Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Economics

How Cutting Back on Driving Helps the Economy

By Joe Cortright | Jul 28, 2015 | No Comments

Cross-posted from City Observatory As Americans drive less and spend less on fuel, they have about $150 billion annually to spend in other ways. There are two kinds of economics: macroeconomics, which deals in big national and global quantities, like gross domestic product, and microeconomics, which focuses on a smaller scale, like how the prices […]

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The Importance of Driving to the U.S. Economy Started Waning in the 70s

By Angie Schmitt | Dec 18, 2014 | No Comments

Earlier this year, following a slight uptick in U.S. traffic volumes, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a press release, “More people driving means our economy is picking up speed.” He’s not the only person to equate traffic with economic growth. Even former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg once said, “We like traffic, it […]

More People Get to Fulton Street By Bike Than By Car

By Stephen Miller | Dec 1, 2014 | 15 Comments

When shop owners oppose new plazas or protected bike lanes, even in the city’s most walkable neighborhoods, they often say their businesses rely on street parking to attract customers. Removing even a handful of spaces, they claim, would lead to economic ruin. The reality, of course, is that an overwhelming majority of New Yorkers don’t drive to do their shopping, […]

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How Two Regions Reined in Job Piracy — And Two Others Failed

By Angie Schmitt | Jul 11, 2014 | No Comments

They call it “intra-regional job piracy” — when one town uses tax breaks to lure employers from neighboring towns. Job piracy is very common in regions across the United States. And it almost always results in employers moving farther from the central city. As the D.C.-based think tank Good Jobs First has shown [PDF], this job […]

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Uncle Sam Wants You to Drive: 5 Tax Breaks for Cars in the U.S. Tax Code

By Tanya Snyder | Apr 15, 2014 | No Comments

It’s April 15. If you bought an electric car in 2013, you can claim a tax break today. If you bought a plug-in hybrid, you can get a tax break today. But if you don’t own a car and walk to work instead? Sorry, Charlie. There’s a whole array of goodies in the U.S. tax […]

How to Measure the Economic Effect of Livable Streets

By Stephen Miller | Dec 20, 2013 | 9 Comments

When a street redesign to prioritize walking, biking, or transit is introduced, the headlines are predictable: A handful of business owners scream bloody murder. Anecdotes from grumpy merchants tend to dominate the news coverage, but what’s the real economic impact of projects like Select Bus Service, pedestrian plazas, road diets and protected bike lanes? How […]

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