World Carfree Day 2024 -
Carfree Cities are Affordable Cities

The automobile has become such a major force in our cities that we forget that it is not essential. Cities existed for thousands of years before the invention of the car. While the car does bring some advantages to its users, those advantages are far outweighed by its many disadvantages. Foremost among them is how expensive it is for cities to create and maintain car infrastructure, and for individuals to purchase and use them. We provide affordable housing for cars but not for people. We create cities that give advantages to those who can afford a car and make life difficult, unpleasant, and dangerous for those who cannot. We force people to spend more than they can afford on their personal mobility, rather than creating prosperous, affordable cities that would benefit people.

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Car-based transport systems not only require enormous government spending, but also require that people buy cars or motorbikes in order to move around. This double financial burden—on governments and individuals—is in addition to costs that extend across society, including to those who do not use private motorized vehicles, in terms of increased congestion, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as increased injuries and deaths from road crashes.

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Likewise, cities prosper when the focus shifts away from individual motorized transport. When more people walk, cycle, and use public transit, individuals, communities, and local/national governments prosper in various ways:

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• Individuals do not have to buy, maintain, and operate a car;

• The indirect costs to society (wasted land, pollution, road crashes) are reduced;

• Businesses do better when more people can reach them (cars take up way more space than bicycles and pedestrians);

• More physical activity means a healthier population;

• Savings occur from fewer road deaths;

• Savings occur from less time and fuel wasted in congestion;

• Infrastructure expenses are lower;

• There are savings from fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

 

In addition, reducing or eliminating cars creates many jobs for small, local, independent businesses in terms of:

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• Manufacturing and repairing bicycles;

• Local goods delivery (bicycle carts instead of trucks);

• Local vendors and small shops rather than big box stores that benefit billionaires while decimating the local economy.

 

The high cost of cars to individuals

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In most parts of the world, a new car costs more than the average annual household income. Bicycles and electric bicycles (e-bikes) cost less than 6% of annual income to purchase, and walking is essentially free.

 

Potential cost savings to individuals and society from using a bicycle

 

It is vastly less expensive to maintain a bicycle than a motorized vehicle. Fuel, parking, and insurance costs are very low or even zero. Purchase, operations and maintenance, fuel, and insurance costs for a bicycle total approximately $3.00 per 100 km traveled; a private car is six times more expensive, at approximately $18.00 per 100 km. Again, walking is essentially free. In Mexico City, cycle lanes save users 11.5 minutes and 5.40 pesos per trip on average compared to using a different transport mode.

 

Moving away from cars saves society money as well

 

In Patna, India, a 15% increase in trips made by bicycle would reduce premature mortality by 755 lives per year, and save the city $166 million.

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A dramatic increase in cycling worldwide could save society $24 trillion cumulatively between 2015 and 2050.

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• Every kilometer cycled generates €0.16 ($0.18) in economic gains to society, and every kilometer driven costs society €0.15 ($0.16), according to a framework developed in Copenhagen, Denmark. These figures take into account air pollution, climate change, noise, congestion, trip time, traffic crashes, health, vehicle and infrastructure operation and maintenance, and tourism.

• In Toledo, Spain, a 5% increase in cycling mode share would contribute $250,000 per year to the economy as a result of lives saved from noncommunicable disease.

• Air pollution costs Indian businesses at least $95 billion, or about 3% of GDP. Those costs could be dramatically reduced with fewer vehicle trips and more trips by bicycle.

 

Investments to create high quality bicycle infrastructure would save society enormous amounts of money

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The global cost of air pollution as a result of premature mortality, disability from chronic diseases, preterm births, and sick leave is estimated at $2.9 trillion, or 3.3% of global GDP.

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• In African cities, deaths and serious injuries due to inadequate cycling and walking facilities cost $49 billion, approximately 2% of Africa’s total GDP.

• Reducing road crash deaths and injuries by half over 24 years would increase GDP by as much as 7% in Tanzania and the Philippines, 14% in India, 15% in China, and 22% in Thailand, according to an analysis by the World Bank.

• Cycling, including e-bikes, could increase worldwide from its current 5% share of urban passenger trips to 18% by 2050. This increase, if accompanied by similar increases in walking and public transit use, would reduce CO2-equivalent emissions by about two gigatonnes annually. That amount is more than half of the sector’s emissions in 2015. At the current global social cost of carbon, this reduction would be valued at $836 billion annually.

• The cost of air pollution and CO2 for every 10 kilometers driven by car is €0.30, nearly 10 times the cost per 10 kilometers cycled, at €0.04.

• Urban traffic congestion costs the US freight sector approximately $66 billion annually. Major US cities such as New York City and Los Angeles lost $11 billion and $8 billion, respectively, due to traffic congestion in 2019.

• In Egypt, the estimated direct congestion costs for the Greater Cairo metropolitan area is between EGP13 and EGP14 billion (US$827-$890 million).

 

Infrastructure construction and maintenance for cars costs nearly $1.5 billion per 1,000 passenger kilometers (PKM) globally, compared to bicycles at $10.4 million per 1,000 PKM.

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Investments in cycling pay off!

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• When a heavily congested four-land road in Seoul, South Korea, Yonsei-ro, was converted into a pedestrian-priority and bus-only corridor, businesses saw an 11% increase in revenue-generating transactions and a 4% increase in total revenues compared to when the street was designed for cars.

• Cities in Germany, Denmark, France, and the United Kingdom have reported retail sales increasing after pedestrianization and cycle-supportive redesigns.

 

Every one million dollars spent on bicycle lanes creates up to 34 government jobs; every one million dollars spent on car infrastructure creates up to 8 government jobs.

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• In the European Union, a doubling in bicycle mode share would increase jobs in bicycle manufacturing and wholesale by 42%.

• Brazil produces 2.5 million bicycles per year, which makes it the largest producer in Latin America. The industry generated $379 million in revenue in 2017 (1.8% of GDP), and it is forecast to generate nearly $410 million per year by 2023.

 

Installing and maintaining cycling infrastructure is much less expensive compared to other transport infrastructure like roadways (at least $1 million/lane km), metros (at least $50 million/km), or even bus rapid transit (at least $700,000/lane km).

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• Seville, Spain’s protected cycle lane network was installed in 2006 at a cost of approximately €17 million, but now shows a net value of €557 million and an internal rate of return (the annual growth rate of an investment) of more than 130% by 2032.

• Copenhagen, Denmark’s cycle superhighway network plan is expected to have an internal rate of return of up to 23%.

• Lima, Peru’s cycling infrastructure plan, estimated to cost $313,000 to implement, is expected to generate $5.56 million in benefits by 2050.

• In comparison, the rate of return on large roadway projects is between 8% and 10%.

 

The above figures give some idea of the costs of catering to the car and the potential savings of investing instead in cycling (as well as walking and public transit). It is also important to remember that all the land used by cars is land not available for other uses, which takes away from the ability of governments to provide affordable housing as well as important amenities such as green spaces in the city.

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Cars are unaffordable. Carfree cities are affordable and prosperous cities. It is time to move beyond the car to something vastly better.
 

Information compiled by Debra Efroymson.

Source: Cycling Cities and ITDP, Making the Economic Case for Cycling.

https://itdp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/CC_MAKING-THE-ECONOMIC-CASE-FOR-CYCLING-2022_JUNE11.pdf

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Have fun with World Carfree Day this year! Remember, you don't need a car ....