With the creation of bike lanes, Vancouver has witnessed a transformation. These lanes have helped transform Vancouver into a green city by encouraging clean, easy, healthy transportation. However, they have also eliminated retail parking, creating issues for the businesses along the lanes. For example, for Brascia’s Tailors and Menswear on Hornby Street, the bike lane has sapped away customers as people can no longer park in front the store. In my opinion, the government doesn’t seem to care about the negative impact to the businesses such as the estimated 2.4 million dollar annual loss for the stores along Hornby.

Being a city which encourages entrepreneurship and small business, it bewilders me that the municipal government has not reached out to help the businesses affected by the loss of the parking. I think the mayor and city counsellors should do two things. Firstly, if the businesses can provide proof with their historical balance sheets that the lanes truly are impacting their business negatively, then some form of compensation may be warranted. This could be in the form of a property tax break. Relief from crippling high property tax on commercial retail spaces would be a welcome jester. Secondly, from a marketing standpoint, having cyclists riding past your store could be viewed as an incredible opportunity. Perhaps these stores would benefit from the chance to meet with a marketer who could show the businesses how make their store stand out to the cyclists. For example, for Union Street Cycle, they now have thousands of citizens within their target audience riding past every day; however, they report no financial benefits.

In response to

Vancouver Sun-Jury Out on Impact of Cycling Routes: Jeff Lee

http://kwantlenchronicle.ca/beyondnews/bike-lanes-controversial-even-among-cyclists-second-in-a-series/