Cycling in Minnesota creates thousands of jobs and cuts health-care spending

[TomSea]

Cycling in Minnesota creates thousands of jobs and cuts health-care spending, state report concludes

For many Minnesotans cycling is nothing more than a Sunday frolic, but a new report finds that the state’s bike industry produces $780 million in annual economic activity, 5,519 jobs and millions of dollars in health care savings because of reduced obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

And get this: Fully 13.6 percent of Twin Cities residents commute by bike, at least once in a while.

Those are the results of the first major investigation into the health and economic effects of the state’s bicycling industry, commissioned by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to help measure the financial return on taxpayers’ investment in biking infrastructure. “This will help us understand how biking contributes to the health and vitality of communities,” said Sara Dunlap, a MnDOT planner.

Continued: www.startribune.com/cycling-in-minnesota-creates-thousands-of-jobs-and-cuts-health-care-spending-state-report-concludes/417240963/