Protected bike lanes require space on the street, and removing curbside auto parking is one of several ways to find it.
But whenever cities propose parking removal, retailers understandably worry.
A growing body of evidence suggests that if bike lanes and parking removal are part of a general plan to slow traffic, everybody can win.
In an in-house study of its new protected bike lane, Salt Lake City, Utah found that when parking removal was done as part of a wide-ranging investment in the streetscape — including street planters, better crosswalks, public art and colored pavement — it converted parking spaces to high-quality bike lanes and boosted business at the same time.