Summary of Stakeholder and Community Input Meaningful community engagement and input is critical to the development of a successful, publicly- supported and implementable plan. To facilitate a community engagement process that captured the needs of a large and diverse region, outreach efforts included a mix of subcommittee meetings and stakeholder interviews, community workshops, a project website, an online survey and photo contest, an active social media strategy and a virtual presentation of the draft plan. Bicycle Subcommittee Members To help guide the Regional Bicycle Master Plan, a Bicycle Subcommittee was organized by GBNRTC. It includes representatives from public agencies (local, regional and statewide) and bicycle, trail, and environmental advocates. The Subcommittee included GBNRTC staff along with the following individuals: Justin Booth, GObike Buffalo Nadine Chalmers, NFTA Jim Cuozzo, NYSDOT Region 5 Julie Fetzer, City of Buffalo DPW John Gerlach, City of Niagara Falls Garret Meal, Niagara County Mark Mistretta, NYS Parks Alan Nusbaum, City of Niagara Falls Planning Mark Rountree, Erie County Planning Gregory Stevens, Niagara River Greenway Darlene Svilokos, Erie County Gina Wilkolaski, Erie County Public Workshops Public engagement for the GBNRTC Regional Bicycle Master Plan effort included the following public workshops: September 10, 2019 - public workshop at Hamburg High School September 11, 2019 - public workshop at University of Buffalo Center for Tomorrow February 4, 2020 - public workshop at the Lockport YWCA February 5, 2020 - public workshop at SUNY Erie Community College, South Campus June 15th - 22nd 2020 - virtual presentation summarizing the final draft of Bike Buffalo Niagara (revised to online format due to Covid-19) Stakeholder Meetings/Interviews The core project team conducted interviews with various stakeholders from a variety of agencies and organizations to gather input and insight into existing conditions and proposed facility ideas. This included representatives from cities, towns and villages in both Niagara and Erie Counties, NYS institutions and agencies, along with bicycle, trail and environmental advocates. September 10, 2019 September 11, 2019 February 4, 2020 February 5, 2020 On-line Input Map In addition to the in-person meetings, GBNRTC set up an online input map where members of the community were able to register comments about challenging locations for bicycling and ideas for route improvements. Comments received helped the consultant team understand the critical needs of bicyclists in the region and informed the Gap Analysis and the development of the Bicycle Network map. Project Webpage and Input Map The Plan’s public engagement process was supplemented by the Bike Buffalo Niagara page on GBNRTC’s web site. The web page provided an opportunity for members of the public to catch up on the planning process, download draft deliverables from the consultant team, access slide presentations from the public meetings and to submit comments to GBNRTC’s Project Manager. The web page also provided a direct link to the interactive online map, which was available during the fall and winter 2019-20. The interactive map allowed participants to indicate desirable bike routes, demanding corridors to ride along and problem spots where wide intersections, bike lane/shoulder gaps and other elements created challenges to bicycle connectivity and/or safety. Participants could also register areas throughout the region where bike parking facilities were needed. Hundreds of suggestions were made to the input map, many of which paralleled comments made during the community workshops and from the Bicycle Sub- Committee. Combined, the input helped inform corridor recommendations and bikeway treatments made by the consultant team. Photo Contest A photo contest was held requesting residents and visitors to submit their best bicycle related photo. The winning entry is featured on the cover of the Plan. Online Survey An online survey was used to gauge residents and visitors preferences for bicycling and bicycle infrastructure. Community Workshops This section includes summaries from the Regional Bicycle Master Plan community workshops held on: September 10, 2019 - public workshop at Hamburg High School September 11, 2019 - public workshop at University of Buffalo Center for Tomorrow February 4, 2020 - public workshop at the Lockport YWCA February 5, 2020 - public workshop at SUNY Erie Community College, South Campus June 15th - 22nd 2020 - virtual presentation summarizing the final draft of Bike Buffalo Niagara (revised to online format due to Covid-19) September 10-11, 2019 Public Workshops Meeting attendees at Hamburg High School and at the UB Center for Tomorrow provided feedback