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A friend is looking for a whole slew of statistics on why biking rocks and the huge market growth we've had both locally and throughout the entire world.

Thought this would be a good place to complie statistics about the benefits if biking for health, environment, the economy, etc.

I remember Trek having a bunch of these statistics in a booklet. Im sure the League of Illinois Bicyclists, Active Trans , National Bike Dealers Association and many other organizations and industry stakeholders have great information.

CDOT has compiled statistics through its bike counts and the number of bike commuters on Milwaukee at Kinzie a few summers ago was astonding. Something like 30 percent of all people who crossed that intersection on a weekday morning were by bike.

Help please!

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This may help:

 

Economic Benefits of Complete Streets and Cycle Tracks

 

Bicycle lanes calm traffic and the economic benefit for retail stores is increased sales, more walking and biking customers and more customers from within and outside the neighborhood, according to a study on Valencia Street in San Francisco, CA: Bike traffic increased 144%, 2/3 of merchants said the redesign improved business, total collisions declined by 20%, motor vehicle traffic decreased by 10% and 218 jobs were created. The report on the study, Economic Effects of Traffic Calming on Urban Small Businesses by Emily Drennen, Department of Public Administration, San Francisco State University, December, 2003, can be found here: http://www.emilydrennen.org/TrafficCalming_full.pdf .

 

Excerpt:

 

 

Why Urban Retail Businesses Should Support Traffic Calming Projects

"Traffic Engineer-ese"

English Translation

Traffic calming can   bring about economic revitalization through increased development,   productivity, investment, competition, and business activity.

Livable communities   support thriving local businesses.

Traffic calming can   attract people to shop, eat, and socialize in an area.

New customers with   zero effort or expense. Really, it is that good of a deal.

Residents who don't   own cars have more discretionary income to spend. Traffic calming can help   people live less car-dependent lifestyles, which will increase the amount of   money they can spend on things other than transportation.

If people don't need   their cars, they'll have more money to spend at your store.

Traffic calming   encourages local residents to buy in their own neighborhoods, and also   attracts customers from a wider area due to reduced travel time, hassle, and   cost.

From nearby and far,   shoppers gather at windows, credit card in hand.

Traffic calming   reduces auto speed, which is good for business.

Make rubbernecking   work for you!

Traffic calming can   increase residential and commercial property values, which attracts wealthier   residents and creates better business conditions.

Rich people are   notorious for having money to spend.

Traffic calming   projects will only require minimal "down time" for construction,   and will not require any investment from business owners.

It'll be quick and   painless, and better yet, free.

Poor   bike/ped/transit conditions and too much parking can harm businesses by   losing worker productivity and time to gridlock, and impair employee   recruitment.

The status quo is   hurting your bottom line.

 

 

Brochure: Boston Benefits of Bike Lanes – This is a good template and could be redone to market this plan in the 46yh Ward. View this brochure from Boston on the benefits of more biking and less cars: http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/images/uploads/Bike_Lane_...

Bikes Belong has a great compilation of stats at the link below. Make sure to dig into each of the separate categories in the blue bar on the left of the screen that opens.

http://www.bikesbelong.org/resources/stats-and-research/statistics/

+1  I used these statistics for a grad school assignment recently:  http://www.bikesbelong.org/resources/stats-and-research/research/20...

Michelle Stenzel said:

Bikes Belong has a great compilation of stats at the link below. Make sure to dig into each of the separate categories in the blue bar on the left of the screen that opens.

http://www.bikesbelong.org/resources/stats-and-research/statistics/

For those of you who may not have seen Grid Chicago's recent post on new commuting data released: The percentage of bike commuters in Chicago has doubled from .7% in 2005 to 1.4% in 2011.

This was evident to me earlier this evening, when I was counting northbound LFT commuters (volunteering for CDOT), and almost 500 of you passed by just between 5:00 and 6:00 pm. It's a great sight to see. However: We still need more women out there!

I just read a great article on Slate. The outline is that one cyclist acting like an ass shouldn't ruin it for everyone else. There are a few great statistics in there.

Here's one:

"recent study by researchers at Rutgers and Virginia Tech supports that hypothesis. Data from nine major North American cities showed that, despite the total number of bike trips tripling between 1977 and 2009, fatalities per 10 million bike trips fell by 65 percent. While a number of factors contribute to lower accident rates, including increased helmet usage and more bike lanes, less aggressive bicyclists probably helped, too."

I was on the trail at the Chicago Ave underpass, counting northbound bicyclists from 4 to 6 pm.

 

Serge Lubomudrov said:

Where were you counting, Michelle? I did it in the morning, 7 to 9 a.m., at LFT and Balbo, counting only the northbound cyclists. To my surprise, there were not that many of them, about a hundred at best. More bikers were probably heading south.

Michelle Stenzel said:

For those of you who may not have seen Grid Chicago's recent post on new commuting data released: The percentage of bike commuters in Chicago has doubled from .7% in 2005 to 1.4% in 2011.

This was evident to me earlier this evening, when I was counting northbound LFT commuters (volunteering for CDOT), and almost 500 of you passed by just between 5:00 and 6:00 pm. It's a great sight to see. However: We still need more women out there!

47% of statistics are made up. ;]

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