Chapter 6: Promoting Cycling for Public Health

Cycling as a daily mode of transport has widely recognised positive impacts on cities: It improves the environmental performance by reducing pollutant emissions, increases road safety and helps traffic management, supports equity and accessibility; it is beneficial to health and improves the overall quality of life. Despite these many advantages, cycling is still underused in many cities, and its effectiveness is too often under evaluated by national and/or local transport policies. Current and projected levels of car use in cities are undesirable and unsustainable. Nowhere is this more evident than in urban areas, where the problems resulting from motorised transport are becoming more apparent. Urban congestion, pollution, accidents, reduced mobility and loss of quality of life are all partially blamed on rising car use (Alayo et al., 1998).