BIKE BATON ROUGE
MID CITY STUDIO
Introduction
Affordable transportation such as bicycling is a critical part of the fabric of a healthy city. The purpose of this report is to highlight the economic benefits of bicycle infrastructure or other improvements by calculating and assigning a dollar value to every additional bicycle mile generated by those improvements. These figures can then be used to calculate the effectiveness of specific projects – and to advocate for those projects that make economic sense.
Bike Baton Rouge is a grassroots, all-volunteer organization dedicated to promoting bicycling and walking as transportation options in the greater Baton Rouge area; making these modes of transportation as safe, convenient, and enjoyable as possible; and educating the public on the associated environmental, economic, and health-related benefits of biking and walking.
Focus Area + Conditions
This report focuses on the entirety of East Baton Rouge Parish. Except where noted, the statistics for East Baton Rouge Parish below were found in the United States Census American Community Survey conducted in 2015, ACS 5-Year Population Estimate.
- Population – 444,690 (LA: 4,533,372 / USA: 308,745,538)
- Current bicycle mode share (percentage of trips) – .6% (LA: 0.5% / USA: 0.6%)
- Average age in years – 33.2 (LA: 36.1 / USA: 37.6)
- Percentage of population below poverty level – 25.6% (LA: 19.8% / USA: 15.5%)
- Obesity rate – 35.9% (LA: 33.2%2 / USA: 28%3)
- 2,655 total miles of roadway
Report Creation
Methodology
It is well known that bicycling is a healthy, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly mode of transportation. This report will attempt to place a value on the economic benefits gained from bicycling so that the value of an increased level of bicycling through a new facility, program, or policy can be calculated. This value will take into consideration both the direct economic benefits for the user (such as cheaper transportation and lowered health costs) as well as indirect benefits (such as reduced congestion and pollution). This total benefit will be calculated on a per bicycle-mile basis, assigning a monetary value to each additional mile bicycled.
If a cost benefit per mile bicycled can be calculated, then the economic impact of any bicycle infrastructure improvement or other initiative can be assessed if the resulting increase in bicycle-miles can be calculated or estimated. A simplified example is given on the opposite page.
Various calculations for the benefits of bicycling per bicycle-mile currently exist, such as one by the Victoria Transportation Policy Institute in British Columbia, Canada. Existing reports calculate the economic benefits of bicycling between $2 and $3 per mile. In the above example, the hypothetical bicycle network would result in an annual economic benefit of $400,000 to $600,000 respectively.
The aim of this report will be to calculate, as accurately and as transparently as possible, this benefit per bicycle-mile value for Louisiana, which will be applied in later sections to current and future bicycling facilities in East Baton Rouge Parish.
Benefit Calculations
Vehicle Operating Cost Savings
Operating a motor vehicle can be a heavy financial burden, particularly for low income households. The American Automobile Association (AAA) estimates this cost from $6,579 annually for a Small Sedan to $10,492 annually for an Large Sedan – and $8,604 for a Medium Sedan. This figure includes depreciation, fuel, maintenance, and other direct costs of owning and operating the vehicle – but it does not account for certain other expenditures, such as tolls and parking.
he annual costs of operating a bicycle are estimated by the League of American Bicyclists to be $308, meaning that choosing to bicycle instead of driving a Medium Sedan would save a road user $8,296 per year.
The Federal Highway Administration calculates that an average vehicle in Louisiana travels 11,484 miles annually – dividing the savings of switching to bicycling from a Medium Sedan (above), we calculate a per-mile saving of $0.722.
Result : $0.749 per mile (car) / $0.027 per mile (bicycle)
Road Infrastructure Savings
Roads cost money, and cars use more of them and wear them out faster than bicycles. An automobile traveling at thirty miles per hour claims 1,500 square feet or road space. This figure increases to 5,000 square feet at 60 miles per hour. A bicycle, which is smaller, and slower, takes just 50 square feet at 10 miles per hour, one-thirtieth of the space the automobile traveling at 30 miles per hour.
Road wear and resulting maintenance can be estimated using the fourth power law which states that road wear is proportional to the fourth power of the weight of the vehicle. Thus, a 4,000 pound car is responsible for 160,000 times the wear of a 200 pound bicycle and rider. Clearly, more bicycling means less investment in infrastructure.
The Federal Highway Administration spent $205 billion dollars in 2010. In that year, Americans drove 2,966 trillion miles. Federal investment, then, comes to $0.069 per vehicle mile. The Louisiana Department of Transportation spent $1.607 billion in 2010, for a total of 45,439 billion miles of driving for state investment of $0.035 per vehicle mile.
Adding these results in a cost of $0.104 per mile for driving, and an estimated $0.003 for bicycling (assuming that a bicycle that takes 50 square feet requires one thirtieth of the road investments as a motor vehicle that requires 1,500 square feet at thirty miles per hour.)
Result : $0.104 per mile (car) / $0.003 per mile (bicycle)
Parking Savings
Parking costs fall into two categories, direct or internal costs (such as owning a parking space, or paying a parking meter) and indirect or external (the externalized cost of ‘free’ parking provided by businesses, employers, and the state). The Victorian Transportation Policy Institute in British Columbia, Canada, has completed extensive research on the costs of parking, finding per vehicle mile costs of $0.067 for internalized costs and $0.062 for externalized costs. The same study finds the costs of bicycle parking per mile to be just 5% of these figures.
