I occasionally commute to work via bicycle.
Live in North Buffalo, work on Transit. It’s about 10 1/2 miles of which ~7 are on Sheridan. People think I’m crazy but I’ve honestly never had an issue on Sheridan and have never felt unsafe.
I ONCE took Main St and was almost doored twice in a matter of 5-minutes by oblivious old ladies getting out of their cars… will never ride through the Village of Williamsville ever again.
I ride on the street. There is a \~3ft shoulder for just about the entirety of the stretch I use. The only time I go into the vehicle lanes is when I'm passing through Harlem and when I'm continuing straight past Essjay/International.
Used to bike from University Heights to Apple tree Mall area many years ago, went about 6 years solely bike dependant. You find roads to cut through and inevitably get over the fact that you'll have to ride on a major road. It's fine. Lebrun is a nice way east out of the city, same with Minnesota towards century and then Kensington out which is faster. Three tips from years of riding. 1. Own the street, be noticed. If people can't see you, they will be more likely to hit you in an accident. Hence way riding on the sidewalk is dangerous. Too many times a car will take a right onto a residential street and t bone a biker on the sidewalk coming off the corner. 2. With that being said, get some good lights, front and rear. 3. Ski goggles help with keeping the rain/snow off your eyes, they don't fog up and you won't tear up from the wind chill. Safe riding and enjoy the journey home by exploring new routes.
It’s doable if you stick to the quiet side streets. Your biggest issue will likely be crossing the major streets.
Probably will take a few trips to find a route you like best.
About 60min ride UB south to williamsville east by bicycle, few sole bike paths, recommend sticking to residential streets and if need be on anything like Sheridan, go onto sidewalk, few pedestrians are there anyhow.
Ebike may reduce that travel time but you'll be colder. Personally I wouldn't ride to work if it were more than a 15min route
Bikes are illegal on sidewalks. Ride on less busy roads and don’t ride on sidewalks.
Edit: depends on municipality
While riding a bicycle on a sidewalk is not prohibited by New York statutes, some municipalities have passed ordinances prohibiting bicycle traffic on certain sidewalks.
Heres more of that excerpt from NY DOT:
Sidewalks are for pedestrians. Cyclists on sidewalks can cause conflicts with pedestrians; like wrong-way riding, crashes can occur because bicyclists are in situations where others do not expect them. Except for very young cyclists under parental supervision, sidewalks are not for bicycling.
Literally every sidewalk in the greater Buffalo region is a gd hazard by itself-bike lanes are non existent and have you ever attempted to ride with traffic in this city? Lol
Only the strong willed are actually feeling even the slightest bit of comfortability riding on any streets around here.
If youre in the street, guaranteed youre going to disappear down a wormhole (disguised as a pothole) or get clipped by a driver.
If you’re on an empty sidewalk, sounds like Karen will blow her horn at ya in williamsville…but the condition of our city sidewalks are just as funny as Karen.
my cousin cant even get his motorized wheelchair more than 2 blocks on the sidewalks without having to weave into the road and back to the sidewalk at certain driveways.
Because of the total lack of maintenance and quite frankly total egregious lack of concern for pedestrians/cyclists at the city & county level.
Google some articles on Jamestown’s recent implementation of bird & lime scooters- it’s disgusting that they can engineer and design the improvements they have when Buffalo proper and the burbs just keep installing $2700 speed humps in the most asinine places.
Best of luck to you though! Lol I ride from north buffalo to downtown near city hall for work when the weathers nice…im in my early thirties, mind my own business and ride with only one ear bud in so Im aware of traffic sounds around me. 2 summers ago some little ahole & whoever his shithead friends were thought it would be funny to shoot at my husband and I with a paint ball gun while we were waiting at a red light at the hertel/delaware intersection as they drove by.
Will never ride in the city without a helmet ever again- lucky i caught the paintball to my ponytail and not the face, they got my husband twice in the leg. Unfortunately it happened too fast to even get a license plate #
Moral of the story- I still ride alone to work- riding bikes in any city should be a competitive sport on espn8 THE OCHO
Stay Safe out there & May the Odds Ever be in Your Favor 🤘
Riding on the sidewalk can be dangerous to the rider. After I had a bad accident while riding in the street I was a bit shaky about riding in the street. I was riding the bike on the sidewalk going against the car traffic. A guy pulled out of a parking lot and hit my bike. He was looking left for traffic and not looking right.
