Improved biking conditions (roll out) on Buffalo State campus

Inverted-U-racks in front of E.H. Butler Library

By Darius Crolle

If you’re a commuter at Buffalo State and choose to ride your bike instead of a motor vehicle, you may have notice some improvements in the biking conditions on campus. Some of these new additions include new U-racks for parking your bike, fix-it-stations used to properly maintain your bike, and more improvements, such as bike lanes, on the way.

Buffalo State has recently undergone an extensive master plan aimed at making the campus more biker friendly. This plan began in 2013 and was finished earlier this year.

The college contracted with Alta Planning and Design to perform a transformation assessment geared towards bicycling on the campus. The master plan consisted of recommendations and practical plans for improving bicycling conditions at Buffalo State.

“The bicycle master plan came about because of an environmental benefit project connected to a settlement of an enforcement action from the DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation),” said Lisa Krieger, assistant vice president for Finance and Management.

Krieger talked about how the school manages to allocate the funding for the master plan.

“We had, in the ‘90s, an air pollution related offense infraction, and in order to make that right, the DEC assigned us a certain amount of money to make that problem better. One of the ideas we proposed to them was the bicycle master plan, which they approved of.”

Gobike Buffalo, along with Wendel Companies, were also on board and played an instrumental role in assisting Alta with strategic advice and instruction for improvements on campus.

“We contributed to the master plan by giving them sound advice and recommendations on how they should go about enhancing their campus infrastructure to make the campus more biker friendly,” said Thea Hassan, of Gobike Buffalo.

Some of the proposed enhancements in the bicycle master plan include a new bike parking design standard. The bike parking standards that apply to college officials are as follows:

“When choosing bicycle parking solutions, college officials must balance the need for low- to medium- cost solutions with a variety of other considerations such as usability (is the parking solution intuitive?), capacity (number of bicycles per rack/corral), aesthetics, and pedestrian maneuverability.”

The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) is responsible for the Bike Parking Guide. These guidelines are implemented with the intentions to help cities and various organizations choose bicycle parking and create design standards. Here is a list of some of the bike racks that meet the APBP requirements:

• ·      Inverted-U-Rack
• ·      Post and Ring Rack
• ·      Bicycle Corral (APBP calls this an “Inverted U Seriers”)

Besides the new bike racks, the master plans also includes other improvements. Here is a list of some of the proposed infrastructure improvements, and the locations of where they will be assigned.

• ·      Bike Lanes (Rockwell Road)
• ·      Shared Lane Signage (Reese Street)
• ·      Intersection (striping and green) (Iroquois Drive/Elmwood Avenue)
• ·      Campus Bike Routes (various locations)
• ·      Shared Use Path (Grant Street and Iroquois Drive)

The bike lanes for Rockwell Road and Iroquois Drive have not been assigned to the streets and will be postponed due to construction that will take place in the near future.

“We’re holding off on the bike lanes for Iroquois Drive because that road will be milled up and repaired within the next year. So adding the stripes now wouldn’t be a good idea, and that’s the same for Rockwell Road” Krieger said.

Fix-it station in front of E.H. Butler Library

By Darius Crolle

Another noticeable addition to the campus is the bicycle fix-it stations, located in front of E.H. Butler Library and the Classroom building. The fix-it station provides essential tools for bike repairs and also each have a pump that provides free air for students on campus.

“If your bicycle has a flat tire, or the chain needs tightening, you just put it on this rack that you can pull out and it has free air and tools for fixing minor repairs.” Krieger said.

Not only have GObike Buffalo supported the plan by offering sound advice and counseling, they even offered biking workshops for cycling commuters since the plan was completed. One previous workshop focused on the fix-it stations and how to utilize them properly.

“The fix-it station was one of the workshops we gave at Buffalo State, along with a safety workshop. However, The workshops weren’t well attended despite our advertisement for it on social media.” Hassan said.

Moreover, the bicycle master plan for Buffalo State campus is an extension of the GOsilver campaign started by GObike Buffalo and the Buffalo mayor that focuses on improving biking in Buffalo in five areas-engineering, education, encouragement, evaluation and planning.

“It really does tail with what Mayor Byron Brown is doing downtown, scrapping so many miles of bike paths every year. He’s made it a real priority to make Buffalo more bicycle friendly. So its synergistic because were connected, were at the north end of the bike path, and now the bike path expands north of us,” Krieger said.

Avid cyclists who commute to classes have also expressed their appreciation for the new biking conditions on campus.

“The new biking conditions on campus are definitely noticeable,” said Anthony Riggs, a senior at Buffalo State College and avid cyclist.“The bike racks, I believe, stand out the most, and there are way more bikers on campus this semester.”

“In fact, I don’t think I ever seen this many bikes on campus in all my years attending this college.”