ABSTRACT

Local officials in North America frequently face opposition to new or expanded bicycle or pedestrian facilities. The most vocal opponents are usually motorists and local business owners who fear that the removal of or reductions in vehicular parking or travel lanes will reduce patronage from motorists and that any increased patronage from pedestrians or cyclists will not offset the lost revenues. A lack of direct evidence on the economic impacts of facilities on local businesses has made it difficult to support or debunk such fears. A lack of quantitative evidence in particular has prevented the incorporation of such impacts into cost–benefit analyses. The issue has received enough attention from researchers in recent years that a review of the evidence is now warranted. We reviewed the relevant literature and identified 23 studies, focusing on the US and Canada, that either (1) quantified and compared consumer spending between active travellers and automobile users (n = 8), or (2) quantified an economic impact to local businesses following the installation of bicycle or pedestrian facilities (n = 15). Taken together, the studies indicate that creating or improving active travel facilities generally has positive or non-significant economic impacts on retail and food service businesses abutting or within a short distance of the facilities, though bicycle facilities might have negative economic effects on auto-centric businesses. The results are similar regardless of whether vehicular parking or travel lanes are removed or reduced to make room for the active travel facilities. The studies also highlight best practices for designing future research. Ten of the 15 studies that quantified an economic impact to local businesses used both before-and-after data and comparison sites or other statistical controls for variables unrelated to the active travel facility “treatment;” six of those used statistical testing.

摘要

北美地方官员经常面临反对新建或扩建自行车或步行设施的问题。最强烈的反对者通常是驾车者和当地企业主，他们担心拆除或减少停车位或车道会减少驾车者的光顾，而且行人或骑自行车的人增加的光顾不会抵消损失的收入。由于缺乏设施对当地企业的经济影响的直接证据，因此很难支持或驳斥这种担忧。由于缺乏定量证据，因此无法将此类影响纳入成本效益分析。近年来，这个问题受到了研究人员的足够关注，现在有必要对证据进行审查。我们回顾了相关文献并确定了 23 项研究，n  = 8)，或 (2) 量化安装自行车或步行设施后对当地企业的经济影响 ( n = 15）。综上所述，研究表明，创建或改善主动出行设施通常对邻近或在设施附近的零售和餐饮服务企业具有积极或不显着的经济影响，尽管自行车设施可能对以汽车为中心的经济产生负面影响。企业。无论是否移除或减少车辆停车位或行驶车道以为活动的行驶设施腾出空间，结果都是相似的。这些研究还强调了设计未来研究的最佳实践。在量化对当地企业的经济影响的 15 项研究中，有 10 项同时使用了前后数据和比较站点或其他统计控制，用于与主动旅行设施“治疗”无关的变量；其中六个使用了统计测试。