Severus_SnapeClosing Central Madrid To Cars Resulted In 9.5% Boost To Retail Spending, Finds Bank Analysis
gon [he]so closing streets limits sales by amazon.com and the like? would not be surprised if the push for the opposite
It didn’t say, but I would guess they would still allow delivery vehicles, unless other options are available. Maybe restricted hours?
will clarify, since that wasn’t the point of my comment. since everyone has a limited supply of money (unless you’re Elon Musk or something), what is spent on local stores takes away from online sales, which would is a reverse from recent decades trend, and nice to see
Oh, I see what you mean
Twenty million anonymized transactions … led to a 9.5% increase in retail
I wish they put a number to that stat. Because even if we’re talking about an extra dollar of spending, we’re talking millions of dollars (euros), which is significant.
Retail stores everywhere should really force their local government to make street closures to car traffic a reality if they want to boost sales and keep online shopping from destroying their revenue.
Trying to replicate that elsewhere requires either parking spaces away from the main streets, or decent public transit.
In San Diego, the Gaslamp District is a prime example of an area that should be pedestrian only. Yet when they did try it, the city yanked it back with the unbelievable excuse that the road blocking bollard mechanisms cost too much (thesandiegosun.com/gaslamp-quarter-car-free-zone-…).
Downtown retail in a lot of cities are boarded up. Making those streets pedestrian-only is the only way to revive them and bring back shops.
infinitesunriseThat’s all a lot less complicated then most infrastructure redesigns within a CBD. It’s crazy how how whole neighborhoods can be leveled for highways, subway systems can be drilled through underground, a city like London can bollard off their entire downtown in the name of anti-terror without much of any public conversation. But close the streets to cars and “it can get complicated quickly”. OK. Most cities have a small army of infrastructure professionals trained and ready to do this complicated stuff. The actually complicated part is getting the motor lobby to stfu long enough to let them do it.
what if there are highrise apartments with underground parking lots facing the main street? How would they come and go?
Its pretty common in Europe to allow shared use for access / deliveries using pedestrianised streets where needed.
They'd put a 10kph or 5kph speed limit and pedestrians have priority, delivery vehicles may have restricted hours too - outside of peak shopping hours if the street is mostly retail.
With only resident vehicles and deliveries the traffic volumes are low and it's fine. Cutting out through traffic and non-resident traffic makes a huge improvement.
Also lots of the people in CBD high rises will choose to walk a lot of their trips - many won't have a car at all - that's partly why they live there.
San Diego has always had a bad problem with infestation by Republicans. That’s why they fucked everything up that might benefit local people and businesses.
There are roads around the pedestrian district so deliveries can be made to the outside perimeter. Ithaca NY did this and it’s great.
ZeroOneThe same thing has happened in my smallish English city. The merchants bleated, so did the conservatives, but the council went ahead with pedestrianisation and now we’re all better off. And all the concern-trolling about people with mobility problems losing access has been conclusively proven to have been bullshit. Buses, taxis and mobility services can still drop them off right in front of the shops. The only difference now is that they can cross the road with almost no risk of being hit by a car.
all the concern-trolling about people with mobility problems losing access has been conclusively proven to have been bullshit
You say the word “bike” and suddenly everybody’s mom is deathly ill and needs daily hospital visits. It’s amazing.