Global Warming Inspires Buffalo to Be Bicycle Friendly

Under Phase One of this program, 35 new bike racks will be available for placement throughout the city in the following weeks. The city has developed an installation request form that is available through the city's Department of Public Works and it will also be available through the city's website.

Any city-based business organization can request placement of the bike racks in locations they designate in their respective commercial district. The bike racks will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Cyclists in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by David Goligorsky)

Mayor Brown said the new bike racks will facilitate travel by bike to stores and other businesses in Elmwood Village, Hertel Avenue, Jefferson Avenue, Allen Street, Seneca Street and other commercial districts.

Funding for the program, which is estimated at approximately $25,000, will come from the City of Buffalo and the city will be reimbursed up to 80 percent from federal grant funds through the federal Clean Mitigation Air Quality program.

Once this phase of the city's bike rack program is completed, the city could be eligible for up to $100,000 in additional federal funds from the program.

The new bike racks will complement the Buffalo Blue Bicycle community bike lending program which operates out of a growing number of hubs across the city.

By encouraging the use of bicycles in downtown Buffalo, the city has come a long way in the past five years. On May 30, 2003, more than two dozen Buffalo police officers attacked a peaceful group of bicyclists at the intersection of Elmwood Avenue and Summer Street. They kicked some and beat several with clubs and Mag-Lites. They arrested nine.

Eyewitness Bruce Jackson wrote at the time, "In all, four women were arrested, every one of them because she was pleading with police to stop clubbing someone who wasn't doing anything except standing or lying there getting clubbed."

Jackson, who edits the web magazine BuffaloReport.com, was then and still is a professor of American Culture at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

The bicyclists were taking part in a Critical Mass event. Held in cities around the world, these events are for groups of cyclists who ride around town to demonstrate the benefits of non-fossil-fuel transportation and to make people aware that bicycles are a legal part of traffic rather than a nuisance, Jackson explained.

Mayor Brown, who was elected mayor in November 2005, was a state senator at the time of the Critical Mass incident. He says the new bike racks will make Buffalo a better city.

"By placing new bike racks throughout our commercial districts, as well as other designated areas, we are working to make Buffalo a greener and more environmentally sound city," the mayor said today. "We will provide business district organizations with a chance to request new bike racks for locations they designate in their respective sections of city."

As a member of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which has been working collectively on climate issues, Mayor Brown signed on to the U.S. Mayors' Climate Project. Mayors involved in the project have adopted a resolution to integrate bicycling into their cities' transportation, climate, energy and health policy initiatives.

The signatory mayors believe that the benefits of becoming a bike-friendly city start with cleaner air and improved public health and quality of life for all residents. They say this can lead directly to a stronger urban environment, potentially leading to stronger property values and business growth.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.