Cheektowaga Healthy Streets Initiative

Background

Complete Streets are streets that have been rethought and redesigned to accommodate everyone, including bicyclists, pedestrians, drivers, transit users, and people of all ages and abilities. The Town of Cheektowaga identified the expansion of Complete Streets as a goal in their 2021 Comprehensive Plan, citing a need for more pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure and amenities throughout the town.

GObike has been contracted by Erie1 BOCES through the NYS Department of Health’s Creating Healthy Schools & Communities program to work with community members to identify a location(s) for a temporary pilot project, and to implement small-scale infrastructure interventions to advance the goal of the town to adopt a complete streets policy and provide a multi-modal transportation network to improve community health.

Residents have informed us that current conditions in Cheektowaga’s Pine Hill and Town Park neighborhoods present a great opportunity for residents to rethink their roadways, and to reimagine a more welcoming atmosphere for people to walk and bike. Improving existing roadway conditions in Cheektowaga’s Pine Hill and Town Park neighborhoods will lay a foundation for improving access and mobility through the Town of Cheektowaga, connecting residents to everyday destinations like Cheektowaga Town Park, and to neighborhood businesses.

Approximately one dozen children painting artwork within the boundaries of a white curb extension, adjacent to a crosswalk.

Kids from the Cheektowaga Boys & Girls Club help paint a protected curb extension at the corner of Straley and Alexander Avenues, near Cheektowaga Town Park.

Help Shape Your Neighborhood: 4/10 Meeting & Community Survey

Your voice is critical to this project’s success; please attend our virtual public meeting on April 10, 6:00-7:00PM, and take our community visioning survey to tell us more about the challenges you have with getting around in your neighborhood, and potential solutions you envision to improve those conditions.

Take our Community Visioning Survey Here Register for 4/10 Virtual Public Meeting

Potential Improvements

With their proximity to small businesses, green space, athletic fields, a library, an ice rink, and a youth center, the Pine Hill and Town Park neighborhoods are great locations for small-scale temporary street improvements, which can come in many forms.

The interventions mentioned below are created with simple materials – like paint and plastic bollards – and allow residents to “test” the changes and provide feedback on their experience. GObike then takes that user feedback under consideration before providing recommendations for more permanent installations to the Town of Cheektowaga.

Sidewalk Extension: Provides additional pedestrian space at street corners by extending sidewalk space into the roadway, thus narrowing driving lanes and creating a shorter distance for pedestrians to cross the roadway safely. (More Information)

Crosswalk: Using white paint to demonstrate the path pedestrians should take when crossing the road, crosswalks should be designed to offer as much comfort and protection to pedestrians as possible, while helping to facilitate eye contact by moving pedestrians directly into the driver’s field of vision. (More information) 

Bike Lane: A portion of the roadway that has been designated by striping, signage, and pavement markings for the preferential or exclusive use of bicyclists. Bike lanes enable bicyclists to ride at their preferred speed without interference from prevailing traffic conditions and facilitate predictable behavior and movements between bicyclists and motorists. (More information)

Healthy streets intervention suggestions.

Community Engagement

Building support for a town-wide Complete Streets policy requires the interest and input from communities all across Cheektowaga. Therefore, community engagement plays a crucial role in our planning and policy work.

For this project, we’re partnering with the Cheektowaga Town Park Community Association to better reach residents and business leaders in the Pine Hill and Town Park neighborhoods.

Prior to implementation of any pilot project, adjacent residents are asked to provide input about their experience walking, biking, rolling, and driving on the affected roads in these communities. That input is gathered, and cross-referenced with data like high concentrations of crashes and high-speed roadways, all of which comes under consideration when selecting a specific intersection for a pilot project.

Approximately one dozen children paint brightly colored artwork, like flowers and smiley faces, within the white boundary of a protected curb extension.

For 2023’s Cheektowaga Healthy Streets implementation, we focused on improving neighborhood access to Cheektowaga Town Park, partnering with the Boys and Girls Club of Cheektowaga. Kids from the Boys & Girls Club even helped put the finishing touches on these curb extensions at the intersection of Straley and Alexander using their own artwork!

In an effort to obtain feedback from those who most often utilize Cheektowaga Town Park, GObike produced a community survey gauging residents’ current perception of safety while accessing the Town Park area.

Efforts were made to reach out to park users through promotion on the Town’s Parks & Recreation social media, and through public tabling at both the Anna B. Reinstein Memorial Library and Cheektowaga Town Ice Rink. A month-long survey station was also posted at the front desk of the Anna B. Reinstein Library, wherein patrons were entered to win a bike helmet and accessories from GObike exchange for taking a survey. Survey information was also shared with the Boys & Girls Club of Cheektowaga, and on GObike’s social media pages. You can read the results of those engagement efforts here.

FAQ's

We’ve heard from the surrounding community with various questions. We’ll answer them to the best of our ability here:

GObike executed this project, funded by Erie1 BOCES through the New York State Department of Health’s Creating Healthy Schools & Communities program. There is no cost to the Town of Cheektowaga and its residents.

The project focus areas are identified as priority locations for improving the safety and accessibility of the streets for pedestrians and bicyclists by neighborhood residents. Through a survey, community members share locations they feel would benefit from Complete Streets designs. Pilot projects are a way to test out a design using temporary infrastructure, so we can measure the impacts of that design on driver, pedestrian, and bicyclist behavior.

By collecting data before and after the project, such as vehicle speeds and counts, and pedestrian/bicyclist counts, we can demonstrate these impacts to the Town and make recommendations for long-term investments in street infrastructure.

Before implementation, designs are reviewed and approved by the Town of Cheektowaga. Designs are developed by our Complete Streets Engineer, who has over 30 years of experience in municipal engineering, and meet all federal design and measurement guidelines.

There is adequate space for emergency vehicles and school buses to share the road with other vehicles when all vehicle operators abide by the new markings.

However, in the event of an emergency, our temporary infrastructure is designed in a way that an emergency vehicle can drive over the installation without causing damage or delay to the vehicle.

Pilot projects – typically accomplished through the application or paint and bollards – are meant to be temporary. GObike collects usage data before implementation, and will collect more afterward, and will return to the community to see how impressions of the intersection have changed.

On November 1, when winter parking rules are enforced in Cheektowaga, any bollards used will be removed, and the paint will likely fade over winter.

GObike will present a full report on the survey and usage data collected from 2024 to the Town of Cheektowaga, and the Town will determine the long-term future of the intersection’s design.

Project Partners