Economic Benefits of Changes in Active Transportation Behavior Associated with a New Urban Trail

Abstract

ABSTRACT Insufficient physical activity (PA) is a highly prevalent behavior and confers heightened risk of many chronic health conditions. Infrastructure for PA, including urban trails, represents a way of increasing PA at a population level. This study was conducted to determine the impact of an urban trail on PA, motor vehicle use, and to assess the benefit–expenditure ratio of mitigating the high public health burden of physical inactivity with bicycle and pedestrian trails. Intercept surveys were conducted, from December 2018 through March 2019, to assess PA, transportation mode, and travel distances among trail users before (2015) and after the trail opened in New Orleans, Louisiana. Statewide measures from 2015 to 2017 were used for comparison. Changes in PA and motor vehicle use were simulated based on survey data and monetized over a 30-yr period. Trail users who responded to the survey reported changes in PA (17.7-min weekly increase), nonactive transportation (3.1-mile weekly decrease), and motor vehicle ownership (6.5% decrease) from before the trail was opened to the present. Cumulative economic benefits (health care, mortality, and motor vehicle) exceeded trail-related expenditures in 2032, reaching a ratio of 1.51 in 2045. The urban trail in this study contributed to increased PA and reduced motor vehicle use and may reduce health care, mortality, and motor vehicle–related costs. Personal and social economic benefits from the increases in PA and reduction in motor vehicle ownership and ownership exceeded expenditures over the 30-yr simulation period. PA infrastructure can be a prudent investment of public resources.