CityLab has complied a thorough guide of economic impact studies of bike lanes that provides a clear, visual case for removing parking spaces.
"It's perhaps natural for a shop owner to fear that losing a parking space means losing revenue," according to Eric Jaffe.
But when business interests repeatedly request further study of the economic impact of turning parking spaces over to bike lanes, it is either disingenuous or lazy.
"But here's the thing about the 'studies on possible economic impacts' requested by retailers on Polk Street, or really wherever bike-lane plans emerge—they've been done. And done. And done again. And they all reach a similar conclusion: replacing on-street parking with a bike lane has little to no impact on local business, and in some cases might even increase business. While cyclists tend to spend less per shopping trip than drivers, they also tend to make more trips, pumping more total money into the local economy over time."
Jaffe goes on to provide an "annotated, chart-filled guide" of research that has been conducted in places that have removed parking capacity for the sake of bike infrastructure. Cities like Portland, Oregon; Dublin, Ireland; Los Angeles, California; Toronto, Canada; Melbourne, Australia; and many more.
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