Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - GObike Buffalo is taking its services to a new level as the organization unveiled its new headquarters on Broadway Thursday evening.
The new HQ will provide ample room for their team's offices and workshop and give the company the ability to provide Buffalo's Willert Park neighborhood access to affordable bikes, bike parts, as well as bike safety and maintenance education.
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GObike Buffalo's Executive Director Justin Booth breaks down what people can expect when they walk into the facility.
"On the first floor, we're going to have the M&T Bank Community Education Center. This is going to be a space where we have classes, bring in people from the community to learn how to fix or repair their bikes. We are making sure they know the rules of the road and how to operate safely. We are hiring folks from the neighborhood to be a part of our team. In this workspace, you can also buy bikes from us, used bikes, new bikes or e-bikes. Our intention is to make sure that bicycling is not just considered a recreational toy, but it is a form of transportation for everybody and for anyone that needs one."
The second floor will be the design studio.
"This is where we do our design work, where we work in communities and municipalities across Western New York to look at our streets, our corridors. How do we make them safe? How do we make them accessible? How do we improve economic vibrancy? All these things build quality life in our community and quality of life is really the currency of our future. We're going to attract more people back to our communities to live, work and play, which is really important across Western New York," says Booth.
Speaking of the group's safe streets initiatives, Booth recalls one of the first things they did to help make Buffalo a more bikeable community.
"We worked with the Council to pass the state's first complete streets policy which states whenever the city designs, constructs or maintains a street, they need to accommodate all users on the roadway, which is why streets here like Broadway, after it was repaved, went from four lanes to three lanes with bike lanes on each side.
We had built our city for a lot of vehicles that weren't here, so we had excess capacity on the roadway between the curbs. Doing simple things like reducing the travel lanes, adding bike lanes and making sure those crosswalks helps get cars to travel the speed limit without the need of enforcement and makes it safe for more people to choose other modes."
While the city continues to evolve, Booth says that important next steps going forward would be connecting bike lanes and a continued plan on making bike lanes and paths safer, which will help garner more attraction of all different ages to biking in the city.
"I think the biggest challenge that we have is that we have a lot of spaces, bike lanes for instance, just stop and start. We need to do a better job at connecting them. Most of our trips don't start and stop on a single corridor, usually we're going someplace, so [we need to be] making sure that all our destinations, particularly for our most vulnerable users, children, elderly, families, you know, are safe."
Booth says the number of people biking increases significantly when you have a protected bike lane or seperated trail as opposed to a regular bike lane.
More people have engaged biking and walking now more than ever during and coming out of the pandemic, according to Booth. As long as advocates continue to put the focus on safety, the sky's the limit for those who are looking to bike in Western New York.