BLOG: Bike Lanes In Temecula Are Good For Business, Not Just Your Health

If you can stand another post about bike lanes, I thought I would pass along a study about how bike lanes not only contribute to the health of cyclists, they can also improve the health of Temecula small businesses. 

We know that cycling can help your personal pocketbook. Even if you only use your bike for short errands (the vast majority of errands involve trips far less than two miles), you can save a ton of gas money. 

But it turns out that adding bicycle lanes can help local businesses too. Members of the Temecula Bicycle Coalition saw this firsthand when we were given a tour of Long Beach by that city's busy bicycle planners. They've turned it into a fun place to ride a bicycle with bike lanes, sharrows, special traffic lights, and a lot of bike racks near great places to shop and eat downtown.

When Long Beach leaders boldly changed the configuration of their streets, adding trees, streetside cafes, benches, artwork, and bike lanes, their downtown turned uptown. More people on bikes meant more money in coffers.

And it's not just Long Beach. Other cities are finding the same thing. The New York Department of Transportation just released a study that said small businesses located near new bike lanes are doing much better than other places in the city. If you want to read the whole story, go to: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/bike-lanes-may-benefit-small-businesses-...

Here is a snippet of that study: "Measuring the Streets" (the transportation report) demonstrated that small businesses in New York City near bike lanes “have done very well, especially when compared to borough-wide averages,” the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), which issued the report, noted. Along Ninth Avenue in Manhattan, for example, sales grew “by as much as 49 percent on portions after DOT installed the city's — and nation’s — first parking-protected bike lanes there in 2007, 16 times the borough-wide growth,” according to the report.

Bike lanes get heavy use in New York, just like every other city in America where they are installed. But there was opposition, just like everywhere else in America, including Temecula, and some of it from businesses. But brave city leaders pushed forward, and guess what, it was good business, not bad.

Temecula is not New York, and it's not Long Beach. We live in a special place. But while the city of Temecula is spending millions of dollars on large car-centered transporation projects, the Temecula Bicycle Coalition would like to see the city set aside a small percentage of its transportation funds for more modern, forward thinking ideas -- some very small projects that can have a huge impact, such as bike lanes.

Bike lanes don't just make it safer for cyclists, they make the entire city a nicer place to live, and as this latest report out of New York shows, they can make things better for busineses at the same time.