By Jamie Hamann-Burney
May is National Bike Month, and BNMC is as committed as ever to helping make bicycling a fun, safe, and healthy way to get around our district. We continue to work with our partners to enhance our bicycling infrastructure on the campus and we’ll again be celebrating National Bike to Work Day on Friday, May 21st with our first-ever BNMC Open Streets Event! Here’s some more details:
BNMC Open Streets
Being able to enjoy the outdoors – walking, exercising, getting fresh air – is an important part of living a healthy, hwp-contenty life. With limited park space in our area, and the need to still stay safely socially distant from one another, we’re rethinking how we use our streets. We will be closing Washington Street between Carlton and High Streets to traffic and we will be using the street for healthy living activities throughout the day, starting off with a Bike to Work Day breakfast for anyone who rides their bike to the event. More details about the event and how to register are here.
Bicycle Programs:
This year, we’re also continuing to add more bicycle perks for members of our community:
- Free annual REDDY Bikeshare memberships for employees and neighbors and a campus-wide free parking zone;
- Exploring micro-mobility options on campus in collaboration with Shared Mobility, Inc.
- Indoor, member-only bicycle parking in collaboration with GObike as well as numerous other bike parking racks throughout the campus;
- A Bicycle Fix-It Station at the corner of Ellicott and Virginia Streets;
- Free memberships for our Green Commuter Club which provides prizes and a Guaranteed Ride Home Program to employees who walk, bike, take transit, or carpool to work. To learn more and sign up for our programs, click here.
Streetscape Projects:
The next few years will be transformational for our shared campus. We continue to work with the City of Buffalo on creating new bicycle infrastructure and amenities through new streetscape projects. Currently, Virginia Street between Main and Ellicott is being reconstructed to include wider sidewalks and bicycle lanes (mid-block pedestrian crossings will also be added on Washington Street and Ellicott Street as part of the same project); and in 2022, the City will start construction on the Middle Main Street Project, which will feature protected bicycle lanes from at least Goodell to Ferry Streets. Best Street is also being repaved this year and that project will include new bicycle lanes as identified in the City’s Bicycle Master Plan.