The benefits of cycling and how to assess them

Although most of us are aware of the benefits of cycling many people are not. When we want to develop and implement a bicycle plan it is useful when we can show them the economic benefits of cycling. It will enhance the chance that we find support and financial contributions for our plan. This paper is meant to give you some support on the methodology when setting up a cost-benefit analysis. The paper was written to accompany a presentation that was given at the meeting of partners of the Locomotives programme 27 September – 3 October 2003 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. This programme is co-ordinated by the Interface for Cycling Expertise (I-ce) that also commissioned CE to take care of a presentation and paper. The paper mainly focuses on assessing costs and benefits, both private costs and benefits and infrastructure and external costs.