IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v113y2015icp106-113.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transport transitions in Copenhagen: Comparing the cost of cars and bicycles

Author

Listed:
  • Gössling, Stefan
  • Choi, Andy S.

Abstract

In many cities of the world, bicycle infrastructure projects are implemented to foster more sustainable transportation systems. However, such projects have often raised questions regarding their public funding, as they entail considerable costs. This paper reviews cost–benefit analysis (CBA) frameworks as these are presently used to assess bicycle infrastructure projects. Specific focus is on the CBA framework developed in Copenhagen, Denmark, a self-declared “city of cyclists”. In this framework, costs and benefits of car and bicycle, the two major urban transport modes, have been assessed and are compared across accidents, climate change, health, and travel time. The analysis reveals that each km travelled by car or bike incurs a cost to society, though the cost of car driving is more than six times higher (Euro 0.50/km) than cycling (Euro 0.08/km). Moreover, while the cost of car driving is likely to increase in the future, the cost of cycling appears to be declining. The paper concludes with a discussion of the applicability of the Copenhagen CBA framework to advance sustainable transport planning and to motivate and justify urban restructuring.

Suggested Citation

  • Gössling, Stefan & Choi, Andy S., 2015. "Transport transitions in Copenhagen: Comparing the cost of cars and bicycles," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 106-113.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:113:y:2015:i:c:p:106-113
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.03.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800915000907
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.03.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jenkins, Jesse D., 2014. "Political economy constraints on carbon pricing policies: What are the implications for economic efficiency, environmental efficacy, and climate policy design?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 467-477.
    2. Börjesson, Maria & Fosgerau, Mogens & Algers, Staffan, 2012. "On the income elasticity of the value of travel time," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 368-377.
    3. Nick Hanley & Clive L. Spash, 1993. "Cost–Benefit Analysis and the Environment," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 205.
    4. Hopkinson, P & Wardman, M, 1996. "Evaluating the demand for new cycle facilities," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 241-249, October.
    5. Tilahun, Nebiyou Y. & Levinson, David M. & Krizek, Kevin J., 2007. "Trails, lanes, or traffic: Valuing bicycle facilities with an adaptive stated preference survey," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 287-301, May.
    6. Ortúzar, Juan de Dios & Iacobelli, Andrés & Valeze, Claudio, 2000. "Estimating demand for a cycle-way network," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 353-373, June.
    7. Jones, Tim & Novo de Azevedo, Laura, 2013. "Economic, social and cultural transformation and the role of the bicycle in Brazil," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 208-219.
    8. Rachel Aldred, 2013. "Incompetent or Too Competent? Negotiating Everyday Cycling Identities in a Motor Dominated Society," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 252-271, May.
    9. Jan Anne Annema & Carl Koopmans & Bert Van Wee, 2006. "Evaluating Transport Infrastructure Investments: The Dutch Experience with a Standardized Approach," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 125-150, June.
    10. Knudsen, M.Aa. & Rich, J., 2013. "Ex post socio-economic assessment of the Oresund Bridge," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 53-65.
    11. S. M. Grant-Muller & P. MacKie & J. Nellthorp & A. Pearman, 2001. "Economic appraisal of European transport projects: The state-of-the-art revisited," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 237-261.
    12. Parks, Sarah & Gowdy, John, 2013. "What have economists learned about valuing nature? A review essay," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 3(C), pages 1-10.
    13. Ann Forsyth & Kevin Krizek, 2011. "Urban Design: Is there a Distinctive View from the Bicycle?," Journal of Urban Design, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(04), pages 531-549.
    14. Bithas, Kostas, 2011. "Sustainability and externalities: Is the internalization of externalities a sufficient condition for sustainability?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(10), pages 1703-1706, August.
    15. Börjesson, Maria & Eliasson, Jonas, 2012. "The value of time and external benefits in bicycle appraisal," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 673-683.
