Biking in Buffalo and the road to silver

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.”