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Bike Lanes Are Bringing More Millennials to the Suburbs

It’s what passes for conventional wisdom these days (along with “lying is the new truth-telling” and “kale is cool”): Millennials are drawn to the excitement and possibilities of big-city living the way luna moths are drawn to floodlights. The fusion food trucks! The underground EDM shows! The hipster pingpong bars! It’s no wonder they overwhelmingly prefer the glitz of metros to the nation’s sleepier, strip-mall-laden small towns and suburbs.

Or do they?

Like much conventional wisdom (e.g., “kale is cool”), it’s not entirely true. It turns out that more and more younger folks don’t really mind moving out of those super-duper-expensive city centers to the less expensive burbs—provided those smaller towns look and feel much like the cities they’re leaving behind, especially where it matters most. Increasingly, suburbs are catering to younger constituents with top-notch shops, lively drinking scenes, cool and innovative dining options (far beyond a McDonald’s drive-through window)—and, perhaps most importantly, lots of sidewalks and bike lanes and trails.

In fact, the more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly a small town is, the more desirable it will be for potential buyers and renters, experts say. And the more likely real estate prices are to rise, particularly when those brand-new subdivisions and fancy new condos come online.

For example, homes near walkable, and often bikeable, trails enjoy premiums of between 5% to 10%, according to an analysis by Headwaters Economics, a research group focused on community development and land management issues. Other surveys have put that percentage even higher.

“What’s happening is, a little bit of the city is following people into the suburbs,” says Ed McMahon, senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute, a Washington, DC–based land and real estate research and education group. “Almost all the successful suburbs are building walkable, mixed-use [i.e., a housing and shopping combo] centers.”

Making downtowns great again—with bicycles

No, millennials aren’t completely abandoning cities. They still flock to them, in fact. But increasingly they are viewing them as a place to work, rather than a place to live, says Mel Jones, a research scientist at the Virginia Center for Housing Research at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, VA.

But they’re willing to move farther out (and commute longer distances) as long as their towns are stocked with all the amenities they crave.

“What millennials want are places that have a vibrancy, where you … can shop, go out to bars, walk, and bike,” says Lynn Richards, president and CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism, a Chicago-based advocacy group for more pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods.

But hipper, urban-esque suburban towns aren’t just key for luring younger residents. More corporations are moving or expanding into nonurban areas where they can have lower operating costs but also attract and retain top millennial talent.

The trend has led to a major increase in suburban communities devoting the resources to make their Main Streets and downtowns more walkable by repairing and installing sidewalks, says Brett Schwartz, program manager at the Washington, DC–based National Association of Development Organizations, an umbrella group of suburban and small-town regional planning commissions.

Many of these municipalities are also creating dedicated bike paths and trails linking neighborhoods, other towns, and even nearby cities. That helps them to attract tourists—and their highly coveted dollars—which, in turn, can bring in new businesses and residents.

In just the past year, 136 communities from across the country applied to be designated as Bicycle Friendly Communities through the League of American Bicyclists. Sixty-three were suburbs and 17 were rural towns.

“Communities are seeing it as a way to differentiate themselves and market themselves as a destination,” says Ken McLeod, state and local policy manager at the Washington, DC–based policy and advocacy group.

For example, cyclists spent on average nearly $44 on pedal-power daytrips, according to a 2013 Outdoor Industry Association report.

But there’s something more than tourism at work here. Some see the new emphasis on foot-friendly living as nothing less than a sea change in the very concept of suburbs.

“For a very long time we built up our towns and villages and cities to drive” in, says transportation consultant David Fields with San Francisco–based Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates, adding that even drivers like to park their cars and walk around.  “People ultimately want choice.” He says demand for biking-accessible  communities is currently the highest he has ever seen.

In fact, cycling is enjoying a near historic renaissance right now, and fewer younger would-be home buyers are getting behind the wheel of a car at all.

Case in point: More than 87% of 19-year-olds had a driver’s license in 1983, according to a University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute study released in January. But only 69% did in 2014.

For the same period, 16.4% fewer 20- to 24-year-olds, 11% fewer 25- to 29-year-olds, and 10.3% fewer 30- to 34-year-olds had licenses.

Bicycling is the fastest-growing form of transportation in the U.S., says the Urban Land Institute’s McMahon. The phenomenon is due in part to the creation of more cycling infrastructure such as protected bike lanes separating cyclists from cars with a barrier.

Back in 1982, the U.S. government helped fund about 50 pedestrian and bicycle projects. Last year, it was about 2,500, according to the institute.

Moreover, in 2002 there were just seven bike-share systems in the whole world, according to a recent institute report. This year there are more than 750, including about 70 on U.S. soil. (Store that fun fact away, and pull it out at summer barbecues.)

The walkable/bikeable premium

Developers and builders are taking note. They are offering bike storage facilities, valet, repair service, and even wash stations in fancy apartment and condo buildings to lure younger buyers and renters.

Crescent Communities, which builds subdivisions, homes, and apartment buildings across the Southeast, looks for cities and towns whose streets are lined with sidewalks and dedicated bike paths.

That’s because the No. 1 thing potential buyers of all ages want in their communities is walkability, the builder learned through surveys it conducts regularly. So Crescent looks for communities that already have those amenities in place to which it can link up its new buildings and developments.

“People will pay a premium [of about 3% to 10%] for that walkability and connection,” says Crescent’s vice president of development, Creighton Call.

Nationwide, homes in very walkable metros commanded between $4,000 and $34,000 more, according to a 2009 CEOs for Cities study. However, the study looked only at metros with 670,000 to 6 million residents.

In Vermont, homes in “extremely walkable” communities enjoyed a $7,668 premium, according to a 2012 Vermont Agency of Transportation report. (The figures are based on areas with more than 110 jobs per square mile.)

Over in Indiana, property values of homes within one block of the 8-mile Indianapolis Cultural Trail rose 148% from 2008 to 2014, according to a 2015 Indiana University Public Policy Institute report. Construction began in 2007 on the pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly trail, which was opened in spring 2013.

Meanwhile in Minneapolis, one of the country’s more bike-friendly cities, about a dozen new housing developments were created along the city’s 5.5-mile pedestrian- and bike-friendly Midtown Greenway from 2004 to 2014. And property values rose more than 90% over that same time, according to an Urban Land Institute report released in March.

Reality check: Not everyone is suddenly going to sell or trash their prized automobiles and walk, bike, and Uber everywhere instead. This is America, after all, a modern nation built around interstates and car culture. But McMahon is seeing more couples switching to a “car-light” lifestyle by giving up one of their gas-guzzling vehicles.

“There are other options for people to get around now, and people are taking advantage of them because they cost less,” McMahon says. “When you live in a neighborhood that has interconnected streets and sidewalks and maybe a bike trail, people will go out and walk … just because they can.”

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