Bicycle Users' Impact on Lexington Businesses

Many people use the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway, and the network of fourteen bicycle routes to come to Lexington Center from throughout town, and from all bordering towns. They also come to the neighborhood shopping areas. These routes are convenient and safe, so the users choose to leave their cars at home.

Consumers arriving on these routes are well served by the offerings of most businesses in Lexington. They provide services such as snacks, meals, gifts, books, and sundries, not large goods. Lexington also provides banking, medical care, and many other professional services, for which there is no need for a car as transportation.

Many bicycle riders are from surrounding towns, or even distant ones, The bicycle routes make access easier for them. These routes having a positive effect on Lexington. On weekends about half the traffic on the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway comes from towns other than Lexington, Bedford, or Arlington. We welcome these new potential customers who would otherwise stay closer to home.

• The Bikeway has increased the numbers of people who walk, bike, or skate to the Center for commuting to work, shopping, and errands. This has helped to increase business without an increase in demand for auto parking spaces in the downtown area. Instead individuals and the Lexington Friends of the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway have added some bicycle racks. Businesses may wish to add more.
• The Bikeway is attracting thousands of persons to the town who would not otherwise visit us. The Minuteman Commuter Bikeway is most accessible and one of the longest recreational paths in the greater Boston area. It attracts cyclists and inline-skaters from all over the state.
• Because it is reasonably smooth (even though the Lexington and Bedford sections are now 10 years old), and the Arlington portion was recently repaved, and is fairly level, it is considered one of the best places for inline skating in the Boston area.
• As the publicity spreads in bicycle and skating publications across the country, persons are coming from far and wide to enjoy this bikeway and visit the historic sites along it. To put it another way, our "floor traffic" has increased significantly.
  • Cyclists and inline skaters who are tourists from out of town spend more time in Lexington than persons who come on a bus tour. This offers local merchants more of an opportunity to serve them.
  • Recreational visitors from the Greater Boston area, who might never have come here on a bus tour or otherwise, have a chance to observe that Lexington has a nice choice of restaurants and other shops, and are likely to return to Lexington at other times to purchase items more substantial than cold drinks, that may have been their initial need.
• We now have an asset from the conversion of the old rail bed, that was formerly an eyesore and a source of trouble.
• Business and real estate advertisements mention proximity to the Bikeway.

The Minuteman Commuter Bikeway is an important success story for the alternative transportation movement. That movement is gaining momentum, enhancing the modern image of Lexington for others, as well as respecting our historical heritage. It brings business to Lexington.

The Lexington Chamber of Commerce provides information for visitors, citizens, and businesses in Lexington. It sponsors events for the citizens, including Discovery Day in May.

See the Visitors' Center, adjacent to the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway, where you can get information about Lexington businesses, fliers about Lexington, and a bicycle map of the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway.