Just as Buffalo’s bike safety improvement ratings begin to go up, it looks as if NYS might be cutting back on efforts to make cycling our streets even safer. According to Tri-State Transportation Campaign, New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) will be spending less on infrastructure and amenities, which doesn’t bode well for Buffalonians, especially when you take a look at the statistics below. The city of Buffalo gets the brunt of the bad news:
It’s unfortunate that after making some strides in our ped-bike infrastructure via the Complete Streets initiative, Governor Cuomo (contact here) might be taking the axe to funding if concerned citizens don’t speak up now. With 0.98% of its transportation dollars being spent on pedestrian and bicycling projects moving forward (from FFY 2014-2017) [2], it looks like we could be moving backward in a quality of life standard that is already below acceptable levels*. The cutback would be a reduction of more than $100 million (compared to FFY 2011-2014).
Buffalo was recently named a Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community, partially due to the infrastructure improvements created by the Complete Streets initiative. Mayor Brown has made a commitment to push the envelope when it comes to safer streets in our neighborhoods for walking and cycling. The community has voiced its concerns that we want to be competitive with other cities when it comes to alternative transportation advancements. Without the appropriate funds allocated, all that talk will amount to broken promises and lip service.
“New York State has the highest percentage of traffic fatalities for pedestrians and bicyclists in the nation: in 2012, 27% of all fatalities on New York’s roads were pedestrians and bicyclists,” said Veronica Vanterpool, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “New York should be topping the charts on investments to make its streets safe to walk and bike, not working to zero it out.”
According to the Campaign’s analysis of NYSDOT’s “2013 Draft Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP)” slashing funds by 40% would take a serious toll on amenities that we should be taking for granted, such as sidewalks, new crosswalks, bicycle lanes or pedestrian islands.
“These troubling findings are unfortunate and need to be addressed,” said Beth Finkel, AARP New York State Director. “Spending around a penny on the dollar to address street safety should be unacceptable to all New Yorkers. New York needs safe streets for our children and older persons alike, and Governor Cuomo needs to reverse this policy and invest more in safe passageways for pedestrians.”
“Pass a Complete Streets Law and then spend fewer dollars on improving the safety of our roads? This is a bait and switch that shouldn’t be tolerated,” said Nadine Lemmon, Albany legislative advocate of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “Governor Cuomo must dedicate a fair share of state transportation dollars to Complete Streets to help make our communities safer.”
“The City of Buffalo has continued to make significant strides implementing Complete Streets in spite of dwindling state resources,” said Justin Booth, Executive Director of GObike Buffalo. “Without the state department of transportation making a commitment to truly making our communities safe for all roadway users, progress will continue to be slow while our city and region loses its competitive edge being a great place to live, work and play,”
*According to state data, there were 3,648 vehicle collisions with pedestrians or bicyclists in Erie County over a three-year period from January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2012. Using the New York State Department of Transportation’s Accident Data Files, Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a non-profit transportation policy watchdog organization, found that pedestrians were involved in 2,223 of these collisions and 1,425 involved bicyclists. [1] Forty-three of these collisions were fatal (38 pedestrian collisions and 5 bicyclist collisions). The City of Buffalo had the highest number of collisions (2,002) and the City of Amherst the second highest (328). – Tri-State Transportation Campaign
[1] Multi vehicle collisions involving pedestrians or bicyclists are not always recorded as collisions with pedestrians or bicyclists as it depends on the reporting officer’s interpretation of the crash event and the sequence of the crash event. This may result in an underreporting of vehicle collisions with pedestrians and bicyclists.
[2] These numbers do not encompass the larger road and bridge projects that include some component of pedestrian and/or bicycling infrastructure. Unfortunately, NYSDOT does not separate out the costs of the various components on these larger projects, so it is impossible to tell how much is being spent on just pedestrian and bicycling improvements. That said, in the Draft STIP, NYSDOT is planning to spend over 60% less of its overall transportation dollars on road and bridge projects that include pedestrian/bicycling infrastructure, excluding 3 major bridge projects: the Tappan Zee, Kosciuszko, and Bayonne bridges.
Factsheets for other upstate counties available at www.tstc.org
Contact Governor Cuomo and let him know that this is an issue that you care about.