Clean Mobility Buffalo is an alliance of 10 like-missioned organizations and neighborhood leaders, working together to raise awareness of current transportation options and bring forward new environmentally friendly and health-conscious options that prioritize safety, reliability, and accessibility for all who call the East Side home. Clean Mobility Buffalo is funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) under the New York Clean Transportation Prizes Program.

One of the deliverables of the East Side Healthy Streets Initiative is to implement quick-build“pop-up” installations that will calm traffic and make it easier to walk, bike, ride public transit, or use a wheelchair.

Over the last two years, GObike has worked with the Clean Mobility Buffalo coalition and Neighborhood Leadership Group, block clubs, churches, and community centers to ask residents to  share their experiences about how they move from A to B in East Side neighborhoods, and the challenges they face in getting around. GObike gathered these insights through a community survey, tabling at community events, hosting youth bike rodeos and bike giveaways, and attending block club meetings. In addition to input from East Side residents, GObike considered other factors like vehicle crashes, vehicle speeds, and connectivity to important community amenities. Informed by that input and data analysis, several focus areas were selected for further engagement with residents and stakeholders. In early 2025, a series of public Complete Streets Workshops were held in four areas to discuss the concept of complete streets and to identify specific areas for improvement and potential street improvements.

Resident concerns in the Delavan-Grider neighborhood primarily focused on challenges regarding lack of pedestrian infrastructure and vehicles speeding or disobeying traffic laws along E. Delavan Avenue, while some respondents also noted a desire for bike infrastructure along E. Delavan. GObike met with leaders from six block clubs in the neighborhood in multiple workshops to discuss challenges and opportunities related to transportation, and through those conversations also identified the intersection of Grider and Litchfield as a challenge due to a lack of pedestrian crossing onto the ECMC campus.

Interventions:

1. New Crossing at Grider Street and Litchfield Avenue
   1. Narrows Grider to two vehicle travel lanes near the intersection, and adds a crosswalk across Grider to improve pedestrian accessibility between ECMC and the surrounding neighborhoods.
   2. Adds curb extensions to decrease the pedestrian crossing distances.
   3. Adds placemaking elements, like seating, bike racks, and planters.
2. Intersection improvements at Grider and E. Ferry Avenue
   1. Narrows travel lanes on the E. Ferry approach to the intersection to more clearly define where vehicles should go.
   2. Adds curb extensions to decrease pedestrian crossing distances.
   3. Adds seating, bike racks, and planters for placemaking.
3. Cycletrack along E. Delavan
   1. Adds a two-way cycletrack with a buffer to the north side of E. Delavan between Fillmore Avenue and William Gaiter Parkway
      1. Removable bollards proposes for high-traffic areas, but will not be placed in locations that would interfere with driveways
      2. Connects bike lanes on Fillmore to multi-use pathway on William Gaiter Parkway
      3. Preserves existing parking
4. Intersection of Grider and E. Delavan
   1. Adds placemaking elements like bike racks and seating
5. Street tree planting throughout the neighborhood
   1. Residents who are interested in a street tree for their home were given the opportunity to express interest through an online form. Several hundred homes were canvassed.

Residents of the Trinidad Neighborhood shared concerns about vehicle traffic cutting through the residential streets as a shortcut from the Humboldt Parkway to Kensington Avenue. Residents shared that drivers often make illegal turns onto Loring Avenue from Humboldt, to use Shelbourne Avenue to get to Kensington Avenue. Drivers also tend to ignore stop signs or speed through neighborhood intersections. The block club noted that there’s only one crosswalk across Kensington between the neighborhood and Sister’s Hospital, but that it would be beneficial to have another safe crossing closer to the center of the neighborhood. Lastly, residents recognize that the corner store at Kensington and Humboldt is a neighborhood resource, not just for residents, but for employees and visitors at Sister’s Hospital. However, there are no streetscape amenities nearby like seating and bike parking.

