In the midwest alone, more bike-friendly infrastructure could save $7 billion in healthcare costs. That’s thanks to the improved health of the people on bikes, and the improved air with fewer gas-burning cars on the road.
Check out the results of this new study:
A new study offers some hard numbers: If people in the upper Midwest chose to take half of their car trips by bicycle, health care costs would drop by $7 billion. And with better air quality for its now more-fit citizens, the region would end up with an estimated 1,100 fewer deaths each year.
And the amazing part: the researchers only analyzed what would happen if people biked for a few months out of the year, since it gets so cold in the midwest. Imagine how much money and how many lives we could save in a year-round biking paradise like California!