A year ago I would not have known to put down Amherst NY (Buffalo suburb), but now that I am commuting, and generally trying to avoid using the car as much as possible I have been amazed at how many place I can get to without much effort.

There is still lots of room for improvement, but we have many descent major roads that have wide shoulders so that you can ride comfortably at your own speed and not need to worry about the motor vehicle traffic as they can travel without being disturbed by my presence either. I have no problem with taking a lane, but if everyone has their own space and everyone can move freely, then everyone wins. There are plenty of sucky area that are still hard to get to, but there is a regional planning board that has been piecing together the various bike routes that almost appeared to go from no-where to no-where. Now that these sections are getting connected you can actually go a lot of places. There are also some nice bike paths (luckily the are still called BIKE paths... there are mostly cyclists and runners). There is one path that starts right north of my home that now takes me almost 20 miles to down town Bufflalo along the Erie Canal and Niagara River. If I head the other direction I can follow the Erie Canal all the way to Palmyra NY (65 Miles). At work (about 5 Miles away) near SUNY at Buffalo Univeristy I can Pick up an other part of the Bike path system and take that over to two of our satellite offices. That path connects up the the one near my house. There are still a few critical links missing that cut into the City, but they are slated to be worked on starting 2008 through 1010. At first it sounded far away and the I realized that even 2010 is only 2 years away. Winter weather can be snowy and cold here... time will tell how well I can continue to ride into the Fall and Winter. If the snow banks become to large I may not be able to ride safely even if the rest of the roads are dry.

Happy riding,
André