Economy Archives - Traffic Nightmare

The report Return on investment in bike sharing schemes by EY, Cycling Industries Europe and EIT Urban Mobility is pioneer regarding the worldwide impact of real bike sharing systems as it comes to economy, health and society. Publish in October 2025, its conclusions aim at showing that the bike sharing systems are not only an alternative for sustainable transport, but also an strategic tool to improve productivity, reduce public expenditure and improve life quality in European cities.

This report can transform the way cities see urban biking as part of their strategies on transport and clean air, demonstrating bike sharing systems contribute to more ecological, clean and habitable cities. Thus, healthier and happier citizens. It was measured that bike sharing systems reduce logistic costs up to 90% when comparing with cars. They also are a tool for democratizing urban mobility and promoting social inclusion.

Data for this report was obtained from 2024. In this year there were 438,400 bicycles in bike sharing systems in the European Union, UK, Switzerland and Norway. More than a thousand million kilometers were pedaled with 2.12 travels per bike and day. 15% of such bikers were use cars, 29% in public transport and 56% by walking if bike sharing systems were not invented. Moreover, 55% of bikers combine bike sharing systems with public transport. So, bike sharing systems do not compete with public transport, rather they are allied.

Regarding economy, €305 million was the annual profit. The report demonstrated that one Euro invested in a bike sharing systems returned a 10% annually. Focusing on health, savings were about €40 million thanks to the prevention of 969 chronic diseases cases associated to the use of bicycles. Additionally, 200 nitrogen tones and 45,000 CO2 tones were avoided every year, resulting in about €3 million .

The report goes one step further and prognosticates that if cities promotes a firm wager on bike sharing systems, the annual economic impact would be €964 million with a return on investment of 75% by 2030. Health savings would be €173 million and 12,900 people would work directly in the bike sharing sector. Finally, €212 million would be saved in productivity which come from 5 million hours European people lost in traffic jams annually.

When you think about how to promote the use of bicycles, you surely come across with ideas such as connected bike lines, use physical separators between bike lines and car lines, or the creation of bike parking. While these points are completely accepted, there are others which are being put into practice in some European countries.

Employees can deduct about €0.30 per kilometer when pedaling to work in their Personal Income Tax. Moreover, bike leasing offers an attractive issue. A long-term bicycle renting, without Personal Income Tax and included maintenance is what some companies are offering. It is the same concept as the company car, but as company bike. Regarding bikes cargo, there is also the leasing option which can include insurance, road assistance and repairs. Indeed, if you want to buy it after three years, you can do it by the remainder of the payment, or change for a new bike cargo with the same fee.

Alternatively, governments can give money to citizens who practice sustainable mobility (including biking). Forcing companies to pay at least 50% of the public transport cost for their employees is other realistic idea.

Now, imagine a large facility firm location. Would not it be marvelous if government paid for bicycles for employees? This is something that is being made in some European countries as well as offering important tax deductions to bike messenger service companies when buying bicycles.

Finally, the reduction of bicycle VAT constitutes another economic action to promote the use of bikes.

Traffic Nightmare

Category Archives: Economy

Return on investment in bike sharing schemes

Alternative ways to promote biking