Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - Town of Tonawanda Supervisor Joe Emminger says he's not happy with the State Department of Transportation (DOT) painting bike lanes on Sheridan Drive. He says neither he nor the board were in favor, and he's concerned over safety.
Emminger says this was an initiative pushed by the DOT.
"They came to us last year, they came to the Town Board, and they wanted to talk about the Sheridan Drive road diet," said Emminger in an interview with WBEN on Friday.
According to Emminger, the DOT told him and the board it was putting in bike lanes in both direction on Sheridan Drive, beginning in the summer of 2025.
"We responded to them, 'Who thinks this is a good idea?' And they said, 'Well, we've been talking to people from the town.' And I said, 'That's fine, but you haven't been talking to the Town Board. This is the first the Town Board is hearing about,'" Emminger contended.
Emminger told the DOT if it must put bike lanes on Sheridan Drive, the DOT should put a barrier between the bike lane and the traffic.
"You're going to have vehicles going 40. 45, miles-an-hour on Sheridan Drive. There's got to be some sort of barrier, and they informed the Town Board that wasn't in the budget," Emminger says he was told.
He says the town got a striping project now on Sheridan Drive with lanes down and no barriers, and the Town Board is not happy with it.
Emminger has a warning about the lack of barriers.
"No barriers on Sheridan Drive is an accident waiting to happen," he said. "We're concerned about the bicyclists. We're concerned about e-bikes. We're concerned about the drivers. Drivers are going to have people in their blind spots that they will not see at some point. And if the bicyclist is not paying attention and they're turning into the turn lane the vehicle, an accident waiting to happen."