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> A study in Berlin found that shop owners believed only about 12 percent of customers lived within 1km of a shopping street when more than 51 percent of custo
by belorn 5y ago
> A study in Berlin found that shop owners believed only about 12 percent of customers lived within 1km of a shopping street when more than 51 percent of customers lived within that walkable distance.
This seem to imply that shops don't benefit much from parking when majority of customers lives within 1km of the store, and if that's the definition of local businesses then I don't see much problem eliminating parking. Local businesses catering to local customers. Non-local businesses, ie businesses where the majority of customers isn't with that 1km, should not be located next to shopping streets, which might require a new definition of shopping streets which centralize all kind of shopping to a specific street.
This seem to somewhat match a trend that I have noticed here in Sweden. Stores catering to a larger audience seem to have started to move away from expensive city cores in the last couple of decades, with specific shopping street decreasing in importance as a result.
- rtlfe 5y ago1km is a good distance for walking, but you can expand it quite a bit if you have good bike infrastructure and transit. You can bike 5km in 20 minutes at a pretty leisurely pace, which I would gladly do for a good restaurant or specialty store.
- asdff 5y agoIt really depends on the context of the building imo. If you have a grocery store with like a few spaces that are always full, vs one with a bunch of spaces, someone who is planning a big grocery load will probably opt to drive their car for two minutes to the big lot one vs walk 10 mins to the one without parking and walk back with a gallon of milk and all their groceries for their family of 4 for a week. What you find in other countries that are denser is that people not only buy less things per trip and take more trips, but they are also cooking fewer meals at home than Americans and tend to eat out more for their meals. I think two things need to happen for that behavior to happen with Americans: shorter commutes so you actually have time to run to the grocery store more often than once a week, and more buying power from wages so you can actually regularly afford food you didn't personally prepare. Until those things happen, most americans will continue doing their errands once a week when they finally have time, and saving money making things at home vs ordering more prepared food and having a therefore smaller need for so many groceries in the first place.