Shared bike-lanes on the sidewalk on
Elmwood Ave.
By
Darius Crolle
Bike
lanes continue to appear on various streets throughout the city. Bike classes
are held weekly on different aspects of biking such as maintenance, safety, and
learning how to ride a bike with traffic.
The
city is in the midst of a biking revolution.
“As
people ride though the neighborhoods once, they’re starting to come around
again; and they are finding bikes in their houses that they never really
utilize; and now we’re giving them a reason to do so,” said John Clauss worker
at Ricks Cycle shop.
The
League of American Bicyclists bestowed a bronze certification on the city in
2013 for its bicycle friendly community. The bronze certification, though, was
an accomplishment considering that more than 600 communities applied for
bicycle friendly recognition. However, the city bike enthusiasts are now seeing
silver.
The
nonprofit GObike,
which led the charge for the bronze certification, is out front on a new
GOsilver campaign.
GObikes logo outside of GObikes
workshop
By
Darius Crolle
According
to GObike,
the campaign is predicated on improving cycling in five areas-engineering,
education, encouragement, evaluation and planning, and enforcement-in order for
Buffalo to achieve silver-level bicycle friendly community by 2017.
Inverted-U-racks with GObike logo on Elmwood
Ave.
By
Darius Crolle
5 ES
These
fives areas are also simply called the five Es. Here is a list of the five E’s
and their practical goals:
·
Engineering-Install 150 miles of bike
lanes by 2017
·
Education-Provide safe bike riding
education to kids at 30 city schools and 100,000 adults
·
Encouragement- Increase participation
in events
·
Enforcement-Secure a police liaison for
the bike community to address these specific issues
·
Evaluation and Planning-Increase total
mode share by bicycle to 30 percent.
It’s
safe to say they are on target to achieve this goal.
The
League of American Bicyclists was founded in 1880 after wheelmen riding high
wheel bikes advocated for paved roads to allow a smoother ride. The
League uses knowledge of hundreds of engineers, government officials, and
bicycle advocates to develop the best practice metrics to make cycling easier
for people of all ages and abilities.
Engineering
New bike lanes and bike racks scattered
around the city are a part of the GOsilver
campaign. In a collaborative project the City of Buffalo and GObike
Buffalo are working on different ways to make the city more biker friendly.
This collaborative project is called the Bicycle Facility Master Plan.
The
Hassan, Community Outreach Coordinator at GObike,
said the funding for this project was acquired by GObike
through a grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development
Authority, the New York State Department of Transportation and the City of
Buffalo.
One
of the goals included in the Bicycle Facility Master Plan is to annually
install 10 miles of bike lanes and 150 miles of bike lanes in total by 2017.
There is currently 80 miles of bike lanes installed.
“Thus
far we are doing great and are on track of reaching our goal by 2017. The city
has been very supportive,” said Hassan.
Shared Bike-lanes on the street of
Delaware Ave.
By
Darius Crolle
The
groundwork in the city plays a major factor in why biking in Buffalo is
promoted. Streets like Richmond, Elmwood, Hertel, Niagara, and Deleware are all
prime locations for cyclists.
In
fact, the City of Buffalo will receive a grant close to $2.5 million for two
projects to improve condition on Niagara Street. The funding was awarded
through Round V of the Regional Economic Development Council initiative and the
Upstate Revitalization initiative. Western New York received $ 83.9 million to
support 125 projects, including the two projects for Niagara Street.
“The
lay of the streets are very flat so it easily accessible for people; and
there’s not a lot of huge hills,” said Stacy Saueagean, worker at the GObike
workshop.
“The
streets in Buffalo are built for cyclists, we just need to reclaim some of that
road space back from cars,” said Nate Hill, member and mechanic at GObike.
Although
bike lanes help cyclists by delineating the given space for the motorists and
cyclists, many motorists are not aware of their significance. However, GObike
are determined to educate motorists and fix this problem.
Education
The
improvement in biking conditions has resulted in more cyclists sharing the road
with motorist. However, motorists who are not used to sharing the road with
cyclists may lead to safety concerns.
“There
has been tons of times over the past year that I have almost been hit by a
motor vehicle who didn’t recognize my hand signals or respect the lane I
occupied,” said Madessyn Hill, avid bike rider and member of GObike
Buffalo.
Some
motorists are not even aware of the laws regarding cyclists’ rights to ride
with traffic she said.