Result : $0.129 per mile (car) / $0.006 per mile (bicycle)
Reduced Congestion Savings
The TRIP National Transportation Research Group estimates that congestion in Baton Rouge costs drivers $1,262 in lost time and wasted fuel. Per mile (11,484 miles annually for a Louisiana driver as reported by the FHWA), this results in $0.110 in costs. An ideal network of bicycle paths, bike lanes, and low-stress roads (by definition, ones that are not busy) would not contribute at all to road congestion. In some cases, they may even improve traffic flow and safety, as in the case of road diet projects that replace two middle lanes with a turn lane – not unlike the Government Street project set to begin construction in 2018.
Result : $0.110 per mile (car) / $0.000 per mile (bicycle)
Health Benefits
The health benefits of bicycling are well known. People For Bikes maintains statistics on bicycles and health, including those that show that bicyclists, on average, live two years longer than non-cyclists and take 15% fewer days off work through illness – and that less than one third of Americans meet the CDC’s requirements for minimal physical activity (30 minutes of moderate physical activity 5 days/week). Those who commute by biking or walking typically exceed these requirements. Health benefits range from the obvious (better cardiovascular health, lowered rates of obesity and diabetes) to the less well known (better mental health, community engagement, and social awareness). These benefits aren’t confined to the user alone – a person’s poor health affects their productivity and their contributions to society. Poor health has a tremendous social cost.
To calculate the health benefits of a bicycle-mile, the World Health Organization’s Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) was used. The HEAT tool, which is used and endorsed by various governmental organizations including the United Kingdom Department for Transport, estimates the health impact of increased rates of bicycling amongst a population.
Using a Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) for the US provided by the OECD, and then weighting it by the Louisiana GDP per Capita, a VSL for Louisiana was calculated to be $2,758,289. A crude mortality rate between ages 20-64 of 478 deaths per 100,000 population was calculated from Louisiana Department of Health and census statistics. Finally, an estimated additional bicycle mileage per new user of 1,000 miles per year was calculated by assuming an average user would make a two-mile trip, twice per day, five times per week, and fifty times per year.
Note that the hypothetical two mile trip is much shorter than both the average Baton Rouge commute of eight miles and the average North American bicycle commute of seven and a half miles.
The resulting figure of $1.350 per bicycle mile is striking in its magnitude, especially considering that the United States Food and Drug Administration ($9.3 million), Department of Transportation ($9.4 million), and the Environmental Protection Agency ($9.7 million) calculate much higher VSL values than the OECD value used.
Result : $1.350 per mile (car, compared to bike) / $0.000 per mile (bicycle)
Reduced Pollution and Greenhouse Emissions
The most obvious external costs of motor vehicle use are also the most well studied. Air, water, noise pollution, and emission of greenhouse gases such as Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide take a very real economic toll on society in the form of societal health issues (separate from the internal health issues discussed above for the road user), costly environmental cleanup programs, and lost economic opportunity due to environment loss and climate change (in some cases paid for – eventually – by future generations).
The Victorian Transportation Policy Institute again calculates the per vehicle mile costs of these forms of pollution and emissions:
- Greenhouse gas emissions: $0.147 per vehicle-mile
- Air pollution, non-greenhouse: $0.040 per vehicle-mile
- Noise pollution: $0.011 per vehicle-mile – External costs of gasoline production: $0.038 per vehicle-mile
- Water and Hydrological impacts: $0.014 per vehicle-mile
- TOTAL: $0.250 per vehicle-mile
While some less-informed individuals might claim that bicycling contributes to carbon emissions and global warming, the actual carbon emissions of bicycling are negligible and relate to equipment manufacture only.
Result : $0.250 per mile (car) / $0.000 per mile (bicycle)
Conclusions
While the calculations here are for a person who forgoes a motor vehicle trip (such as a commute to work or a trip to the store), they’re also likely to be suitable values for recreational and fitness trips. While not directly replacing a motor vehicle trip, recreational and fitness trips are likely to indirectly replace longer motor vehicle trips to places like movie theaters (for recreational rides) or gyms (for fitness rides). 40% of adult Americans have a gym or fitness club membership.
Some bicycling-related economic benefits, while expected, proved impossible to quantify with the information, methods, and literature currently available:
- Benefits to businesses through increased local bicycle traffic
- Increased land values through proximity to bicycle infrastructure (ranging from 4-7% per this study from the North Carolina Department of Transportation)
- Decreased injuries and fatalities through improved bicyclist safety
Download full version (PDF): The Economic Benefits of Bicycling in Baton Rouge
About Bike Baton Rouge
bikebr.org
Bike Baton Rouge is a grassroots, all-volunteer, 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to: Promoting bicycling and walking as transportation options in the greater Baton Rouge area; Making these modes of transportation as safe, convenient, and enjoyable as possible; Educating the public on the associated environmental, economic, and health-related benefits of biking and walking. Bike Baton Rouge works to make bicycling and walking in Baton Rouge and its surrounding areas safer, easier, and more enjoyable through advocacy, education, and action.
About Mid City Studio
www.midcitystudio.org
Mid City Studio is a not-for-profit, design collaborative whose vision is to create a more unified, resilient, Mid City community around its common geography, history, diversity, and cultural value within the City of Baton Rouge. The studio’s mission is to create collaborative design projects and arts-based education programs that focus on strengthening existing Mid City neighborhoods and developing the creative, social, and economic capacity of individuals to shape their communities as they grow and change.
Tags: Baton Rouge, Bicycling, Bicycling in Baton Rouge, Bike Lanes, Cycling, LA, Louisiana
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