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City looks to make streets bike friendly

The Daily Star - 5/18/2018

May 18--The city of Oneonta will have an eye on "complete streets" -- designed with motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists and people with disabilities in mind -- as it moves forward with downtown revitalization projects.

"Wherever we are redoing streets we want to make them more pedestrian and bike friendly," said Mayor Gary Herzig. Several first ward streets, including Hudson and Fair, will be repaved in the coming months after underground utilities are replaced, and sidewalks will be added, he said.

The city has also received a $4,000 grant from the Otsego County Conservation Association to install bike racks, a bike repair station and signage to encourage everyone to share the road.

There are few bike lanes in Oneonta, and many streets are too narrow to accommodate them, Herzig said, but street markings might improve traffic by suggesting where cyclists should ride. A planned redesign of Market Street should also make it safer for riders to bypass Main Street.

"A lot of people don't understand that bicycles have just as many rights on the road as a car does," said Otsego Bicycles owner Ed Lorenz. He also noted that the bike culture in the area includes many off-roading groups, and said that people from around the country come to ride area trails. The cycling community pitched in this fall and spring to fix trails to New Island behind Neahwa Park, and a group will head out for a season-opening ride on Sunday, he said.

Oneonta Police Chief Douglas Brenner said the number of reported car/bike accidents in the city is "quite small," and suggested that cyclists enjoy the local parks, where speed bumps keep traffic slow.

"The bicycles feel safer riding on the sidewalk, which unfortunately isn't allowed," Brenner said of Main Street.

Ray Gillette of Oneonta and Jim Santiago of Otego were guilty of that infraction on a Wednesday afternoon ride, but said that they usually weren't bothered when biking on the sidewalk and were considerate of pedestrians. They both said they liked to ride for fun and exercise, and that they didn't feel unsafe in any part of the city.

"I love it," Santiago said. "I used to ride six miles every day from Otego and had no problems."

Erin Jerome, staff writer, may be reached at (607) 441-7221, or at ejerome@thedailystar.com. Follow her on Twitter at @DS_ErinJ .

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