Re:The Economics of Bike Lanes
by afterburner on Monday October 24, 2011 @10:52AM
(#3149850)
Even if free means what you posit, it comes to the same: market pressures that make building parking garages so lucrative will provide the need if street parking is replaced by bike lanes. Also, reread the part about how creating a viable cycling path network, which is safe for the cyclist throughout, will attract many more cyclist to the road, as it has in other cities. The current number of cyclists in NYC is not nearly the potential number of cyclists if a good network of paths existed.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Sorry if you mistook my post for me taking a side. I wasn't. I was just pointing out a peculiarity I noticed in the article. I'm actually for increased bike routes, as that will decrease the number of people injured in bicycle v. motor vehicle collisions. This is my personal view, though.
However, there's a massive distinction that we have to realize: garages are privately-owned, whereas parking is municipally-regulated. The city is switching out public parking for public bicycle paths, and I don't necessarily know if this a net positive economically.
Parking garages are not lucrative. The cost to build a parking garage runs $20k-30k per parking space. Building one underground adds an additional $10k/space. In contrast, a parking stall on a flat slab is going to run only a few hundred dollars (in Denver, the cost for thick slabs you can park semis on runs about $800/parking stall).
Re:The Economics of Bike Lanes
by afterburner on Monday October 24, 2011 @03:22PM
(#3151108)
They do get built, though, so they are profitable enough apparently.
It's funny, neither article nor any comment mentions the subways in NYC, which are excellent. That would seem like the no-brainer choice for navigating Manhattan; it certainly is when I visit. That this guy must visit Manhattan locales by cars is... I dunno, perhaps being too picky? Anyways, if people want to keep doing it, parking will surely pop up at prices the market can bear.
$30K is not very much when you consider that a parking space in a dense urban area can charge $300-$400 a month, even while competing with free street parking. At $300, that's $3600 a year, or about a 12% return on your investment just from the cash flow alone (and the value of the space will rise over time as well.)
Double digit returns on a relatively low-risk investment aren't exactly bad.