Car Free Streets: Good for Business

The Data

Data shows that car-free and car-light spaces are great for business. Here are the receipts:

NEW yoRK CITY

The New York City Department of Transportation studied the economic impacts of the car-free Open Streets program. They found that “Open Streets corridors significantly outperformed nearby control corridors on three key metrics”: sales growth, growth in the number of restaurants and bars, and keeping businesses open. “Open Streets saw a 10% increase in new businesses during the pandemic while nearby control corridors saw a 20% contraction.” (Source: NYC Department of Transportation)

MADRID

The City of Madrid and a Spanish bank studied the effects of a car-free city center pilot. They found that retail takings increased by 9.5% on Madrid’s main shopping street during the car-free pilot. “Cities which want to boost takings in shops and restaurants should restrict access for motorists, a new study suggests.” (Source: Forbes)

fisherman’s wharf, san francisco

“Two years after the city gave Fisherman’s Wharf a people-friendly redesign on two blocks of Jefferson Street, business is booming. Despite merchants’ fears that removing all car parking on the blocks would hurt their sales, they now say it had the opposite effect… In June 2013, the two blocks of Jefferson between Hyde and Jones Streets were made safer and calmer with wider sidewalks, textured pavement to calm motor traffic, and the removal of curbside car parking. One-way traffic was also converted to two-way. Since then, sales on the street have risen. The Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District surveyed 18 of the 33 businesses on those blocks, and they reported month-over-month gross sales increases between 10 to 21 percent on average…” (Source: Streetsblog San Francisco, emphasis ours)

San Francisco, boston, chicago, boise

Yelp analyzed data and found higher consumer interest in eateries located on car-free streets in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and Boise. (Source: Bloomberg)

Queens street west, toronto

Toronto’s Ward 14 Advocacy Group worked with the Toronto Centre for Active Transportation, the Parkdale Village Business Improvement Area, and Cycle Toronto. They studied the transportation habits of visitors to their neighborhood shopping corridor and found that:

• “72% of the visitors to the Study Area usually arrive by active transportation (by bicycle or walking). Only 4% report that driving is their usual mode of transportation.”

• “Merchants overestimated the number of their customers who arrived by car. 42% of merchants estimated that more than 25% of their customers usually arrived by car.”

(Source: Toronto Centre for Active Transportation)

portland, san francisco, memphis, minneapolis

Jenny Liu of Portland State University studied street improvements for bicycle and pedestrian mobility in Portland, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Memphis. She found that these improvements "have either positive impacts on corridor economic and business performance or non-significant impacts.” (Source: Portland State University Library)

These didn’t exist…

None of these establishments existed when there was an elevated freeway choking The Embarcadero. Can you imagine what might be possible if we remove cars completely??