This study related consumer behavior – the frequency of visits to a business establishment and the amount spent per trip – to patrons’ mode choices. The research team conducted intercept surveys on how customers arrived and how much they spent at 78 restaurants, bars and convenience stores throughout the Portland region. They found that only 43% of bar patrons, 63% of restaurant customers and 58% of convenience store shoppers drove — the rest took transit, biked, or walked. Those results surprised Clifton. “I didn’t expect a mode share for non-auto trips to be so high. In one auto-oriented community it was 40%.” Findings revealed important differences in spending and frequency by mode for different business types; however, when taken over the course of the month, spending was generally not significantly different by mode. Drivers did tend to spend more per trip, Clifton and her colleagues found, but they also shopped less often. The two effects basically canceled each other out. “People who walk and take transit are competitive consumers,” she says. One Portland-area convenience store chain was so struck by the study’s findings that it installed new bike racks outside its locations. This offers encouraging news for cities and local businesses as they strive to attain their sustainability goals through the encouragement of non-automobile modes.

“This study helped inform a reluctant property owner in my Utah county of the benefits of providing adequate pedestrian and bicycle access in front of their business.”
-Five County Association of Governments, Utah

Learn more about Examining Consumer Behavior and Travel Choices led by Kelly Clifton of Portland State University.