Cyclonomics

Since the impact of bike lanes on businesses has emerged as a peripheral issue in the New York City mayoral race, as well as one City Council contest (and counting), a post today from the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia seems especially timely.

Photo: TITIG/Flickr

The
coalition points to a June League of American Bicyclists report that
heralds cycling as a $133 billion industry, putting some 1.1 million
Americans to work and contributing $17.7 billion in federal, state and
local taxes annually, in addition to the $46.9 billion cyclists spend
on bike tourism:

You can find the LAB report, with plenty of U.S. success stories, here.
If there is a downside to this bit of positive economic news, it could
be that in one of America's most hospitable cycling towns -- Portland,
Oregon -- would-be pedalers may have a tough time finding an affordable starter ride. Cash for beater bikes, anyone?

In other news, Smart City Memphis laments that city's refusal to abandon sprawl-inducing land use patterns; Second Avenue Sagas delves into this week's subway station ceiling collapse; Streetsblog San Francisco offers analysis on the potential positive effect of the transit strike near miss; and Cycling Solution reports on livable streets improvements in Budapest, Hungary.