I am writing to you because…

I am writing to you because I want you to consider the small business impact for the support of Toronto bike lanes.

People use bicycles to enter small businesses in Ontario cities either as customers or delivery couriers. An open-for-business province with Red Tape reductions should encourage multiple entrances to small businesses.

Dense urban spaces with local retail shopping and restaurants are well-suited to attract customers from bicycles. This customer demographic can more easily enter a new location than from a car because of the ease of parking and the slower travel so the cyclist can read promotional signage from small businesses.
This is supported by Jiawei Shi's (2024) study of bicycle lanes and land use in Manhattan, NY.

Consider the comparable city of Brisbane, Australia, with a population of 2.5 million (World Population Review, 2024) and recognizable suburban expansion (Satterley, 2024).
From multiple surveys of restaurateurs and restaurant customers, Transport Economist Barbara Yen and colleagues (2020) found that only 18 percent of customers went to restaurants by car. While 7 percent of restaurant customers arrived by bicycle. This is a relatively small number. However, in Brisbane there are also thousands of entrants into restaurants who are bicycle food delivery riders, as found by Risk Management Professor Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios and colleagues (2022).

There is clear aggregated evidence that bike lanes provide consumer activities into small businesses. As found in a literature review by U.C. Davis Transportation Professors Jamey Volker & Susan Handy.

I hope that this information can be used to influence adjustments to bike lanes to cities in Ontario.

Works Cited

Oviedo-Trespalacios, O., Rubie, E., & Haworth, N. (2022). Risky business: Comparing the riding behaviours of food delivery and private bicycle riders. Accident Analysis and Prevention. 106820. doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2022.106820

Satterley. (2024). Best Suburbs to invest in Brisbane 2024. https://satterley.com.au/news/best-suburbs-to-invest-in-brisbane/

Shi, J. (2024) .The Relationship between Land Use and Bicycles: A Case Study in the Manhattan Area of New York City, USA. Highlights in Science, Engineering, and Technology. https://doi.org/10.54097/txqwf139

Volker, J. M., & Handy, S. (2021). Economic impacts on local businesses of investments in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure: a review of the evidence. Transport reviews, 41(4), 401-431. doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2021.1912849

World Population Review. (2024). Brisbane, Australia population. https://worldpopulationreview.com/cities/australia/brisbane

Yen, B., Mulley, C., Burke, M., & Tseng, W-C. (2020). Parking and restaurant business: Differences in business perceptions and customer travel behaviour in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Land Use Policy. 10318. doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.01.021