    16. Elliot Fishman & Simon Washington & Narelle Haworth, 2013. "Bike Share: A Synthesis of the Literature," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 148-165, March.
    17. Nebiyou Tilahun & Kevin Krizek & David Levinson, 2007. "Trails, Lanes, or Traffic: Value of Different Bicycle Facilities Using Adaptive Stated-Preference Survey," Working Papers 200701, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ruiz, Tomás & Bernabé, José C., 2014. "Measuring factors influencing valuation of nonmotorized improvement measures," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 195-211.
    2. Gamble, Julie & Snizek, Bernhard & Nielsen, Thomas Sick, 2017. "From people to cycling indicators: Documenting and understanding the urban context of cyclists' experiences in Quito, Ecuador," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 167-177.
    3. Björklund, Gunilla & Mortazavi , Reza, 2013. "Influences of infrastructure and attitudes to health on value of travel time savings in bicycle journeys," Working papers in Transport Economics 2013:35, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    4. Laird, James & Page, Matthew & Shen, Shujie, 2013. "The value of dedicated cyclist and pedestrian infrastructure on rural roads," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 86-96.
    5. Vandenbulcke, Grégory & Dujardin, Claire & Thomas, Isabelle & Geus, Bas de & Degraeuwe, Bart & Meeusen, Romain & Panis, Luc Int, 2011. "Cycle commuting in Belgium: Spatial determinants and 're-cycling' strategies," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 118-137, February.
    6. McArthur, David Philip & Hong, Jinhyun, 2019. "Visualising where commuting cyclists travel using crowdsourced data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 233-241.
    7. Kamargianni, Maria, 2015. "Investigating next generation's cycling ridership to promote sustainable mobility in different types of cities," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 45-55.
    8. Miroslav Vasilev & Ray Pritchard & Thomas Jonsson, 2018. "Trialing a Road Lane to Bicycle Path Redesign—Changes in Travel Behavior with a Focus on Users’ Route and Mode Choice," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, December.
    9. Björklund, Gunilla & Isacsson, Gunnar, 2013. "Forecasting the impact of infrastructure on Swedish commuters’ cycling behaviour," Working papers in Transport Economics 2013:36, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    10. Nkurunziza, Alphonse & Zuidgeest, Mark & Brussel, Mark & Van Maarseveen, Martin, 2012. "Examining the potential for modal change: Motivators and barriers for bicycle commuting in Dar-es-Salaam," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 249-259.
    11. José Castillo-Manzano & Antonio Sánchez-Braza, 2013. "Managing a smart bicycle system when demand outstrips supply: the case of the university community in Seville," Transportation, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 459-477, February.
    12. Börjesson, Maria & Eliasson, Jonas, 2012. "The value of time and external benefits in bicycle appraisal," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 673-683.
    13. Tatiana Cantillo & Andrés Vargas & Víctor Cantillo & José Ramos, 2020. "What determines university student’s willingness to pay for bikeways?," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(5), pages 2267-2286, October.
    14. Zhao, Pengjun & Li, Shengxiao, 2017. "Bicycle-metro integration in a growing city: The determinants of cycling as a transfer mode in metro station areas in Beijing," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 46-60.
    15. Pedro Plasencia-Lozano, 2021. "Evaluation of a New Urban Cycling Infrastructure in Caceres (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-19, February.
    16. Ehrgott, Matthias & Wang, Judith Y.T. & Raith, Andrea & van Houtte, Chris, 2012. "A bi-objective cyclist route choice model," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 652-663.
    17. Umer Mansoor & Mohammad Tamim Kashifi & Fazal Rehman Safi & Syed Masiur Rahman, 2022. "A review of factors and benefits of non-motorized transport: a way forward for developing countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 1560-1582, February.
    18. Wardman, Mark & Tight, Miles & Page, Matthew, 2007. "Factors influencing the propensity to cycle to work," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 339-350, May.
    19. Chen, Ching-Fu & Chen, Pei-Chun, 2013. "Estimating recreational cyclists’ preferences for bicycle routes – Evidence from Taiwan," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 23-30.
    20. Hallberg, Martin & Rasmussen, Thomas Kjær & Rich, Jeppe, 2021. "Modelling the impact of cycle superhighways and electric bicycles," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 397-418.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:113:y:2015:i:c:p:106-113. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.