Bike Lanes Are Good For Business, Actually, And Everyone Who Says Otherwise Is Wrong
Bike Lanes Are Good For Business, Actually, And Everyone Who Says Otherwise Is Wrong
Research consistently shows that bike lane fears are unfounded.
Here's a fun one, when the local government decided to make my street pedestrian only a local business owner made an absolute spectacle of opposing it. There were sit-ins in town hall, threats of a hunger strike, the storefront was full of flyers, there were attempts to get the press to claim the proposal had widespread opposition. The idea was that who would show up to that street if they had to park somewhere else, right? The business would die and storeowners on that street would be out of a job in a year.
Thing happened anyway, the entire rest of the town is a business desert. Every shop, supermarket and pub moved within half a block of the pedestrian area because of course who would NOT hang out in the nice, safe spot that looks good and has enough room to walk and sit outside for a drink.
Every now and then I walk in front of the dumb place and think of how umuch more valuable it is and how ironic and unfair the whole thing turned out to be. I am pretty sure that the undeniable reality of it all has caused zero self-reflection. I hope I'm wrong.
I bet they pat themselves on the back every time they think about it, because their good business sense helped them survive the terror of the pedestrian only area.
The idea was that who would show up to that street if they had to park somewhere else, right?
So here's the thing, functionally that's how it works downtown already. The convenient parking spaces fill up instantly and stay full forever, so your ass is parking a few blocks away and walking up anyway.
Back in the day people would go for a drive and stop at random shops...
I'm older now, but traffic and road rage is way crazier these days. I don't know how people find driving enjoyable.
Lots of people like riding bikes tho, and they've got even more reason to stop for shopping, food, or drinks.
What works better than bike lanes tho is bike trails. Lots of cities are converting old rail road tracks into biking/walking trails, and business is booming up and down those trails.
Bike trails are great for recreation. Bike lanes, separated and safe, are great for taking care of business. They also keep more cars off the roads in denser areas, making life better for everyone. We can do both.
Bike trails are like freeways for bikes...
Especially on old train tracks that were designed to minimize crossing road traffic. It's faster than driving downtown in my city.
Bike lanes are for going a couple blocks, and even if they're completely separated from the road, you're going to be crossing lots of other roads. And if there's separation, you're not as visible.
In my area that means cyclists either just ride on the single lane roads anyways, or they use the bike trail and blow thru "mini intersections" 5-10 feet away from where vehicles are looking. Usually not even slowing down for stop signs because they're too frequent.
The big issue is people doing it on roads "for exercise" on a $5k bike with all the equipment money could buy to make it as easy as possible. And bike trails give them a place to ride.
That makes life better for everyone
I'm not personally a fan of rail trails. Most of the rail trails I've seen kind of start nowhere and go nowhere, and they'd be much better off being part of a larger transit infrastructure (like a bus-only route or tram/light-rail route) than as just this weird long park thing that crosses multiple stroads.
But as for driving, yeah, it sucks. There's pretty decent research to show that car dependency is awful for small businesses, because if you have to drive to the store, you're usually just going to pick the one-stop big box mart instead of stopping at four or five mom and pop shops.