Health, environmental and travel cost impacts of urban cycling in Dublin, Ireland

Abstract

Cycling as a mode of transport avoids the negative external costs of driving such as air pollution, carbon dioxide emissions and noise and can also reduce the public health costs associated with physical inactivity. However, increased cycling may also have disadvantages such as increased exposure to air pollution and risk of traffic collisions. A number of studies have developed methods to quantify these health and environmental impacts and have shown that the overall impact of increased cycling is positive. However, while minimising travel costs is traditionally the main objective of transport planners, these studies have not included travel cost impacts in their analyses. In this study, the impacts of a modal shift towards cycling are quantified, taking into account health, environmental and travel cost impacts. It was found that the health and environmental impacts of increased cycling in Dublin, Ireland, would be strongly positive, mainly due to the health benefits of physical activity. When travel costs are also included in the analysis, the central estimate of net impact remains positive but the uncertainty increases considerably. This underscores the importance of the transport and health sectors working together to maximise the social welfare resulting from transport projects.