Some 655,000 people work in the cycling economy – which includes bicycle production, tourism, retail, infrastructure and services – compared to 615,000 people in mining and quarrying, and just 350,000 workers directly employed in the steel sector.
The study, which the Guardian has seen, finds that cycling has a higher employment intensity than any other transport sub-sector.
Growth in the cycling economy should thus have a higher job creation potential than in the automotive industry for example, which employs three times less people per million euros of turnover.
Surprisingly, the lion’s share of jobs in the new free-wheeling economy are in bicycle tourism – including accommodation and restaurants – which employs 524,000 people, compared to 80,000 in retail, the next highest sub-sector.
New innovations such as e-bikes, as well as road safety campaigns, and infrastructure projects could boost the cycling economy further according to the ECF, which wants 10% of Europe’s transport budget to be set aside for cycling."
