemics. Pucher and Buehler are academics, the former at Rutgers University and the latter at Virginia Tech. The 19 contributors to the book are also academics. Each chapter is followed by multiple pages of references and citations, and the entire book underwent peer review. City Cycling is unabashedly pro-bike, but its authors aren't relying on gut feeling. This is all about the numbers. Cycling advocates pushing for better bicycling infrastructure on streets around the world are accustomed to meeting with skeptical audiences. They will find a lot of ammunition here, much of it gleaned from studies of nations such as Germany and the Netherlands, where cycling is a routine part of daily life. Divided into chapters on subjects such as health benefits, safety, bikesharing systems around the world, cycling for women, and cycling for kids, the book marshals an impressive and fascinating assortment of facts, figures, trends, charts, and diagrams.

"A Sober, Data-Based Approach to Bicycle Advocacy"

A few stats immediately leap out at you: For one, 70% of America's car trips are shorter than 2 miles, which translates to about an easy 10-minute bike ride. One can lose 13 pounds in a year, just from riding to work?!  If you're trying to fight cars as an American politician, you'll be out of work fast. Especially since, as of this moment, only a tiny .6% of all errands and trips in this country are made via bikes. But the last panel does actually suggest that change isn't totally impossible. Portland, which is covered with relatively new bike lanes, has 6% of its population commuting by bike; ridership across the country is growing.