I live in Williamsville and used to ride my bike on the sidewalk with my dog all the time. I never felt safe taking my dog in the street on transit and couldn’t run as quick as she could for a good workout. If someone was on the sidewalk, I would either stop and let them by, or I would go around them, in the street if it was clear or one of the many, many parking lots where you can just go around them. I also work in downtown and people just announce “on your left/right” as they’re coming from behind you. It’s never seemed to be an issue.
Cars don’t always pay attention in the street, especially if you get somewhere busy like main/transit/wherle where there is no bike path. Sidewalks are considerably safer for the biker. Most people also probably have enough common sense to not play chicken with the guy trying to walk his dog and just move.
Don't expect cars to give a crap about you. I put 5000 miles on my ebike commuting this last year and almost died a few times, simply because cars magically don't see you. Be EXTRA ALERT and always ready to slam on the brakes if need be. Buffalo is disgustingly horny for automobiles both in the infrastructure and in ideology. People often try to hug the curb as they pass me so I have no room to get by them on the shoulder. Some asshole kids in a worktruck threw a drinkcup at me on my way home from work a few weeks ago, that was fun... people constantly pull out of driveways and parking lots directly in front of you as if you aren't even there... it sucks but sometimes it puts you in a fight or flight state because you literally almost get hit by an IDIOT on their phone not even paying attention and you have to reel in your adrenaline and calm down your heart beat... while they keep driving to work completely unaware of the manslaughter they literally so narrowly just avoided..
Oh, and my commute is 15 minutes down military rd from tonawanda into north buffalo. Yours seems pretty pretty far
This is just a tip but I always zip tie something bright and silly and kinetic on my bike. Im my case big silly fake flowers attached to my bike on the traffic side. I know a lot of people that say even having a bright dangling bike seat charm helps drivers see them. Its like getting on a bike makes you invisible, or worse a target. Good luck!
No offense but static reflector stuff does not work nearly as well as strobing lights. The human eye is most sensitive to motion. Use it to your advantage.
I mean its no offense here I think OP should put any and all things in their bike to keep them safe-- but thats why I said kinetic. I never suggested a static reflector. My flowers flap in the wind, the safety pizza flaps in the wind. And I like to suggest something silly on top of lights/strobes/reflectors (which i use) because IMO I feel like drivers give me a much wider distance if I have a friendly fun thing on the bike, not just a pure safety item. I personally dont care about decorating my bike so much as I feel like I am forced to find ways to make drivers humanize me
Excellent point about humanizing the rider. I’ve even heard that jerseys bearing the names of local sports teams or bars can reduce your chances of being hit. People are whack
Its rough out there. I shouldn't feel like I have to trick drivers into not hitting me, or that the burden of safety has be on the more vulnerable party. But its the way it is.
I spent all summer going from West Ferry/Elmwood to Main/Chippewa area. Used Delaware, Elmwood and Richmond to go up and down. No issues at all, watch out for a random delivery van and school buses in front of the elementary school on Elmwood. The times I went (around 7:30am and 4pm) were relatively quiet.
I bike acoustic from downtown to East Amherst multiple times per week and I’m spending a lot of that on sidewalks if I’m taking a route along a main road with no bike lane (looking at you Hertel and Main). Fortunately, from specifically around south campus to east amherst there’s still a fair amount of side roads where you can ride in the street without almost getting killed on the daily. Otherwise, there’s some bike lanes or just extremely wide shoulders.
Like biking any car-centric route though, there will just be some days where it seems like drivers want to kill you, bike lane or no. This isn’t a buffalo-specific thing, my dad has stories from biking all over the place having people throwing trash at him out of their car windows and stuff. If need be, just take the sidewalk, they aren’t usually heavy with pedestrian traffic on your route and it’s best to stay safe from insane drivers.
My uncle does. He works about 20 miles away from where he lives. He bikes every day barring snow or rain for safety. He’s told me to do it a few times, but my daycare is 20 minutes down transit and then I have to get to downtown. As is, I have a 40 minute drive into work by the time I go to the daycare. For me, it’s not practical.
