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Traffic Equity in Buffalo, New York

Sam Magavern, Daniel Cadzow — Jul 14, 2015

Traffic is not good or bad –it’s good and bad.  For example, traffic serves stores, restaurants, and cultural organizations.  However, traffic, especially vehicular traffic, also causes property damage, personal injury, pollution, illness, and premature death.  So, for example, by channeling motor vehicle traffic on expressways and major urban arterials, we are concentrating the bad in some places but also starving other areas of the good.  We need to build a …

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Buffalo's Community Bicycle Workshop

Marshall Bertram — Oct 30, 2011

The “CBW” is a cooperative learning workshop that provides a facility, tools, and education to those interested in bicycles.  The workshop provides affordable bicycles and a free place to learn and thus increases bicycle awareness.  The CBW is a program of Green Options Buffalo, which promotes biking, walking, public transit, and other healthy and sustainable transportation options.  The CBW refurbishes and sells roughly 109 bicycles per year for an average of $85 a …

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Cooling Global Warming Through Transit

Lynn King — Mar 17, 2011

For generations, cars have been cool because they are perceived to correlate to independence and wealth.  People’s attachment to their cars is one of the most cited examples of why government doesn’t want to invest in mass transit.  Accompanying this ideology is an underlying fear and distaste for buses.  Recently, Cleveland purposely avoided such a stigma in naming its new bus line “The Health Line” and referring to it always as rapid transit.  Yet, …

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Policies to Encourage Biking and Walking in Buffalo

Paul Fusco-Gessick — Mar 17, 2011

Despite having a climate that can make Siberia look attractive at time, Buffalo has a surprisingly large number of citizens who ride a bicycle or walk to work.  But the City and Erie County have not done much to meet this high demand.  Though there are a few streets within the City that do have marked bike lanes the vast majority do not.  A similar problem exists in the suburbs; suburban roads frequently lack sidewalks, let alone bike lanes, though bicyclists can (and do) ride on …

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Increasing Use of Public Transit

Lynn King — Oct 27, 2010

The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) provides bus and rail service to Erie and Niagara Counties.  In Erie County, this metro service is delivered via 38 interwoven bus routes and one light rail line.  Service extends out to many of Buffalo’s outer-ring suburbs but is concentrated within City limits and runs most frequently during peak hours.  The NFTA also provides special transit service to disabled riders, riders attending special events, and metro pass …

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Position Statement on Route Five and the Peace Bridge

Sam Magavern Feb 19, 2008

The Partnership for the Public Good rejects the Department of Transportation, the Public Bridge Authority, and the Federal Highway Administration's 'preferred alternatives', in favor of the community's preferred alternatives for Peace Bridge expansion and Route Five reconstruction.  In the Route Five and Peace Bridge projects, Buffalo has within its reach two opportunities to reinvigorate our waterfront and create real wealth and opportunity for existing and future residents and …

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Left Behind: How Difficulties with Transportation are a Roadblock to Self-Sufficiency

Homeless Alliance of Western New York — Sep 1, 2006

The Transportation Task Force, a project of the Homeless Alliance of Western New York, completed a transportation needs assessment among homeless and very low-income persons at sites around Erie County.  The assessment was in survey form and was administered to approximately 800 people over a 5-day period.  From earlier focus groups with homeless individuals and the workers who directly serve them, the Task Force found that problems with affording public transportation and with …

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