It may come as no surprise that bike shops are located where people bike.
I had previously posted the Census map of bicycle commuters in Toronto. I thought it would be interesting to overlay other information on top. So I created an old fashioned "mashup of the bike shop locations (source: Bike Union website) and the map of the Bicycle Modal Share in Toronto. Not having access to the original census data, I had to just take the image and rotate the bike shop map so it roughly fit the census map. You see the result above.
There seems to be a pretty high correlation between bike shops and commuter cyclists. In a previous post I had wondered why bike shops couldn't survive in the east end. The really low modal split for cyclists in Scarborough gives a pretty good indication, though it appears that there might not be such a big problem in East York and Leslieville.
If were going to open a bike shop I'd look at this map carefully. There are some darker blue spots with few to no bike shops, such as Etobicoke, Toronto Islands, the Portlands and Leaside (I think).
But with the Toronto Islands have restrictions on retail and the Portlands having very few actual residents that leaves Etobicoke, Leaside and a smattering of other spots in North York. Of course, I'd also have to take into account the absolute number of cyclists since the Toronto west end's high density of bike shops still might not be enough. I can't say before looking at the numbers.
Comments
Darren_S
Concentration
Sat, 04/11/2009 - 06:24If you want to open a futon shop, do you it where there are no others or near the more popular ones? You only need to look at College St or Orfus Rd to figure it out. If you are a retailer with no budget you pick a location closest to your competitor. Camera stores, discount electronic stores and banks (well banks less so today). That "Outbound" store follows MEC around too. It builds in your walk in factor.
anthony
Missing Bike Shops
Sun, 04/12/2009 - 23:02There are more bike shops in Etobicoke that the ones listed/shown, like the one on Lakeshore Blvd West near 3rd street; Sport Mart and Sport Chek are another two that are missing. And I question if some of the shops should even be listed; at least one does not even service "Steel" (aka Department store) bikes.
Clay
sub-urbane cyclists
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 14:38Interesting map. It leaves out mass market retailers. They sell the majority of bikes. these bikes are cheap in every way. But they serve the needs of most casual cyclists. Fixing these bikes help keep suburban shop in busness. I think a suburban shop needs a rich enough neighbourhood and a high enough density of real cyclists customers to stay in busness. Some of the shops out here (Skis and bikes ) have huge floor spaces or are very sport focused ( Endurosport ). Diversity and density, supply and demand, the weather is nice. So get out and ride.
herb
diversity and class
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 11:27You make good points, Clay. Certainly the Walmarts and Canadian Tires are left off the map. They do sell more bikes but they don't fix any. I think it wouldn't be too accurate to say fixing the department store bikes keeps suburban shops in business. The bike shop owners I know hate working on these bikes because they often need way too much work, are made of really cheap parts, and the owners would never agree to spend $80+ for overhauls when they can just buy a new bike for $100.
The map perhaps shows where cycling is taken more seriously, since people who rely on their bikes are less likely to buy them at department stores.
It would be interesting to put circles around the stores to represent the dollar value of sales, or the number of bikes sold.