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Tour de France with benefits

With the Tour de France all done for another year, it is time to look back and reflect on the latest instalment of the world’s most famous cycle race. First up, congratulations to Alberto Contador of the Astana team, who claimed his third Tour win on Sunday and thereby rounded off a magical summer for Spanish sport, following on from national success at the World Cup and Wimbledon.

Surprisingly, no Tour de France cyclist tested positive for doping during this year’s competition. From a welfare perspective doping does not really matter – to the first degree – because the costs of doping are internalized: it is the cyclist who suffers from an increased risk of dying early. To the second degree it becomes more interesting: the Tour de France may also incentivize non-professional cyclists to dope. However, this negative externality is probably outweighed by the positive externality of people being encouraged to cycle.

There are also other direct environmental benefits. Consider this study from Werner Scholz, from the Landesumweltamt Baden-Württemberg. It reports the reduction in air pollution in Karlsruhe on 8 July 8 2005. On this day, the Tour de France passed through Karlsruhe and major streets in the inner city were closed. As a result PM levels were reduced significantly, by a quarter below their usual value (NOx was reduced by as much as 55–70%). In public health costs this corresponds to a low five-digit number of euros. Similarly, some tonnes of CO₂ were not emitted, noise costs and perhaps accidents were reduced, and people gained access to additional public space. A full cost-benefit analysis, of course, needs also to account for reduced mobility in the centre of Karlsruhe. As a cyclist, however, I would not mind the Tour de France passing through Berlin next year.

Posted by Felix Creutzig on July 29, 2010 5:19 PM | Permalink