BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — GoBike Buffalo has determined their Forest Ave pilot project in 2022 was successful after seeing promising results to launch the recent Parkside, Linden Avenues pilot project.
A communications director of the organization, Kevin Heffernan, tells 7 News reporter Yoselin Person before the project 1 in 3 cars were speeding down Forest then after the project it was 1 in 12.
“It was really a successful project,” he says. “We did take away a lane of parking and turned it into a two-way cycle track and the results were incredible.”
Erin Copping is a mother of two that says she agrees that the project was a success.
“We rode it before and after the project was put in and I can see that it was a humongous difference after the project was put in,” she says.
Copping says the project was an accomplishment that she felt safe enough to have her seven-year-old ride her own bike.
But the mother had to switch gears since the paint and the barriers of the project were taken down.
“We take alternative routes because it’s really not safe without having it,” Copping says.
Some may have been annoyed during the time of the temporary changes.
"No cars are going to be able to pull over for emergency vehicles,” says a resident.
But since then neighbors say they’re all for changes to make the roads safer for everybody.
“Which just shows how much we do need permanent bike infrastructure,” says Copping.
Officials of GoBike Buffalo explain the ultimate goal of these pilot projects.
“Speeding is a major issue in our city,” says Heffernan. “So if you narrow a lane people would drive more slowly and you can often put a bike lane in that space that you created.”
Much like the pilot project on Forest, the one over at Parkside and Linden is temporary.
GoBike plans to remove the paint on Nov. 1st and send the data they collect for the city to review.
