The Good Bike Vibes are Flowing in Syracuse (Comments: 3)

It’s the middle of winter, and our neighboring city of Syracuse, NY has been hit hard as always with inclement winter weather. It’s the perfect time for a newspaper to run — an article on bicycle infrastructure and three bike commuter profiles?!

That’s exactly what the Syracuse Post-Standard did today. The main article focuses mostly on bike lanes:

Since 2004, [Syracuse] has designated portions of six roads mostly on the city’s East Side as lanes reserved for bicyclists.

Holstein praises the city’s efforts but says more can be done to make the community friendlier for bicyclists. One thing it could do is put more bike racks downtown for people who want to use their bikes to commute to work, she said.

“We could always do more,” she said. “We’ve just dipped our toes in the water.”

Syracuse’s mayor has some really good ideas:

Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll, an avid cyclist, said the city plans to create more bike lanes to encourage people to ride for recreation and to commute.

He said he would like to see bike lanes in all four quadrants of the city create connections with downtown. Not only will it encourage more people to get out and exercise, creating bike lanes is good for the environment, he said.

“It’s a great way to cut down on traffic and air pollution,” he said. “It would be nice to see people, even for just one day a week, riding bikes to work.”

The paper profiles three year-round bike commuters: John Murray, who bikes to stay healthy after quadruple bypass surgery in 2003, Richard Breyer, who does a good job comparing winter bike commuting to skiing, and  Don Hughes, an environmental scientist who knows a thing or two about the benefits of biking:

“It has no environmental impact hardly at all,” he said. “Cars are just terrible for the environment. The impact of driving is just astronomical. Hybrids are nice, but they’re no match for a bike.”

My friend Kristen in Syracuse (who let me know about these stories) actually works with Don. She says her office is amazed by his dedication.

It’s wonderful to see an upstate paper cover bike commuting in such a positive way. The main article argues that biking improves the quality of life for city residents, benefits the environment, reduces traffic congestion, and even leads to job creation. Let’s get to work spreading similar enthusiasm for the bicycle lifestyle here in Rochester!