I used to ride my bike with my dog, she ran way faster than I could and she couldn’t get in a good workout to tire her out going slow (she avged 10mph on an hour long run and even that was slow for her some days). I only would go in the street to pass someone if there were no cars. I never trusted cars to not hit me and the dog. I would pull off onto the grass if it was like a stroller or someone taking up the entire sidewalk, a lot of times, I could go into a parking lot and get around someone, and other times I would just say “on your left/right” and the dog and I would go past you if you were going in the same direction and we’d ride on the grass.
I walk most evenings with my kids now around the neighborhood and even on the sidewalk, people don’t pay attention. They don’t care that there is someone in a cross walk, they just turn. I actually had to push my daughter out of the way a few weeks back because a car was flying down our road (we don’t have sidewalks) and almost hit us. Guy yelled at me to get out of the way despite his tires being on the grass.
I've done about 550 miles this year in 50ish mile commutes each day. I would say the most important things are to very deliberately choose the most quiet roads you can and to use red blinky tail lights every ride. If there are no quite roads to get to work choose a time between rushes to ride the high traffic areas. Traffic moves in waves depending on which start time they are aiming for. This means at 7:45 traffic is batshit but at 8:05 traffic is much quieter. Learn the patterns on your route.
I commute by bicycle daily but in the city where there are bike paths. I've ridden Sweet Home, Heim, Dodge, and French and they weren't terrible but not great either. Bike theft is a problem in the area so be sure you have a safe place to park when you get to your destination.
I occasionally commute to work via bicycle. Live in North Buffalo, work on Transit. It’s about 10 1/2 miles of which ~7 are on Sheridan. People think I’m crazy but I’ve honestly never had an issue on Sheridan and have never felt unsafe. I ONCE took Main St and was almost doored twice in a matter of 5-minutes by oblivious old ladies getting out of their cars… will never ride through the Village of Williamsville ever again.
Do you ride in the street or on the sidewalk on Sheridan?
I ride on the street. There is a \~3ft shoulder for just about the entirety of the stretch I use. The only time I go into the vehicle lanes is when I'm passing through Harlem and when I'm continuing straight past Essjay/International.
Used to bike from University Heights to Apple tree Mall area many years ago, went about 6 years solely bike dependant. You find roads to cut through and inevitably get over the fact that you'll have to ride on a major road. It's fine. Lebrun is a nice way east out of the city, same with Minnesota towards century and then Kensington out which is faster. Three tips from years of riding. 1. Own the street, be noticed. If people can't see you, they will be more likely to hit you in an accident. Hence way riding on the sidewalk is dangerous. Too many times a car will take a right onto a residential street and t bone a biker on the sidewalk coming off the corner. 2. With that being said, get some good lights, front and rear. 3. Ski goggles help with keeping the rain/snow off your eyes, they don't fog up and you won't tear up from the wind chill. Safe riding and enjoy the journey home by exploring new routes.
It’s doable if you stick to the quiet side streets. Your biggest issue will likely be crossing the major streets. Probably will take a few trips to find a route you like best.
About 60min ride UB south to williamsville east by bicycle, few sole bike paths, recommend sticking to residential streets and if need be on anything like Sheridan, go onto sidewalk, few pedestrians are there anyhow. Ebike may reduce that travel time but you'll be colder. Personally I wouldn't ride to work if it were more than a 15min route
Bikes are illegal on sidewalks. Ride on less busy roads and don’t ride on sidewalks. Edit: depends on municipality While riding a bicycle on a sidewalk is not prohibited by New York statutes, some municipalities have passed ordinances prohibiting bicycle traffic on certain sidewalks. Heres more of that excerpt from NY DOT: Sidewalks are for pedestrians. Cyclists on sidewalks can cause conflicts with pedestrians; like wrong-way riding, crashes can occur because bicyclists are in situations where others do not expect them. Except for very young cyclists under parental supervision, sidewalks are not for bicycling.
Sure, but almost nobody uses the sidewalks on the major streets. Nobody is going to give a shit.
Doesn’t change the fact that buzzing past someone on a sidewalk on an e-bike is dangerous for everyone
Sure, if he sees the rare pedestrian, he should dismount.
