Economic appraisal of local walking and cycling routes

The sustainable transport charity Sustrans has taken the Government’s own methods of assessing the economic benefits of transport schemes and applied them to a number of local walking and cycling routes. The results show them to have a benefit to cost ratio of 20:1. This is in stark contrast to the typical ratio of just 3:1 for other transport schemes such as rail and roads. Sustrans’ analysis shows how money spent on creating the right environment to encourage more walking and cycling could result in massive cost savings for the Treasury and major benefits to public health.