Bike research in the news

Boston has set a goal to have every resident within 3 minutes of a protected bike route. Progress since 2021 has shown and increase in ridership with more and more people interviewed saying they’re opting for their bike instead of car. Ridership increases are attributed to increased sense of safety while riding.

Meta review of years of bike lane and business research. Concludes that bike lanes are often good for business but occasionally have no impact. The doom and gloom to business that some may predict, however, isn’t justified.

Makes the safety, economic, and equity case for why so many cities are investing in bike infrastructure. Covers changes across 13 cities across the US. Discusses the impacts of protected bike networks specifically.

From 2015 to 2019 FDNY response times were up 8.6%. In the annual NYC management report the fire department attributes the slower emergency response times to increased congestion, more cars on the road.

Covers the studies demonstrating retail sales, jobs, and property value gains from bike lanes. Pulls from over two dozen different sources for stats and quotes.

Covers University of Colorado research on safety benefits of protected bike lanes across 12 US metros.

As Copenhagen’s protected bike network grows, cyclists feel safer, and ridership grows. Government estimates are that each new protected route yields 15-20% more riders. From 2006 to 2016 there’s been a 22% increase in kilometres covered by bike (1.4 million km in 2016). Around 62% of commutes for those that live and work in Copenhagen are by bike.

Danish government estimates that 1 km of biking in Copenhagen creates 4.80 kroner (~ $1 per mile) in economic value. If that trip by bike replaced a car trip the economic value goes up to 10.09 kroner per km (~ $2.10 per mile). In 2017, 43% of work commutes in the city were taken by bike, so this value estimate is across a lot of kilometers of biking.

Salt Lake City removed 30% of parking on Broadway and that stretch saw retail sales outperform the rest of the city by ~25%. The road diet converted angled parking to parallel parking to create the space for 9 blocks of protected bike lanes.

A review of 12 studies related to bike lanes and business. Key takeways are that shoppers by bike spend at least as much as drivers since they return more often, business owners consistently underestimate the share of customers who arrive by bike, and business owners often overestimate how far away their customers live. As a result, protected bike lanes are likely good for business.

Narrowing travel lanes and building protected bike lanes both reduced cyclist risk by roughly half and rush hour car travel times declined by 35%. Removing parking for the “pocket lane” for car left turns is an innovation in the parking protected bike lane design that helped with travel times.

When bike lanes are present riding on the sidewalk declines dramatically, on average ~56%, even when ridership goes up. In one case sidewalk riding went down 81% despite bike volume going up 190%.

Covers research of Kyle Rowe at University of Washington. The conclusion is that bike lanes don’t hurt local business; may actually be good.

Covers research out of Portland demonstrating that pedestrians and cyclists, by virtue of being more loyal/frequent customers, spend more per month than drivers