Creating Community: Implementation of a Bycicle Friendly Business District

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Downtown Denton is an area that combines history, entertainment, and community. Within a mile you can find unique places to eat, find treasures both old and new, and then finish off your trip with a concert on the lawn at the courthouse. Yet, even with these wonderful attributes of the downtown area, a stronger sense of community as well as a larger and more stable economic base could be achieved if the area were bike friendly.
Currently there are not even the basic provisions afforded to those individuals who choose bicycling as their mode of transportation. The lack of appropriate safety measures for cyclists is a detriment on multiple fronts. Safety of pedestrians and cyclists along with loss of revenue to local business owners. The rise in popularity of cycling and movement to revitalize the downtown area are both contributors to the safety issues.
These oversights in combination with the growing popularity of using non-motorized transport amongst the general population is contributing to the increase in both pedestrian and pedicyclist collisions. Since 2008 there have been approximately 280 incidents involving automobiles and either pedestrians or cyclists (Record Chronicle). Without future intervention by the city planners to address this problem, incident numbers are sure to increase.
The lack of available parking for motor vehicles decreases the volume of business that local shop owners have access to. It is easier for a perspective client to continue on to an alternate retail location to obtain the items that are needed where there is a much greater likelihood of readily available parking. Result is loss of revenue and in the longterm, loss of business for others in the area as well.
Denton is one of a small number of T...

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...us of the downtown area. Implementation of a Bicycle Friendly Business District in downtown Denton addresses both of those issues by involving local business owners in the process of creating this new community. A long lasting solution that benefits Denton, it’s citizens, the local economy and the environment.

Works Cited

Ehl, Larry. Nine Reasons to Create a Bicycle-Friendly Business Districts., September 12, 2012. Print.
Flusche, Darren. Bicycling Means Business
the Economic Benefits of Bicycle Infrastructure., Originally released June 2009, updated and expanded July 2012. Print.
Harden, John D. "Rough Road Relations." Denton Record-Chronicle, 21 September 2013 ed., sec. Local News: 2013. Print.
Melendez, Eleazar D. "Bike-Friendly Companies Doing Brisk Business as Bike Culture, Infrastructure Gains Ground." Huffington Post, sec. Small Business: 2013. Print.

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