Cairns Bikeway: Tree lined bikeways boost value

The following article is written by Rachel Smith (a Principal Transport Planner with AECOM in Sydney). All the pictures are of the Cairns CBD to Aeroglen Cycleway. We would like the next stage of this cycleway heading south from the Cairns CBD.

On April Fool’s Day Fairfax Media posted a video affirming that the new inner Sydney cycleways have had a positive effect on property prices. It was no joke. It seems that having a bikeway right outside your front door is good for your health and the value of your house.

The City of Sydney’s network of separated cycleways have attracted their unfair share of controversy, threats of legal action, opposition from traders and a protest rally ironically attended by 200 pro-bike lane supporters and no opponents.

Fairfax interviewed Don, an owner-builder, selling a recently renovated million dollar property. Don explained the combination of a garage at the rear and the bike path out the front had added a premium of $100,000 to his house. Like many, Don had been sceptical, particularly because of the loss of on-street car parking, but now that the Parisian style bike boulevard with gardens and street lamps has been finished, even he agrees that Bourke Street “looks good”.

Above: Cairns Cycleway will be opened soon!

The re is no denying that Bourke Street is beautiful; lined on either side with grand Victorian homes, exquisite cafes and a stunning canopy of trees.

The bikeway has, as Lord Mayor Clover Moore says, made Bourke Street, “a very special street”. We all want to live on a beautiful street and we all want to know what the tangible benefits of improved social infrastructure could be to our street, our neighbourhood, our city. So should we, and can we, use economics to support the case for more safe and separated bikeways in our cities?

Yes we should. But, implementing anything that requires changes to on-street car parking is controversial because many traders believe, rightly or wrongly, that customers will go elsewhere, that ‘convenience’ will be destroyed and that bike riders don’t spend money.

Research to identify the economic value of replacing car parking with bike parking in shopping strips showed that cycling generates 3.6 times more expenditure. Even though a car user spends more per hour on average compared to a bike rider, the small area of public space required for bike parking suggests that each square metre allocated to bike parking generates $31 per hour, compared to $6 generated for each square metre used for a car parking space, with food/drink and clothing retailers benefiting the most from bike riders.

Cairns Cycleway is Improving Safety

Bikeways cost money and their merits are often called into question. If we really want cycling to be a central part of our cities more data is needed to show a direct correlation between a city’s bikeway program and the city’s economy.

Planners, engineers, economists, policy officers and decision makers alike, need to increase the quantity and quality of pre and post construction data collected. They also need to develop a consistent methodology to justify and evaluate the benefits. Finally they need to work in partnership with business associations to measure and monitor change, in an objective manner, with appropriate scale analysis.

Despite the early controversy to change, Sydney’s Lord Mayor knows the bikeways have been a success. Votes for her in the polling booths close to the bikeways have been maintained or increased… seems like bikeways can be good for wallets, waistlines and the popularity of politicians that support them.

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