New York’s biggest upstate cities are making room for bikes.
Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany — three of which are headed by progressive mayors elected last November — are reshaping their streets to make cycling less dangerous and more practical. In the past two years, three of the cities joined Vision Zero, a campaign that aims to reduce and eventually eliminate traffic deaths. And in the past few years, all four cities dramatically increased the pace of bike infrastructure projects, a New York Focus analysis of announcements on their government websites found.
A large part of the state’s plan to reduce emissions relies on drastically cutting down on car usage. Bikes, including e-bikes, can be an attractive alternative to cars — if residents feel safe enough to ride them.
The early days of the Covid pandemic sparked renewed interest in two-wheelers across the country. Bike sales boomed across the state as people looked for ways to get some exercise while socially distancing. Yet many newfound cyclists soon discovered the lack of safe places to ride around their cities, and crashes involving bikers have ticked up in the years since…