Two New Studies Show Moving Away From Cars Improves Business

And not just business but a lot of other things, safety,health, quality of life.  But no one really cares about any of that unless it makes you more money…so the headline reads “improves business” not “makes you feel less horrible.”  But hey if it takes an increase in earnings to get people to abandon cars (and car parking), so be it.  Any port in a storm right.

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From Livable Streets:

Myth: Businesses need parking spaces in front of their store to thrive

Debunked: Complete streets are increasing economic vitality across the country.

Improved accessibility and a more welcoming street environment are now proven to generate higher sales. In particular, studies find that protected bike lanes and increased bike parking promote economic growth.

Check out the Protected Bike Lanes Mean Business report by PeopleForBikes and the Alliance for Biking & Walking, and the Economic Benefits of Sustainable Streets study by New York City Department of Transportation for more stats and facts on this topic.

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Cambridge Studying Solutions For Door Zone Bike Lanes

Cambridge seems to be running a study for how new markings in “door zone” bike lanes can reduce the instances of dooring. (thanks John for the tip)

BICYCLE LANE STUDY UNDERWAY SUMMER/FALL 2011
This summer, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (REF) is conducting a study
evaluating various ways of marking bicycle lanes; Cambridge and Chicago are the two cities being
used for the research, each being busy urban areas with many cyclists.
The study will be looking at various bike lane widths on streets with and without on-street parking. The
study sites in Cambridge are Massachusetts Avenue between Harvard and Porter Square and
Prospect Street between Hampshire Street and Broadway.
The study will evaluate the influence of bike lane widths on how motorists and bicyclists travel on the
road and the comfort level of both bicyclists and motorists under various conditions. The study will
also look at how markings may help diminish the risk of “dooring,” where motorists parking
suddenly open car doors into the path of travel of cyclists.
Most of the line markings that are being used are temporary, and city staff will use information from the
study to help determine the preferred solution for the long term.
As part of the study, researchers will be surveying motorists and cyclists about their experiences and
perceptions. There is no personal data gathered as part of that study and the responses are
completely anonymous. If you are stopped while traveling, we would appreciate your responding,
but if you do not want to, just say “no, thank you,” and there will be no pressure.
If you have questions about the study, please feel free to contact Cara Seiderman,
[email protected]

I am all for studies like this, if it turns out a simple addition, or editing of the current way bike lanes are painted could reduce this risk, hurray!

In the mean time here are some tips for how to not get doored in a door zone bike lane.

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Cycling Is Good For You, Safe, And Good For Everyone Else, So Says Science

If the traffic crashes and fatalities being at record low levels was not enough to convince you that cycling is safe, check out this new study about the health risks (or lack thereof) regarding cycling.

Its written in science language but I have made bold the area that you should be concerned about, read the whole thing here.

Although from a societal point of view a modal shift from car to bicycle may have beneficial health effects due to decreased air pollution emissions, decreased greenhouse gas emissions, and increased levels of physical activity, shifts in individual adverse health effects such as higher exposure to air pollution and risk of a traffic accident may prevail.

Objective: We describe whether the health benefits from the increased physical activity of a modal shift for urban commutes outweigh the health risks.

Data sources and extraction: We have summarized the literature for air pollution, traffic accidents, and physical activity using systematic reviews supplemented with recent key studies.

Data synthesis: We quantified the impact on all-cause mortality when 500,000 people would make a transition from car to bicycle for short trips on a daily basis in the Netherlands. We have expressed mortality impacts in life-years gained or lost, using life table calculations. For individuals who shift from car to bicycle, we estimated that beneficial effects of increased physical activity are substantially larger (3–14 months gained) than the potential mortality effect of increased inhaled air pollution doses (0.8–40 days lost) and the increase in traffic accidents (5–9 days lost). Societal benefits are even larger because of a modest reduction in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and traffic accidents.

