‘People walking and cycling visit high streets more frequently and spend more money there, compared with people in cars

• RESPONDING to the letter from Mehmet Ozer (We need to keep Barnsbury moving, May 3), we all know these are hard economic times and local businesses need all the support we can give them, and that means shopping local.

Business owners should understand that the Barnsbury and Laycock LN, liveable neighbourhood, will encourage us all to do that, thus benefiting their businesses.

Longstanding and wide-spread evidence shows that retailers consistently overestimate the share of their customers coming by car. In some cases by as much as 400 per cent.

People walking and cycling visit high streets more frequently and spend more money there, compared with people in cars.

If more space is given for walking and cycling and less to cars, any absence of customers arriving by car is more than compensated by people arriving on foot or by bike.

Our page about this (barnsburylaycock.uk/faq-good-for-business/) summaries studies from: San Francisco; Graz in Austria; Bristol; and Roman Road in Bow, east London. They all show that reducing traffic is good for business, and there is no reason to think that Barnsbury Laycock is any different.

Let us welcome our LN, liveable neighbourhood… healthier, safer, greener, fairer, and good for business.

R WALFORD, N1
For Barnsbury & Laycock Community Streets