The Economic Benefits of Sustainable Streets

Despite the critical importance of making the connection between transportation policy and economic health in light of ongoing economic and budgetary challenges, a review of current practices found no well-established, objective methodologies for evaluating the impact of street design improvements on neighborhood economies. Therefore, the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) set out to develop a new metric. Working with its consultant, DOT evaluated a number of potential measures of local economic vitality and found retail sales - specifically reported sales for street-level retail and restaurant/food service businesses - to provide the most direct and reliable indicator of the health of local businesses. Through an iterative process with the New York City Department of Finance (DOF) - who receives New York City sales tax data from New York State, analyzes it and aggregates all results to preserve taxpayer privacy - the study team developed, tested and refined a consistent and replicable approach for analyzing sales tax data. Filters were applied to limit tax data to only relevant businesses in terms of industry category and physical storefront location; due to the nature of the tax returns, businesses included in the analysis tend to be locally-based “mom-and-pop stores” and independently operated franchises. Study areas were defined for the street improvement projects as well as for several comparison sites. The change in sales for locally-based businesses within the improvement sites before and after project implementation was compared to changes in the same period for the comparison sites as well as the respective borough as a whole. This methodology was applied to a range of projects including pedestrian plazas, bike paths, intersection redesigns and bus rapid transit. The results provide convincing evidence that improved accessibility and a more welcoming street environment created by these projects generate increases in retail sales in the project areas.

• Record URL:
  • http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/dot-economic-benefits-of-sustainable-streets.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Bennett Midland LLC

  245 West 29th Street
  Floor 12A
  New York, NY  United States  10001

  New York City Department of Transportation

  2 Rector Street
  New York, NY  United States  10006-1819
• Publication Date: 2013

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 43p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Before and after studies; Bikeways; Bus rapid transit; Case studies; Economic impacts; Improvements; Intersections; Methodology; Pedestrian areas; Retail trade; Sales tax; Streets
• Geographic Terms: New York (New York)
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01502114
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 23 2013 7:53AM