Someone once told me that the key to life is access. A flaw that we may hold in our minds is that money gives us access. But it depends on what your definition of home, healthy food, functional clothing, and having a voice represents. I’ve been using a bicycle for 5 years as a way of freeing myself from stagnancy and tumultuous environments. I’d like to share my need for a safer commute to work and the importance of building better bicycling in Buffalo to benefit our community and bring people together in my future as a cyclist. I started in high school in 2010 by riding after school to the city, 18 miles round trip, without stopping home to drop off my bag of textbooks. Main Street has always been my biggest concern because I am frequently pushed off the street and there isn’t enough room for me to safely avoid obstacles. As a volunteer of Gobike Buffalo, I would like to encourage more cyclists to become members of Gobike in order to learn and support programs such as Complete Streets. The Complete Streets program will ensure that equal consideration is given to all walks of transportation. Buffalo’s goal of achieving 10 miles of bicycle infrastructures per year will help us to set an example as one of the friendliest cycling cities in the country and bring us up to a silver level city as we reach our goal of 150 miles of infrastructure by 2017, evaluated by the League of American Bicyclists. To become a member you can sign up on gobikebuffalo.org under the tab “join us.” My first bike, when I was 16, was an orange Ross. It was too big for me but it looked cool so I never noticed: until I stopped hard at the intersection of Bailey and Main and landed on the top tube. My second bike was a tiny Fuji fixed gear that I continued to ride down the same route from Main street in Williamsville straight downtown. I rode it to my first job at Franco’s Pizza in Kenmore through all seasons. I managed countless flat tires on Kenmore Avenue due to the potholes and lack of safety knowledge for using such a narrow street.I made a pact with my bike during a blizzard in the middle of the night that I would always protect it. I ended up having to sell it two years later in 2013 but was offered to buy it back 2 years later. It was a mystic connection between this bike and I. Riding fixed grew on me because it gave me a connection to the road and a great sense of control from of the momentum I could achieve. I now choose the freedom of using gears because of the long commutes to work I take. My bike has always been what represents me.
