For all things bikes

London's bike hire scheme - Mayor Boris Johnson's pet project - was introduced in 2010 to encourage cycling as an alternative means of transport in the capital. The aim was the reduction of traffic congestion rather than the promotion of health.

Now a team of researchers has concluded that bicycle sharing schemes could be saving lives not only by improving the health of their users, but by also decreasing air pollution and indirectly helping the rest of citizens.

Researchers centred their studies in the public bicycle sharing initiative in Barcelona -known as Bicing - to estimate the risks and benefits to health of travel by bicycle, using a bicycle sharing scheme, compared with travel by car in an urban environment.

They found that the 181, 982 Bicing subscribers had helped to prevent more than 9,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution, which they believe has saved more than 12 lives each year the scheme has operated.

The team estimates that among those using the scheme there was a change in mortality of 0.03 deaths from road traffic incidents and 0.13 deaths from air pollution, in contrast with the 12.46 avoided deaths as a result of physical activity.

The study did not investigate the lives saved in the  non-cycling population but it assumes that they would also benefit from the improved air quality.

Research team member Mark J Nieuwenhuijsen told The Guardian: "We did the study because we wanted to know the health effect of an active transportation policy like bike sharing, 350-400 cities around the world now have bike sharing schemes. Most of them were set up to reduce congestion, but we wanted to look at the other benefits, in particular to find out if there were public health benefits."

If we consider that London is one of the most polluted places in Europe, with 4,300 deaths a year caused by the capital's poor air quality, it is easy to see the overall positive effect that a large bike hire scheme could suppose for the city's inhabitants.

Bicycle sharing schemes have become increasingly popular in countries throughout Europe, Asia, and America, and they have been implemented by cities such as Stockholm, Paris, Hangzhou, Milan and Mexico City.

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