Measuring the benefits of bike riding

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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The health benefits of bicycle riding are obvious. Good exercise and experiencing the outdoors up close are things to which nearly 150,000 regular recreational bike riders in Iowa would likely testify. As would more than 24,000 commuters who get to work via a bicycle at least once a week.

But personal testimony isn't enough to convince public policymakers to use precious tax dollars for construction of trails or to designate riding lanes on roadways, or to pass laws that make bicycling safer.

So it's noteworthy that a new study by the University of Northern Iowa provides some hard evidence of the economic and health benefits of bike riding.

The study, among the first statewide reports nationwide, was funded by the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, which certainly has a self-interest in seeing expanded opportunities for bicyclists. However, the study's researchers used conservative numbers in finding that:

l The annual economic impact of recreational bicycling in Iowa is $364.8 million.

l The estimated savings in health-care costs is $73.9 million.

Within the state's total gross domestic product of $150 billion, those numbers are relatively small. But they're not insignificant. And what if the number of regular riders doubled or tripled or ... ?

Bike riding also can be a valuable contributor to the governor's five-year healthiest state initiative, launched last year.

Iowa has more than 1,400 miles of interconnected multiuse trails for bike riders, joggers and walkers. Drawing more users and expanding the network could ramp up Iowans' collective health and economic well-being. And now we have some credible research to back it up.

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