Businesses Benefit from Cycling Customers

Businesses often worry about the impact that more cycling will have on them, particularly if it involves the removal of parking to make room for cycleways. The links on this page will hopefully reassure businesses that increasing the amount of cycling is more likely to have positive effects on the local economy. Bike customers live locally, they bike locally and they are much more likely to shop locally. They shop more often, for longer and they leave parking free for customers in cars.

New Zealand Transport Agency research report 530 found that sustainable transport users account for 40% of the total spend in shopping areas and account for 37% of all shoppers. The data indicates that pedestrians and cyclists contribute a higher economic spend proportionately to the modal share and are important to the economic viability of local shopping areas. The study also identified that retailers generally overestimate the importance of on-street parking outside shops. Shoppers value high-quality pedestrian and urban design features in shopping areas more than they value parking and those who drive are willing to walk to the shopping precinct from other locally available parking areas.

Research from Victoria University of Wellington into the allocation of public space for transport found that only six percent of shoppers surveyed on Tory Street were actually using the on-street parking on Tory Street. The contribution of those who use on-street parking to adjacent retail vitality on Tory Street is minor, compared to the contribution of those who do not require parking and those who use off-street parking. The study concludes that the economic impact on surrounding businesses of removing some on-street parking to make way for cycleways would likely be minimal. Read the full report here.

This article from the Sustainable Business Network shows how cycling can help your business.

This report from The Australian Heart Foundation is full of case studies that illustrate how making streets more walking and cycling friendly is good for business.

A study conducted in Bristol, England on shoppers and how they travel found that retailers hugely overestimated the importance of the car, and underestimated how many of their customers walked, cycled and used public transport.

Here’s an extract from the book Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save The Economy that illustrates how bike lanes increase small business revenue.

This Big City looks at how bike lanes can boost the economy and the local economic implications of urban bicycle networks.

This is a great story about how Vancouver businesses’ attitudes towards bike lanes have changed in the last 5 years.

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia provides an overview of the growing body of research examining the economic benefits that bicycles and bicycle infrastructure confer: Bicycles are Business: What Research Says About Bicycling’s Economic Benefits

City Lab reviews 12 studies from around the world that taken together provide the complete business case for converting street parking into bike lanes.

In this report from People For Bikes and the Alliance for Biking & Walking, 15 entrepreneurs and business leaders from major U.S. cities explain how protected bike lanes has meant big benefits for their companies: Protected Bike Lanes Mean Business

Used with permission from source: Info for businesses – Island Bay Cycle Way