A heart-pounding ride through Buffalo NY

In 2007, Buffalo adopted a "Complete Streets" policy for future road construction.  Four years later, reconstruction work on Main Street / Bicycle Route 517 was completed as far south as Humboldt Parkway.  This stretch of road is now Buffalo's longest and newest on-road bicycle route.

Did I mention it's also a truck route?

And a bus route?  You'll want a mirror, to take in sights like this:

You'll have about 10 seconds to enjoy it before they commence extreme tailgating, honking, and swerving past, halfway between lanes.

Instead of bike lanes, they built these lovely medians:

The lanes are just narrow enough, at 11-14 feet wide, that most cars can't safely pass a bicycle while remaining in lane.  Yet, just wide enough so they think they can.  You will scream with exhiliration and terror as semis fly past within inches of your elbow!

Be aware that Buffalo has a law against biking on the sidewalk.  City code section 413-2B states that:

No person shall drive, ride or leave any vehicle, other than a baby carriage, upon any portion of any sidewalk or ride, drive, or lead any livestock or draft animal upon any portion of any street designated or considered as a sidewalk, as herein provided, except in crossing the same for the purpose of entering of leaving any premises fronting thereon.

 It's as though our founding fathers were talking smack: "What, is that a giant carriage containing a giant infant?  Or does someone need to grow up and get off the sidewalk?!"  Nonetheless, most residents would rather be humiliated by our founding fathers than crushed by their neighbors:

 I stopped biking on the sidewalks after an incident on this block (above).  A woman ran out of the Steer and nearly sent us both flying.  Actually, I was the one who was out of place, so I nearly sent us both flying.  Bikes, like any vehicles, belong on the road.

This guy made a valiant effort for a few blocks:

But in the end, he got forced onto the sidewalk just like the rest:

Bonus bike trap: If you're riding this route for the sheer difficulty, you're probably thrilled to see the white stripes in the photo above.  To the average motorist, those stripes scream BICYCLE GET OUT OF MY LANE AND INTO THAT BOX!  Actually, the box ends at the curb a few feet later, and motor traffic will not let you back into the through lane without a fight.  Kudos to the traffic engineers who thought up this fiendish puzzle.

Leaving Buffalo, it gets more exciting.  Which lane should you use to turn left?

Turn left onto the sidewalk?  Is this a route for bicycles or baby carriages?

Or left onto Bailey Ave, like this guy?

 He's on his regular commute from Elmwood to UB North. He says this city has the worst bicycling conditions of any he's lived in.

More locals ignoring the signs:

Even with a helmet, this guy would rather operate in baby carriage mode:

Where would you ride?