Streetsblog Empire State has been tracking Buffalo’s slow reckoning with its car-dominated streets for much of this year. In July, we reported on Mayor Sean Ryan’s plan to overhaul Niagara Square, the chaotic roundabout in front of City Hall that has long been dreaded by pedestrians, cyclists and drivers alike.
That square is just one front in a much larger fight over who Buffalo’s streets are built for. GObike Buffalo, the region’s leading walking-and-biking advocacy nonprofit, has spent years pushing the city toward safer, less car-centric design — from quick-build bike lanes on the East Side to bike-bus programs at local elementary schools. Now the organization has a new leader making the case that transportation access isn’t a side issue in Buffalo’s recovery, but the center of it.
We caught up with Executive Director Kevin Heffernan to talk about the mayor’s new posture on transportation, the messy politics of e-bike regulation in Albany, GObike’s relationship with police and the ambitious East Side trail project the organization hopes to finally break ground on this fall…