Evaluation of the Health and Economic Impact of a Public e-Bicycle Service Nieto, I., Mayo, X., Iriberri, J. & Jimenez, A.

BACKGROUND Cycling has been associated with benefits for health and the environment. However, investment in this activity at the public level must be justified. The Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) was created by the World Health Organization as a public online resource to support evaluation efforts from policy makers and any professional interested in the promotion of walking and cycling.
METHODS Bilbao City Council (Vizcaya, Spain) was interested in evaluating the impact of its public e-bicycle service (BilbaoBizi). HEAT version 5.0 was used to estimate the value of reduced mortality resulting from regular e-cycling. This estimate was calculated taking into account the impact in four domains: physical activity, air contamination, accident risk, and carbon emissions. Data related to the use of the service during 2023 was collected from the Bilbao City Council records.
RESULTS The City Council records registered 1,972,019 uses from 19,159 individuals using the service, at least once, during 2023. As a result, the service prevented 0.81 premature deaths and reduced carbon emissions by 11 metric tons that year. It was estimated that these benefits corresponded to an economic value (adjusted to 2023) of €2,050,000 (€15,800,000 in ten years).
CONCLUSION Public services are key players in the promotion of active lifestyles and more sustainable modes of transport. The investment in these services must be evaluated regularly in order to make informed decisions. HEAT has been shown to be an appropriate tool to do it, but robust estimations require the availability of quality data.