There’s a lot of fuss in Congleton about car park charges being introduced that will ‘kill the town centre’, but a study of some local shopping areas in Bristol showed that traders overestimated how many shoppers arrived by car. They thought 41%, but in fact it was only 22% - the rest walked, cycled or used the bus. And although the traders wanted better car parking facilities because they thought it would attract customers, in fact many shoppers wanted better pedestrian facilities and traffic calming.
Additionally, the non-car borne shoppers visited several shops on each trip, and went shopping more frequently, so it could be argued that they are more frequently exposed to impulse buys.
There’s more about how this and how cyclists make better shoppers on Copenhagenize.com – the Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog.
We do all our shopping by bike – it’s surprising what you can fit into panniers.
