According to a new report, up to 650,000 people are working within the bicycle economy in the European Union. With the right incentives, these figures could reach a million jobs by 2020 according to the European Cyclists’ Federation.
As The Guardian noted :
If cycling’s 3% share of journeys across Europe were doubled, the numbers employed could grow to over one million by 2020.
(…) The study, which the Guardian has seen, finds that cycling has a higher employment intensity than any other transport sub-sector. Growth in the cycling economy should thus have a higher job creation potential than in the automotive industry for example, which employs three times less people per million euros of turnover.
The ECF calculated that the annual economic benefit of cycling in the EU27 is of at least 205 billion euros (256 billion US Dollars). This includes among other benefits savings on fuels, the various health benefits, the lower traffic congestions and air pollution…
If health benefits are the largest – ranging from 114 to 121 billion euros – tourism is another major positive impact as the impact is believed to be of 44 billion euros.
What if the future of transportation within cities were surprisingly low tech ? Bikes are economical, do not emit carbon dioxide or pollution, keep us fit, enable us to avoid traffic congestion and take almost no place to park. It is high time cities and businesses alike promote this transportation mean to make it the norm.
A study by the World Health Organization points out that 10,000 lives could be saved each year and 76,600 jobs would be created in 54 major cities around the world if their citizens biked as much as the Danes do.
To conclude this article, it is worth noting that in Europe, for every car sold, almost two bicycles currently find a new customer as 20 million bikes are sold per year. If these trends were to continue, cities in the near future would have more bikes than cars. This would free a huge amount of space that would be ready for more
