An Economic Assessment of the Public Health Benefits of Bike Lanes

An article in Reuters shares news of a new economic assessment, completed by Dr. Babak Mohit of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York, among other researchers. The study was published in September by Injury Prevention. 

The assessment analyzed the bike lane investments by New York City, finding that for "Every $1,300 New York City invested in building bike lanes in 2015 provided benefits equivalent to one additional year of life at full health over the lifetime of all city residents."

The article notes that economists have used the quality-adjusted life year (QALY) to measure the impact of public health investments of health interventions like dialysis ($1,300 per QALY) and vaccines (~$100 per QALY). As the research shows, bike lanes perform surprisingly well as a public health investment.

That's a better return on investment than some direct health treatments, like dialysis, which costs $129,000 for one quality-adjusted life year, or QALY.