In 2016, the City of Minneapolis adopted its first Complete Streets Policy. Between the approval of that initial version and the most recent update in 2021, the city also passed its Vision Zero Action Plan, Minneapolis 2040 Plan, and Transportation Action Plan, all of which set ambitious goals for reducing car dependency and making our city safer and more accessible to people who use other modes of transportation. In spite of this, there have been many obstacles in actually implementing these policies, with local businesses routinely opposing complete street projects. But is their opposition warranted? Before we can answer that question, let’s clarify what we mean by “complete street.”
What is a complete street?
A complete street is one that is designed and operated with all users in mind, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit users. Moreover, this should include people of all ages and abilities, making it easy for children and people with limited mobility to move through their neighborhoods safely. Elements of a complete street can include wider sidewalks, separated bike lanes, street trees, transit lanes, better bus shelters, benches, and improved lighting, along with lower speed limits and physical traffic calming elements such as speed bumps, chicanes, pinch points, and raised sidewalks. Because right-of-way is constrained, new features like bikeways, bus lanes, and street trees often replace street parking. (More on this in a moment.)
Complete streets solve many of the problems created by vehicle-centric design. They reduce rates of injury, improve air quality and its impacts on public health, and can even reduce congestion and improve travel times for all modes of travel, both by better managing traffic flow and by converting more trips to other modes. Furthermore, complete streets provide the additional public health benefits of promoting active transportation and reducing noise, which is itself a major contributor to many health issues. And, by dramatically reducing the amount of heat-absorbing pavement and increasing tree canopy and other sources of shade, a complete street can even reduce the urban heat island effect and lower the temperature in the city.
The business case for complete streets
The most common argument in opposition to these kinds of improvements revolves around the potential loss of street parking, which business owners routinely claim will have a devastating effect on their bottom line and possibly even put them out of business. However, in contrast to this apocalyptic rhetoric, the benefits of bicycle lanes to businesses—even at the expense of street parking—are well documented, with businesses consistently seeing increases in their revenue when a new bike lane is installed.
How can this be? For one thing, business owners—who often drive themselves—consistently overestimate the share of their customer base who arrive by car, often by enormous margins. In one notable case, a 2012 study conducted in Los Angeles (of all places!), the majority of business owners on a corridor with bike lanes estimated that over half of their customers drove there when, in fact, the actual number was less than 30%, and perhaps as low as 15%.
The overwhelming majority of data shows that while bicyclists generally spend less per shopping trip, they tend to make more return visits and thus end up spending more overall. While this can be attributed to many factors, a few stand out. First, because bicycles are best suited for traveling relatively short distances, cyclists generally shop closer to home. Second, because they spend less on things like gas and vehicle maintenance, they have more money to spend. Finally, people spend more when they’re in a good mood—and riding a bike makes you happy.
The benefits to businesses aren’t just on the sales end either. Convenient access to transit has been shown to improve employee retention and reduce the costs associated with turnover.
“Well and good,” you may say, “but I drive a car to get around. Isn’t all this going to make my life harder?” To answer this question, consider the Netherlands, which, in addition to being rightfully recognized as a world leader in bicycling infrastructure and culture, has also been identified as home to the world’s happiest drivers, “outrank[ing] all other countries with the least amount of traffic.” This should come as no surprise, given that about half of all trips in the Netherlands are taken by some mode other than driving. Fewer cars on the road means fewer people to contend with for space. Everyone wins.
Case Study: Bloor Street, Toronto
A common argument against complete streets is that, while bike lanes may be good for business in those cities, it won’t work here, with our long, cold, snowy winters. But this, too, ignores the fact that the feasibility of winter cycling in harsh climates is purely a matter of policy. For an example relatively close to home, we turn to Bloor Street, an east-west arterial that cuts across the southwestern portion of Toronto—and, more specifically, a seven-block commercial stretch in the Bloor West Village neighborhood, where in 2016, parking was removed to install bike lanes. Even before this redesign was implemented, Bloor Street carried an average of 3,300 cyclists per day. Following the installation, that number increased by 56% within the project area and 49% along Bloor Street as a whole. Despite this increase, “safety improved for all users with a 44% decrease in all conflicts.”
While the new configuration initially resulted in increased vehicle travel times, much of that increase was mitigated in the ensuing months by retiming traffic signals along the corridor. And despite the usual misgivings from businesses affected by the project, a 2017 study conducted by the City of Toronto in partnership with the Bloor Annex Business Improvement Area (BIA) and Korea Town BIA found that “most merchants reported an increase in the number of customers, most visitors reported spending more and visiting more frequently, and […] vacancy rates are stable.”
But most importantly, as David Simor, director of The Centre for Active Transportation, emphasized in a 2022 interview with Doug Schairer for Streets.mn, “making streets better for people should be reason enough to move forward without having to prove anything else.” Indeed, the Bloor Street reconstruction has resulted in safety improvements for all road users, including drivers, with the number of conflicts between vehicles actually seeing the greatest improvement—an almost unbelievable 71% reduction.
In a timely development, Ontario Premier Doug Ford recently put forward legislation that would effectively give the provincial government veto power over any new bike lanes in Ontario cities. He has even stated that he intends to remove existing bike lanes, including those on Bloor Street. In response, not only has the Toronto cycling community turned out in large numbers to oppose this action, but Bloor Street business owners are also speaking out in favor of keeping the bike lanes, with the Bloor Annex BIA saying that removing the lanes would be “disastrous to the neighbourhood.”
A brief note on mitigating construction impacts
The fact that we drive vehicles on our roads at all means that they will inevitably need to undergo reconstruction from time to time, and it’s not uncommon for businesses to lose revenue during construction periods. We at Our Streets believe that businesses should be eligible for financial assistance whenever access to their location is disrupted. This can take the form of a tax credit, low- or no-interest loan, or direct payment—an idea the city of San Antonio is already implementing.
Learn more about Streets for People.
Complete streets offer the possibility of transforming mobility options and making it accessible, even enjoyable, for people of all ages and abilities to move around the city with or without a car. They produce benefits across the board—to drivers, pedestrians, transit users, bicyclists, residents as well as business owners. It is impossible to overstate the positive effects they have on the environment, public health, and local economies. Nevertheless, change will always face pushback, and complete streets are no exception. That’s why it’s crucial to be aware of street projects happening near you and let decision-makers know what kinds of changes you support. By staying engaged, we can transform our city for the better, one street at a time.