A public bicycle sharing scheme in Barcelona, Spain, not only cut carbon emissions it helped save lives, too.
The discovery by researchers at the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology, Barcelona, has prompted them to call for more schemes to be introduced in more cities.
Improvements in health far outweight the risk of accident faced by cyclists on the roads, according to the study.
The study, led by Dr David Rojas-Rueda, examined the health impacts of Bicing, the public bicycle sharing initiative in Barcelona.
The scheme was introduced in March 2007 and by August 2009, 182,062 – 11 per cent of the city’s population – had subscribed to it.
The average distance travelled by Bicing participants on a working day was 3.29 km, with each journey lasting an average of 14 minutes.
Researchers used a health impact model to integrate existing data from scientific studies and local travel information to estimate the number of deaths associated with travelling by bicycle compared with driving for three main areas: physical activity, road traffic incidents, and exposure to air pollution.
They calculated an annual increase of 0.13 deaths from air pollution and 0.03 deaths from traffic accidents among cyclists compared with car users.
However, as a result of physical activity, 12.46 deaths were avoided, making a total of 12.28 deaths avoided among cyclists every year.
They also estimated a reduction in carbon emissions of over 9 million kg per year.
“Our work has shown that low cost public bicycle sharing systems aimed at encouraging commuters to cycle are worth implementing in other cities, not only for the health benefits but also for potential co-benefits such as a reduction in air pollution and greenhouse gases,” say the authors, whose report is published on the British Medical Journal online.
This initial assessment is important "to encourage cities to change car use by cycling and stimulate the implementation of bike sharing systems in cities to improve the health of the population,” they add.
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