This is the first post in our new series Big Ideas for Making Louisville Better. It comes to us from designer Ricky Irvine.

The problem

My wife and I have been transitioning to becoming a primarily
one-car family in the last few months, and it’s had me thinking a lot
more about the general bike-friendliness of Louisville. In pondering
presentations made at the recent Louisville Bike Summit II
and recently testing the waters in grassroots cycling advocacy, I’ve
noticed a slight problem arise in the effort to convince more people to
ride bikes instead of driving cars.

A few weeks ago I met up with a couple of folks at a coffee shop in
the Highlands and I was rather surprised that there weren’t any bike
racks. So, we locked our bikes up to a lamppost. And this past Saint
Patrick’s Day was a rather busy day at places like the Irish Rover on
Frankfort Avenue, which meant (as usual) a lot of extra cars lining the
little neighborhood streets where we live. I couldn’t help but wonder
what the same scene would’ve looked like had people ridden bikes
instead.

But if everyone had ridden bikes, where would all of them have locked up? Are there enough lampposts to go around?

Some transferrable facts

A recent article from Spacing Toronto
reported on a traffic study that found that removing parking spaces to
install bike lanes or widen sidewalks would benefit street-level
businesses. The study was performed on Bloor Street in Toronto, ON,
Canada, so the data is specific to that location, but as the author
points out, “even if other areas are a little different, the general
distribution — with pedestrians the majority and the best customers,
and cars a real minority and not particular high spenders — is likely
to hold true for any neighbourhood retail street in Toronto,” and maybe
for Louisville, too.

Most pertinent from the article is this information from the report (PDF):

The second part of the survey shows that the merchants
are correct in their estimation of how their customers get to their
store: 46% walk, 32% take transit, 12% cycle, and only 10% drive. Not
surprisingly, walkers were also the most frequent visitors to the area,
followed by cyclists, transit users, and finally drivers. Walkers also
spent considerably more in the area than other types of customers. In
other words, pedestrians were by far the best customers, followed by
cyclists. Drivers, meanwhile, are the least frequent visitors and are
low spenders. [emphasis added]

Hey business owners, did you get that? An overwhelming percentage of
your customers probably don’t drive their car to get to your shop, yet
prime access space is given to those whom you benefit from least.

(This data is obviously not going to be true for all businesses,
but it is applicable to many, and to those this article is for.)

Proposal

Short of actually redesigning our streets to make commuting safe(r)
for non-recreational cyclists, what I propose is something that puts
cycling advocacy in the hands of business owners all over the city,
amplifying and fortifying those zealous voices handing out cycling
tracts at public events. Ready for it?

Install bike racks. That’s it. That’s my big idea.

Real bike racks. Imagine shops all over town — Clifton and Crescent Hill, the Highlands, Old Louisville, downtown, everywhere
– having obvious and secure places to lock up bikes. Everywhere you
look. People might actually believe that Louisville is serious about
cycling as viable transportation, not merely recreational sport.
(Nevermind the new transit station on it’s way.)

In our present state of economy we could surely afford to burn less
gasoline, and businesses could surely afford to encourage
higher-spending traffic.

Next time I’m at that coffee shop, instead of locking my bike up to
the lamppost, maybe it’ll shine a light on the newly installed bike
rack.

Ricky Irvine is a freelance graphic designer working here in
Louisville. He’s married to a beautiful woman with whom he shares a
home, dog, and life in general. He writes about matters of design,
local economy, the city of Louisville and the web at his website
Dressed In Value.