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my business ... will lose exposure and therefore commerce.
Even that harm is quite questionable. Auto drivers pay MUCH less attention to their surroundings than bicyclists and pedestrians.
Scenario: UT Department wants to honor, say, retiring professor. Over morning coffee, group in department discusses issue. One faculty or staff member that commutes by bike mentions a place on Nueces that has a selection of plaques & awards. Chairman delegates someone to go there and select something appropriate, or report back on options (or goes there personally).
Let us suppose that bicyclists are 10 times more likely to note your business (probably an under estimate) and converting Nueces to a bike boulevard adds 300 bikes/day by your business and reduces car traffic by an equal #. Your exposure has been tremendously enhanced.
Unless you are selling gasoline, auto traffic count does relatively little to promote business.
PS: At lunch today, someone asked me for the name of a good cobbler. I mentioned the one on Magazine that I have used for a dozen years. I first noted him and gave him a try after walking by this shop.
I am sure that I drove by a number of other shoe repair shops, but I did not remember a single one. But I remembered the one I walked by.
Best Hopes,
Alan Drake
Experience from New Orleans
The truth found by merchants in New Orleans is that car unfriendly/bike & ped friendly streets with limited car parking and lots of bike parking and pleasantly walkable are the BEST locations for small businesses.
Tulane Avenue used to be a vital commerce area until it was reconfigured as an access road from the Interstate to the Medical Center. Lots of high income traffic count after reconfiguration. And the best place to find a "working girl" with the increased traffic count pre-Katrina. No decent restaurant or shop along the entire length.
Magazine Street is a narrow two lane street with VERY limited off street parking, 25 mph speed limit (and most go closer to 20 mph because it is a car unfriendly place), many stop-lights, limited on-street parallel parking, etc.
Result, over 4 miles of vibrant small shops. A GREAT place to shop !
Seven blocks of Oak Street were recently rebuilt#, with the OK of the shop owners to a bike friendly and car unfriendly street. Uniformly the reports are of increased business.
# Bulbouts at every intersection with either a park bench facing away from the street (who wants to watch cars, even @ bus stops) or bike racks on the bulbout. At least one cafe got a mid-street bulb-out for sidewalk tables (cost 4 parking spaces).
Cobblestones at every intersection (but smooth 4' wide for bikes at edges). Good teeth rattle if car is going too fast.
Lights are set to work against using Oak Street as a thoroughfare. I think one light has an "all red" phase to help peds (many lights in New Orleans now have an "all red" phase).
Street was narrowed and sidewalk widened (my eyeball is -3' street & +1'6" on each sidewalk). Most cars go over center strip unless another car is coming, then they slow down more and squeeze through. Unsure what happens if two Hummers try to pass.
Oak Street is now much more alive and a place to meet, shop and party.
Best Hopes for understanding that auto sewers repel people,
Alan Drake
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