“Often
times when you’re on the road you will here someone say ‘get on the side walk’
when its actuality illegal,” Nate Hill said.
Although
New York does not have a statute that permits the operations of a bicycle upon
a sidewalk, no person shall ride a bicycle upon any sidewalk except permitted
by an official sign.
Some
of the ways GObike
has addressed this issue is by having workshops to help educate motorists and
cyclists on rules of the road and how to properly share it together. Hill suggested
that the DMV should be more involved in educating motorists.
“I
think one of the things we need to do in the years to come is work with the DMV
to bring more awareness to laws of biking,” Nate Hill said.
Hill
also teaches after-school biking lessons at various elementary schools on the
West Side, including: D’Youville Porter Campus and Herman Badillo Billingual
Academy.
However,
some members of the biking community believe that the cyclists need to be more
responsible when riding with traffic.
“I
like to think that it’s not always the motorist vehicles fault. Bicyclist go
everywhere they want to go: on and off the sidewalks, against the flow of
traffic, cutting through a big group of pedestrians.” Claussaid.
“I
think the next step is to start educating and developing a smarter bicycle
attitude,” Clauss said.
Encouragement
Encouraging
the community to get involved in cycling through various events is also a top
priority. For example, the weekly bike rides throughout the city, also known as
Slow Rolls, have been very successful at bringing the community together. The
bike rides took place every Monday night throughout the summer and ended in
October. They have attracted hundreds of riders from all over the city to
participate in the event.
“The
slow rolls have been a huge success for us this past summer,” Nate Hill said.
The
Bicycle Master Plan kick-off meeting with Mayor Byron Brown was also
encouraging for the biking community. The meeting was July. 29 at dig, the
co-work space, and attracted enough people to fill the entire venue.
“The
mayor showed a lot of support for our campaign and even spoke at our press
conference to unveil the Bicycle Master Plan,” Hassan said.
The
mayor also participated in Bike to Work day during National Bike Month in May, she
said.
Enforcement
Now
that biking conditions are improving, laws and regulations used to protect
cyclists are necessary and need to be enforced. However, Hill is not sure if
people are even aware of the laws.
“People
just don’t know the laws pertaining to cyclists and don’t care to learn them. I
have been harassed and called nasty names because I choose to ride on the road
with the traffic even though it’s the law,” Madessyn Hill said.
Motorists
are not aware that cyclist can ride their bikes in front of them as long as the
stay in their lane, she said.
“Motorists
get very upset when we’re on the road. I’ve had people try to ram me off the
road,” said Colin Carpenter, avid cyclists and worker at the GObike
workshop.
“For
instance, you have to take the whole lane to turn left, and you don’t want to
just cut across right when you turn left because you’re going to get yourself
killed. So you want to use 200 ft. of the road upwards toward the turn, so
people tend to freak out,” he said.
New
York requires that bicyclists ride as near to the right-hand curb or edge of
the roadway or upon a usable right-hand shoulder in such a manner as to prevent
undue interference with the flow of traffic according to bikeleague.org.
They
simply want us off the road and on the sidewalks without knowing that it’s not
permissible, she said.
“Though
the law needs to be enforced, we need to increase the awareness first. I’m not
sure if people actually know or understand biking laws,” said Madessyn Hill.
GObike
are in the process of putting up billboards throughout the city with biking
laws and regulations to bring more awareness to the problem.
“We
received a grant from New York bicycle and other state agencies to put up
billboards throughout the city. We are currently in the process of getting this
done,” Hassan said.
Evaluation
Now
that the GOsilver
campaign is well underway, the evaluation and planning must be properly
assessed. Thus far, the outpour of support for the GOsilver
campaign and increase in biking within the community has been immense.
“There
are a couple different aspects to the bicycle culture here, you have the
individuals, the groups, the fun activities and also the physical benefits,” Clauss
said.
The
GOsilver campaign impact has done a lot in its efforts to increase the biking
conditions, however, are still planning for the future with its bicycle master
plan.
“We’re
part of the bicycle master plan for the city and we’re are all for it,” Clauss
said.
“The
inner city seems to be becoming more and more together with the bicycle
attitude, and therefore the infrastructure is being built and the capital
expenses are being contributed towards it. That has to say something,” he said.
“Mayor
Brown is finally out on a bicycle, not much, but I know he parks it next to his
desk.”
