Buffalo’s New Green Code
-Complete Streets and a Future that Works!
By Jay Burney
This article appeared in the Sunday Buffalo News as a ViewPoints cover under the title:
" Buffalo's complete Streets strategy aims to make city more livable" September 27, 2012
If you ride a bike or drive a car in the streets of Buffalo
you know that there are safety issues involving the conflicts between
pedestrians, bicyclists, and motor vehicles.
All of that is beginning to change. You may have noticed in
your own neighborhoods that there is a lot of street construction going on.
After years of criticism focused on the complexity of
maneuvering through the patchwork of zoning rules and regulation, the City is
addressing its coding and zoning systems. Soon we will have a new place-based
land use and zoning tool that supports livable neighborhoods. This includes
streets redesigns. This promises to bring a better quality of life for
residents, businesses, and visitors.
The new tool is called the Buffalo Green Code. It is a land
use plan and a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) that is described as
“combining zoning, subdivision, and public realm standards into a single
document”. In an interview with
the Buffalo News, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told us that “the Green Code is
designed to help transform Buffalo into a economically competitive city by
making our neighborhoods and districts more livable. This will benefit all of
our citizens.”
Brendan Mehaffy, the director of the City of Buffalos Office
of Strategic Planning has spearheaded the effort. “People are going to be
seeing the results. We have been working hard, meeting with residents,
businesses, and others to make sure that we are all working in the same
direction. We will have several more community work group meetings before we
get to a final draft to send before the Common Council by the end of this
year”.
One of the most critical parts of the new UDO is a concept
called “Complete Streets”.
Complete streets are right-of-ways designed to safely
accommodate multiple forms of transportation, which in turn makes our
neighborhoods more walkable and livable. This improves our quality of life. As
streets are redeveloped they adopt design and construction standards that meet
new environmental needs and provide safe transportation lanes for all users
including automotive, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Environmental standards
include reducing street runoff into the sewer system and appropriate tree plantings.
Justin Booth, the founder of Go
Bike Buffalo and the Buffalo Complete Streets Coalition which was funded in
part by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, has been working with
policy makers, private entities, and civic leaders to create complete streets
infrastructure in the city and region.
Last summer he brought together a complete streets “summit” in Buffalo
that attracted speakers and participants from across the United States. He has
traveled with local policy makers to complete streets conferences around the
county. His work has made a big difference.
Booth told us that “Complete Streets
are economic tools that can revitalize communities. “They are streets for everyone, not just cars – they promote
healthier and greener forms of transportation and make it easier to drive less,
which in turn leads to stronger communities.”
Pat
Whalen, COO of the rapidly developing Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, also sees
the many benefits that complete streets have for communities and the public and
private sectors. Earlier this
year, the BNMC created a Transportation Management Association (TMA) comprised
of BNMC member institutions, state transportation agencies and local advocacy
groups, with the goal being to work together to help advance a more sustainable
transportation system for the city and the Campus.
“We strongly support the
development of a multimodal transportation system within the region that allows
employees the option to get to work in many ways – train, bus, biking, walking,
as well as driving. Encouraging alternative modes of transportation
reduces costs for employees and employers, is more environmentally
friendly, and encourages economic spinoff in surrounding neighborhoods.
Complete Streets are vital to our overall goal of creating a distinct,
innovative, healthy community.”
This is all good news for Buffalo.
Changing View of Streets
Mayor Brown is demonstrating a big time shift in the
attitudes of government leaders and policy makers by investing in the Buffalo
Green Code and Complete Streets strategies.
“It is our intention to continue to make Buffalo more
livable for everyone on a 24/7 basis. We are and will remain a live, work, and
play community. ” “By doing this,
we will attract more business and more people will want to live here,” said the
Mayor.
He adds emphatically, “When people talk about great American
cities, we want to be on that table.
We think that these strategies will bring us there.”
Buffalo Department of Public Works Commissioner Steven J.
Stepniak has led an effort to implement complete streets on streets that have
been repaved or rebuilt during the past several months. There has been
tremendous activity across the city as portions of Niagara Street, Main,
McKinley, South Park, Clinton, Ellicott, Washington, Elmwood, and Linwood are
being reworked and improved. “By December 31 of this year,” Commissioner
Stepniak told us “the city will have created 22 miles of bicycle lanes since
2006, with 11 done just this year. It is our intention to do 10 additional miles
each year.”
Pedestrians, bicycles, and cars together?
Bike
and pedestrian safety issues have to be of paramount concern to everyone. As we build out complete streets,
motorized versus pedestrian and bicycle conflicts will continue to be a part of
the story. We can avoid the
sometimes tragic consequences of sharing roadways if we understand and respect
the legal obligations and personal responsibilities associated with using the
roadways. Often, common sense will make a huge safety difference.
Safety, the
Law, and Common Sense
NYS
Laws excerpted here do not represent
legal advice or judicial determinations. They are here for informational
purposes only.
-In
New York State, bicycle drivers and motorized vehicle operators have basically
the same rights to most urban roadways and share the same responsibilities. Generally,
a bicycle has every right to be in a traffic lane as motor vehicles. By
law, bicyclists are required to be in the road. It is illegal for an adult to
ride a bicycle on the sidewalk. Bicycle lanes should be respected by all.
-Bicyclists are required to ride with traffic instead of
against. They are required to follow and obey signs, signals, pavement
markings, and to make turn signals, just as automobiles do.
-Operators of
motor vehicles overtaking a bicycle from behind are required to “pass to the
left of such bicycle at a safe distance until safely clear thereof.”
-No bicycle passengers under one year old are allowed, and
no passengers at all unless the bicycle is properly and legally equipped.
-Articles carried must be properly fastened and not obstruct
the view of the bicycle operator.
-All bicycles in use between ½ hour after sunset to one half
hour before sunrise need to be quipped with special lamps and specific
reflective materials.
-Bicycle
operators under the age of 14 are required to wear protective headgear.
-Pedestrians
have important rights and rights of way.
They have right of way at crosswalks with no signals, they have right of
way always before a car can make a right or left hand turn. If their
activity is not lawful, common sense says, yield to pedestrians.
Pulling Together for
a Future that Works
Skeptics say that traditionally, the framework of getting
things done in Buffalo has been complicated by the maze of agencies,
departments, and governments involved.
It has often been demonstrated that sometimes the right hand doesn’t
know what the left hand is doing. This has resulted in duplicated services and
lost opportunities.
Now, the city working with county, state and federal
agencies, and groups like the Complete Streets Coalition and the BNMC’s TMA
seem to be changing this, The Green Code is becoming a blueprint for how we can
all work together.
Justin Booth told us “Cooperation
at all levels of government is always a communications issue. Thankfully we now
have agencies at the federal, state, county and city level, and in the private
sector, that are investing in Complete Streets. It seems like more an more we are on the same
page.” Mayor Brown agrees.
“Collaboration is better today than ever” he told us.
As our new street infrastructure rolls out is a god time for
the citizens and residents of Buffalo to find ways to use and understand these
new designs. Users of the streets need to find ways to respect and cooperate
with each other if these things are to work. Safety and a sustainable future
depend on all of us. Lets both enjoy our new opportunities and continue to
engage with the city in the development of the Green Code.
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