in four different ways: project goals, comment cards, visual preference survey and map markups. The feedback received from each is summarized below. Project Goals: Meeting attendees were asked “What should the GOALS for the Bike Buffalo Niagara Regional Bicycle Master Plan be?” and placed their responses into one of seven categories (engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, evaluation, equity, or other). Each comment was analyzed and tagged related to its main topic of interest. The top four topics mentioned during this exercise include: Connectivity, Facilities (new/proposed), Safety and Maintenance, making these four topics the most population among public workshop attendees. Comment Cards: At the two public meetings, 13 people submitted comment cards with responses to the following questions: »» What are your top 2-3 goals for bicycling in the region? – Bicycle network safety is a major goal submitted by meeting attendees. Other goals identified included development of trail connections and expansion of the bicycle network. »» What are some key destinations and routes for bicyclists? – Multiple comments identified East Aurora as a destination as well as waterfronts (Niagara River and Lake Erie) and major regional trails (Empire State Trail and Shoreline Trail). »» Where are the challenging corridors for bicycling and where are opportunities for improvement? – a few people identified Route 5 as a challenging corridor, as well as city/urban streets, particularly ones that have higher speed limits (40+ MPH). Visual Preference Survey: At the two public meetings, participants were asked to submit their preference for a variety of potential bicycle facility types and investments in the two-county region, answering the question “What is the likelihood that the following types of bicycling facilities would influence you to bike more often?” The top three facilities people indicated would influence them to bike more often were: protected bike lanes buffered from traffic, separated bike lanes and rail trails/greenways. Map Markups: Workshop attendees were asked to markup maps with opportunities or needs for expansion of the bicycle network. Summary of February 4-5, 2020 Public Workshops Meeting attendees at the Lockport YWCA and at SUNY Erie Community College primarily provided feedback on the draft Regional Bicycle Network and the evaluation criteria that will be used to score and rank the recommended corridors that form the network. (Similar feedback was provided to the project team at the stakeholder meetings that were held during the same two-day period.) Community Workshops Join us to learn about the plan, discuss bicycle infrastructure challenges, and share your vision of biking in the Buffalo Niagara region! Tuesday 9/10/19 5 pm - 7 pm @ Hamburg High School 4111 Legion Dr, Hamburg, NY 14075 1 By Public Transit click here for directions By Car click here for directions By Bike click here for directions or Wednesday 9/11/19 5pm - 7pm @ Center for Tomorrow University at Buffalo North Campus, Buffalo, NY 14228 2 By Public Transit click here for directions By Car click here for directions By Bike click here for directions The Greater Buffalo Niagara Regional Transportation Council and its partners want your input on biking in Erie and Niagara Counties! We invite you to learn about the Regional gbnrtc Bicycle Plan and help us learn how to improve bicycling in the Buffalo Niagara Region! Greater Buffalogbnrtc Niagara Regional Transportation Council MEMO 722 Cambridge Street Cambridge, MA 02141 (617) 945-2251 To: Amy Weymouth, GBNRTC From: Phil Goff, Alta Planning + Design CC: Hal Morse, GBNRTC; Jeff Olson, Alta; Laura Byer, Alta; Mike Leydecker, Wendel Date: September 23, 2019 Re: GBNRTC Bike Buffalo Niagara – Public Meeting Feedback (September 10-11, 2019) This memo documents the feedback received at public meetings for the Bike Buffalo Niagara planning process on September 10, 2019 (Hamburg) and September 11, 2019 (at the University of Buffalo). Feedback arrive in four different ways: • Project Goals • Comment Cards • Visual Preference Survey • Map Markups Project Goals Meeting attendees were asked “What should the GOALS for the Bike Buffalo Niagara Regional Bicycle Master Plan be?” and placed their responses into one of seven categories (engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, evaluation, equity, or other). Below is a listed of coded comments by their frequency within the public feedback: • Accessibility – 3 • Funding/staffing – 5 • Amenities – 5 • Health – 3 • Bicyclist training – 8 • Hoover Road – 3 • Collaboration – 6 • Maintenance – 21 • Connectivity – 40 • Multimodal – 4 • Counts – 1 • Quality of life – 3 • Crossings – 1 • Route 5 – 5 • Driver training – 8 • Safety – 24