Interventions:

1. New crossing at Shelbourne Avenue and Kensington Avenue
   1. Narrows Kensington down to two vehicle travel lanes near the intersection and adds a crosswalk to improve pedestrian access between Sister’s Hospital and the neighborhood.
2. Conversion of Loring Avenue to One-Way from Shelbourne Place to Humboldt Parkway
   1. Converts one block of Loring to one way traffic to prevent drivers from conducting illegal hairpin turns off of the Kensington Expressway onto Loring to cut through the neighborhood to access Kensington Avenue.
   2. Adds planter boxes and bollards to prevent drivers from accessing the eastbound side of Loring.
3. Curb extensions at Monticello Place and Shelbourne Place
   1. Adds painted curb extensions with bollards to the four corners of the intersection
   2. Adds crosswalks at all four crossings
4. Placemaking at Kensington and Humboldt intersection
   1. Adds seating, planters, and bike racks to the sidewalk near the corner

This stretch of Michigan Avenue is primarily residential with several small businesses and churches dotting the corridor. In addition to the corridor’s existing assets, several new and upcoming projects continue to enhance the vibrancy of this stretch of Michigan, including the proposed Loads of Love project and the renovation of the building at 1325 Michigan and opening of a brick-and-mortar location for KT-Cuisines Caribbean Cuisines. Survey results showed that residents had concerns about a lack of crosswalks and vehicle speeds, while discussions with nearby residents and stakeholders revealed concerns about recent crashes at some of the intersections along Michigan. Interventions aim to calm traffic by defining parking and vehicle travel lanes, shorten pedestrian crossing distances, and add crosswalks throughout the corridor. Placemaking will enhance some of the commercial intersections along the corridor.

Interventions:

1. Striping lanes from North Street to E. Ferry Street
   1. Adds a center line and lines defining parking on both sides of Michigan
2. Curb extensions at intersections
   1. Adds curb extensions on the Michigan Avenue portion of intersections to lessen turning radii and reduce pedestrian crossing distances
3. Bus platform at Michigan and Best Street
   1. Adds a raised platform to improve bus stop accessibility on the northwest corner of Best.
4. Placemaking at select intersections
   1. Adds pedestrian-scale solar path lighting, seating, bike racks, and planters to the corner of Riley, Laurel, and Best.

Although Kensington Avenue did not rise to the top of the list of areas of concern in the survey, the corridor arose out of conversations with other organizations familiar with the area, like East Side Bike Club, which partially operates out of a space on Kensington Avenue for storing, repairing, and distributing bikes to youth living on the East Side. This stretch of Kensington Avenue is also identified on the City of Buffalo’s Bike Master Plan as a connection between existing bike facilities. Currently, some blocks of Kensington have four vehicle travel lanes, which creates opportunities for speeding and reckless driving. The proposed road diet aims to reduce vehicle travel lanes to reduce speeding, while also providing safer connectivity for bicyclists between Fillmore Avenue bike lanes and the shared-use pathway on William Gaiter Parkway. Additionally, East Side Bike Club collaborated with Burgard Vocational High School in 2024 to provide free bikes, helmets, and locks to youth who bike to school. Providing better bicycle amenities adjacent to the school creates a safer environment for students who bike.

Interventions:

1. Street diet and bike infrastructure connecting Fillmore Avenue to William Gaiter Parkway
   1. Reduce the number of vehicle travel lanes to two, and add traditional bike lanes
   2. Maintains parking on the northside of Kensington Avenue
2. Crosswalks at cross streets

Early Spring 2025 – Permitting with the City of Buffalo
Spring-Early Summer 2025 – Pre-Implementation Data Collection and Installation
Summer 2025 – Open-Streets Event (location and date TBD) to Celebrate the Projects
Late Summer 2025 – Post-Implementation Data Collection

Bike Lane/Cycle Track: 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)

A cycle track places all bike activity on one side of the roadway and provides two-way travel for bikes that are physically separated from vehicles. (More Information)

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 & Pedestrian Island: 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)

To supplement crosswalks, a space can be installed partway through the crosswalk using rubber curb barriers and bollards to create additional protection for pedestrians as they cross, called pedestrian islands.