I hear a lot of input on bike lanes when I’m out talking to members of the public. People who aren’t really confident bicyclists and those who say they would like to ride their bike to commute love them, while confident cyclists appreciate them because they encourage more people to ride, even if they don’t use them themselves; prefering to ride with traffic.

Some drivers are on the fence about bike lanes, saying it confuses them as to what to do when they come to an intersection and want to turn, but they have to turn across a bike lane. Many business owners are against bike lanes in general, saying installing bike lanes takes away parking in front of their business, which discourages people from shopping or taking advantages of other services there.

 
Not true, says a case study out of the University of Washington that looked at the bike lane on 65th Street in Seattle that required a dozen parking spaces to be removed for it a couple years ago. Taxable retail sales data for the corridor before and after the bike lane was installed was analyzed and compared to sales figures to those generated by a similar retail corridor where no changes had been made to the street, and also to the sales made by retailers in the entire neighborhood. The findings actually show the opposite happening- sales went up!

Here’s more on the study, and the results, from Atlantic Cities, illustrated with charts and graphs for ease of understanding.

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