Bike lanes boost businesses bottom line

Separating cyclists from motorists with protected cycle lanes will not only make cycling safer, avoids ‘clashes’ with car drivers but is also good for local businesses.

Recent studies from the USA show that when bike lanes are installed not only are cyclists numbers boosted but so is local business. As it's very easy to hop off a bicycle and find a place to secure the bike not so with finding parking for a car.

The USA is not known as the land of the bike but in recent years many major cities including New York have been adding miles of bike lanes. With those streets where bike lanes were installed having as much as a 49% increase in business, 16 times the borough-wide growth! There was also a 59% decrease in injuries to all street users.

Studies in major cities such as Chicago, New York and San Francisco show that when towns invest in bicycle infrastructure, people will ride more by as much as 200%. It’s also known that people who travel along a street by bicycle have fewer barriers to stopping at a local business than people who travel along the same street by car.

Similar results were also shown on a study in Portland, Oregon, where it was found that whilst people who drove to bars, stores and restaurants often spent more money per visit than cyclists, cyclists visited the same venues more often and spent more overall.

The “business case” for cycling is gaining momentum as cities across the USA improve cycling conditions and measure the impact on various factors including local business.

Wellington is perfectly positioned to build on the experience of other cities investing in cycling. Wellington is a small city with many well-established communities along various routes to the central city where many people work. Local businesses are focused on the need to entice customers away from the mega-shopping malls and back to shopping in their own community.

The New York and Oregon studies show that cyclists tend to spend more time shopping locally, not to mention the money saved by not having a car on the road and the benefits to the environment.

The Love Cycling campaign is about promoting the many benefits of cycling to Wellington to get a cycle friendly city and getting cycling on the agenda for the local body elections.
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