irishboyinlondon

Interesting short case study by Sustrans that highlights how a lack of detailed local travel information can lead to retailers being misinformed about how their customers reach their shops.

Sustrans found that most traders greatly overestimated how many of their customers use cars and underestimated how many walked, cycled or used public transport.

Worth reading!

Over ten years ago, retailers in the Austrian city of Graz were asked how they thought their customers travelled to the shop, and shoppers were then interviewed to determine the reality. The results were fascinating: retailers hugely overestimated the importance of the car, and underestimated how many of their customers walked, cycled and used public transport (1).

Sustrans’ researchers have now replicated the Graz study on two neighbourhood shopping streets in Bristol.  Once again, we found that retailers overestimate the importance of the car. We also found that they overestimate how far their customers travel and underestimate how many shops each customer visits.

These findings have real significance for business planning – as well as land use and transport.  It is traditional for retailers to pursue more car access and parking, and to resist measures to promote walking, cycling and public transport use – although pedestrian shopping areas tend to be commercially most successful. Our findings suggest that retail vitality would be best served by traffic restraint, public transport improvements, and a range of measures to improve the walking environment.