Conventional merchants are afraid to lose parking spaces to bike parking or bike lanes. New York and Portland are finding cyclists increase local economies, and spend more money too.

The startup Neighborly is making municipal bonds feel relevant. Rather than investing in a “muni” bond indirectly through a retirement fund, individuals can now directly purchase these bonds and target the money to areas they feel passionate about, whether that is building bike lanes in Vermont or investing in schools in Massachusetts. Neighborly is building renewed interest in the municipal bond market while generating more funding for important infrastructure projects.

As Seattle tries to implement bike lanes effectively, it can look to Vancouver as a success story. Vancouver’s bike lanes are physically separated from roads, making riders safer and increasing the number of people who commute by bike by 60% since 2013. After several tests and then responding to both positive and negative public feedback, Vancouver has miles of bike lanes connecting many parts of the city.

What do you get when you combine the efforts of an engineering company with an energy company? In the Netherlands, you get a new type of environmentally sustainable roads. PlasticRoads, a piloted initiative in the city of Zwolle, uses discarded plastic to build bike paths that help cut down on plastic waste.

Milwaukee is poised to pass a complete streets policy that would advance current efforts to make the city more bike- and pedestrian-friendly. But even without this policy in place, projects to widen sidewalk and improve bike infrastructure are paying off with more business openings and plans by developers who chose the city because of those efforts. The city council is supporting complete streets but it will need cooperation from state highway officials for some of those thoroughfares.