Economic Impacts of Cycling in Dense Urban Areas: Literature Review

As dense mixed-use communities continue to flourish in North American urban centres and space on streets becomes highly contested by various users, it is necessary to understand how to most efficiently administer these spaces to best serve the local community, economically as well as socially and environmentally. This research focuses on a rigorous examination of the economic contribution made by urban cyclists on main streets, integrating the findings of several geographically specific studies, to apply their integrated results to the following questions: How can transportation infrastructure best serve urban businesses? Are cyclists good for business? How does bicycle infrastructure affect businesses? How does removal of on-street parking affect businesses? Can bike lanes and on-street parking coexist? There is now clear evidence that making destinations friendlier and more attractive for cyclists and pedestrians contributes towards an improved local business environment, reducing commercial vacancies and increasing sales. Available evidence suggests bike lanes effectively act as a catalyst for local economic activity. Business operators tend to greatly overestimate the number of customers arriving by car. Bicycle lanes and bicycle parking can increase the capacity of roads and parking infrastructure, all while improving various social and environmental aspects of a neighbourhood.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADD10 Transportation and Economic Development.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Arancibia, Daniel
  • Savan, Beth
  • Ledsham, Trudy
  • Bennington, Michael
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
• Date: 2015

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycle facilities; Bicycle lanes; Bicycle parking; Bicycling; Economic impacts; Environmental impacts; Infrastructure; Land use planning; Literature reviews; Mixed use development; Population density; Social impacts; Urban areas
• Geographic Terms: North America
• Subject Areas: Economics; Environment; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Society; I10: Economics and Administration; I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01555129
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 15-3428
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 26 2015 10:03AM