[jeromegv]

In Toronto they did something wonderful. DATA. When they implemented transit priority on a previously more car-centric road, of course you had some small business owners screaming murder, saying their sales were down like crazy (we heard 30-40%) and wanted compensation. Majority of business actually supported the new project because it was about bringing more people total (more people fits in transit than would fit on a parking lot).

Turns out that the city had a partnership with the credit card processors to measure the change in spending before and after the implementation of the project (on a aggregate level for all the shops on that street). Surprise surprise, a year later, they were able to prove there was no drop in business. We never heard again from those business, and surprise, they are still open.

[maaaats]

Same in Norway just this year. Removing lots of cars from the city centre, people complaining, then the data shows it was not really an issue.

[tomasien]

Yeah there's tons of data on this, it's essentially not controversial if you care about data/what's real. Cars destroy business in every city in the world where they're dominant.

[tomasien]

That rules. There are lots - LOTS! - of local regulations that hurt small businesses. But they're not all headline grabbers and they're certainly not all ideological battlegrounds like the minimum wage.

We actually have a lot of data on this stuff and we should use it :)