Conclusions: On average, the estimated health benefits of cycling were substantially larger than the risks relative to car driving for individuals shifting their mode of transport.

From a societal point of view, shifting from cars to other forms of transportation, such as bicycles, may have beneficial health effects due to decreased air pollution emissions, decreased greenhouse gas emissions, and increased levels of physical activity. However, increased use of bicycles may increase both personal exposure to air pollutants and the risk of traffic accidents. De Hartog et al. (p. 1109) reviewed the literature for air pollution, traffic accidents, and physical activity and estimated the impact on all-cause mortality if 500,000 people shifted from cars to bicycles for short trips on a daily basis. The authors expressed the impact on mortality in life-years gained or lost using life table calculations. For individuals shifting from cars to bicycles, the authors estimated that beneficial effects of increased physical activity would be substantially larger than potential mortality due to increased air pollution exposure and traffic accidents. Societal benefits of cycling were even larger due to a modest reduction in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and traffic accidents. The authors conclude that the health benefits of cycling are on average nine times greater than the risks associated with driving a car.

Or to summarize, yes you are going to be putting yourself at a little risk due to pollution while riding your bike, but its better for you to suck down a little exhaust and be active than sit around in your car and suck down exhaust. Plus you are making life better for everyone else as well.

The study goes on to consider accidents, and other dangers associated with cycling, and finds overall that you are much better off cycling than not.

You can read more here.

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New Study Shows Bike Lanes Are Good For Business

Got this in the mail a while ago…looks pretty awesome. Now if only we can get people here in Boston to stop treating on street parking like some sort of sacred cow. I saw we tear out 100 spots twice a year for the next five years and see what happens.

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* Upcoming webinar: March 25th, 2009 at 2:30 pm Eastern Standard Time *

Is your community considering investing in its public realm through an improved pedestrian environment or increasing transportation options through the installation of on-road bike lanes? Often, such proposals involve removing some on-street parking and are met with opposition from merchants who fear that the reallocation of road space would hurt business.
A recent study in Toronto found that contrary to common public perception, the evidence shows that removing on-street parking to install a bicycle lane or widened sidewalk would likely increase not decrease commercial activity. The study – conducted in July of 2008 – surveyed the opinions and preferences of merchants and patrons on Bloor Street and analyzed parking usage data in the Annex area.
Among the study’s findings:

• Only 10% of patrons drive to Bloor-Annex neighbourhood;
• Even during peak periods no more than about 80% of parking spaces are paid for;
• Patrons arriving by foot and bicycle visit the most often and spend the most money per month;
• There are more merchants who believe that a bike lane or widened sidewalk would increase business than think would reduce it;
• The reduction in on-street parking supply from a bike lane or widened sidewalk could be accommodated in the area’s off-street municipal parking lots.
The Clean Air Partnership is pleased to invite you to participate in a webinar profiling the findings of the study, the tools and methodology used and a discussion on how a similar study could be conducted in your community. The findings of this study will also be presented in May at Velo-City 2009 in Brussels – the world’s largest conference devoted to bicycling.

Date: March 25th, 2009
Time: 2:30 pm Eastern Standard Time
Host: The Clean Air Partnership
Presenter: Fred Sztabinski

The study’s lead researcher is an urban planning and policy researcher currently based in Amsterdam . Prior to this, Fred worked as the Project Coordinator and Active Transportation Researcher for the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation and the Clean Air Partnership. Fred has a Masters in Planning from the University of Toronto . Fred’s previous work experience, including time spent with the provincial government, the transit industry, and a transportation demand management association, has consistently aimed at raising the profile of more sustainable modes of transportation and promoting travel choice alternatives to the private car.

This webinar is offered to participants free of charge. Participation is limited to the first 40 registrants.

To register for this webinar please go to here.

To read the study report please go here (pdf).

Support has been provided by a grant from the Toronto Community Foundation. The Clean Air Partnership would also like to thank Transport Canada and the City of Toronto for their generous support.

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