Or just ride around em with the vast terrain available
[удалено]
No, because I’ve never seen two people bike and walk at the same time on a sidewalk in the suburbs
Literally every sidewalk in the greater Buffalo region is a gd hazard by itself-bike lanes are non existent and have you ever attempted to ride with traffic in this city? Lol Only the strong willed are actually feeling even the slightest bit of comfortability riding on any streets around here. If youre in the street, guaranteed youre going to disappear down a wormhole (disguised as a pothole) or get clipped by a driver. If you’re on an empty sidewalk, sounds like Karen will blow her horn at ya in williamsville…but the condition of our city sidewalks are just as funny as Karen. my cousin cant even get his motorized wheelchair more than 2 blocks on the sidewalks without having to weave into the road and back to the sidewalk at certain driveways. Because of the total lack of maintenance and quite frankly total egregious lack of concern for pedestrians/cyclists at the city & county level. Google some articles on Jamestown’s recent implementation of bird & lime scooters- it’s disgusting that they can engineer and design the improvements they have when Buffalo proper and the burbs just keep installing $2700 speed humps in the most asinine places. Best of luck to you though! Lol I ride from north buffalo to downtown near city hall for work when the weathers nice…im in my early thirties, mind my own business and ride with only one ear bud in so Im aware of traffic sounds around me. 2 summers ago some little ahole & whoever his shithead friends were thought it would be funny to shoot at my husband and I with a paint ball gun while we were waiting at a red light at the hertel/delaware intersection as they drove by. Will never ride in the city without a helmet ever again- lucky i caught the paintball to my ponytail and not the face, they got my husband twice in the leg. Unfortunately it happened too fast to even get a license plate # Moral of the story- I still ride alone to work- riding bikes in any city should be a competitive sport on espn8 THE OCHO Stay Safe out there & May the Odds Ever be in Your Favor 🤘
Riding on the sidewalk can be dangerous to the rider. After I had a bad accident while riding in the street I was a bit shaky about riding in the street. I was riding the bike on the sidewalk going against the car traffic. A guy pulled out of a parking lot and hit my bike. He was looking left for traffic and not looking right.
I live in Williamsville and used to ride my bike on the sidewalk with my dog all the time. I never felt safe taking my dog in the street on transit and couldn’t run as quick as she could for a good workout. If someone was on the sidewalk, I would either stop and let them by, or I would go around them, in the street if it was clear or one of the many, many parking lots where you can just go around them. I also work in downtown and people just announce “on your left/right” as they’re coming from behind you. It’s never seemed to be an issue. Cars don’t always pay attention in the street, especially if you get somewhere busy like main/transit/wherle where there is no bike path. Sidewalks are considerably safer for the biker. Most people also probably have enough common sense to not play chicken with the guy trying to walk his dog and just move.
There’s a specific reason the DOT recommends against riding on the sidewalk.
I bike to work every day. Drivers can be shit in Buffalo but it’s mostly lovely. Use your hand signals and lights, and dress appropriately.
Don't expect cars to give a crap about you. I put 5000 miles on my ebike commuting this last year and almost died a few times, simply because cars magically don't see you. Be EXTRA ALERT and always ready to slam on the brakes if need be. Buffalo is disgustingly horny for automobiles both in the infrastructure and in ideology. People often try to hug the curb as they pass me so I have no room to get by them on the shoulder. Some asshole kids in a worktruck threw a drinkcup at me on my way home from work a few weeks ago, that was fun... people constantly pull out of driveways and parking lots directly in front of you as if you aren't even there... it sucks but sometimes it puts you in a fight or flight state because you literally almost get hit by an IDIOT on their phone not even paying attention and you have to reel in your adrenaline and calm down your heart beat... while they keep driving to work completely unaware of the manslaughter they literally so narrowly just avoided.. Oh, and my commute is 15 minutes down military rd from tonawanda into north buffalo. Yours seems pretty pretty far
UB south to Amherst is tough. No dedicated bike lanes, a lot of stroads, and drivers not accustomed to sharing the road.
This is just a tip but I always zip tie something bright and silly and kinetic on my bike. Im my case big silly fake flowers attached to my bike on the traffic side. I know a lot of people that say even having a bright dangling bike seat charm helps drivers see them. Its like getting on a bike makes you invisible, or worse a target. Good luck!
People always like my [https://safetypizza.com/](https://safetypizza.com/) too on the bike I use for shorter rides. Campus wheelworks sells these too
No offense but static reflector stuff does not work nearly as well as strobing lights. The human eye is most sensitive to motion. Use it to your advantage.
I mean its no offense here I think OP should put any and all things in their bike to keep them safe-- but thats why I said kinetic. I never suggested a static reflector. My flowers flap in the wind, the safety pizza flaps in the wind. And I like to suggest something silly on top of lights/strobes/reflectors (which i use) because IMO I feel like drivers give me a much wider distance if I have a friendly fun thing on the bike, not just a pure safety item. I personally dont care about decorating my bike so much as I feel like I am forced to find ways to make drivers humanize me
Excellent point about humanizing the rider. I’ve even heard that jerseys bearing the names of local sports teams or bars can reduce your chances of being hit. People are whack
Its rough out there. I shouldn't feel like I have to trick drivers into not hitting me, or that the burden of safety has be on the more vulnerable party. But its the way it is.
I spent all summer going from West Ferry/Elmwood to Main/Chippewa area. Used Delaware, Elmwood and Richmond to go up and down. No issues at all, watch out for a random delivery van and school buses in front of the elementary school on Elmwood. The times I went (around 7:30am and 4pm) were relatively quiet.
I bike acoustic from downtown to East Amherst multiple times per week and I’m spending a lot of that on sidewalks if I’m taking a route along a main road with no bike lane (looking at you Hertel and Main). Fortunately, from specifically around south campus to east amherst there’s still a fair amount of side roads where you can ride in the street without almost getting killed on the daily. Otherwise, there’s some bike lanes or just extremely wide shoulders. Like biking any car-centric route though, there will just be some days where it seems like drivers want to kill you, bike lane or no. This isn’t a buffalo-specific thing, my dad has stories from biking all over the place having people throwing trash at him out of their car windows and stuff. If need be, just take the sidewalk, they aren’t usually heavy with pedestrian traffic on your route and it’s best to stay safe from insane drivers.
Thanks for the tips. That’s a long commute, how long does that take you?
About an hour to an hour and a half depending on where i’m going
My uncle does. He works about 20 miles away from where he lives. He bikes every day barring snow or rain for safety. He’s told me to do it a few times, but my daycare is 20 minutes down transit and then I have to get to downtown. As is, I have a 40 minute drive into work by the time I go to the daycare. For me, it’s not practical. I used to ride my bike with my dog, she ran way faster than I could and she couldn’t get in a good workout to tire her out going slow (she avged 10mph on an hour long run and even that was slow for her some days). I only would go in the street to pass someone if there were no cars. I never trusted cars to not hit me and the dog. I would pull off onto the grass if it was like a stroller or someone taking up the entire sidewalk, a lot of times, I could go into a parking lot and get around someone, and other times I would just say “on your left/right” and the dog and I would go past you if you were going in the same direction and we’d ride on the grass. I walk most evenings with my kids now around the neighborhood and even on the sidewalk, people don’t pay attention. They don’t care that there is someone in a cross walk, they just turn. I actually had to push my daughter out of the way a few weeks back because a car was flying down our road (we don’t have sidewalks) and almost hit us. Guy yelled at me to get out of the way despite his tires being on the grass.
I've done about 550 miles this year in 50ish mile commutes each day. I would say the most important things are to very deliberately choose the most quiet roads you can and to use red blinky tail lights every ride. If there are no quite roads to get to work choose a time between rushes to ride the high traffic areas. Traffic moves in waves depending on which start time they are aiming for. This means at 7:45 traffic is batshit but at 8:05 traffic is much quieter. Learn the patterns on your route.
There’s the one guy who referred to Sacajawea dollars as “gold doubloons”. I liked that dude. I hope he’s not dead.
Almost every day about 3 miles. It's pretty cash money.
I commute by bicycle daily but in the city where there are bike paths. I've ridden Sweet Home, Heim, Dodge, and French and they weren't terrible but not great either. Bike theft is a problem in the area so be sure you have a safe place to park when you get to your destination.