Veo bikes and e-scooters at Burnet Park in Syracuse. Photo courtesy City of Syracuse Parks & Rec Facebook.

Just 11% of bike infrastructure improvements promised by the city of Syracuse in 2012 have so far been completed, according to a report released by city auditor Alex Marion. 

The report, titled “Incomplete Streets” and released Nov. 20, found the city has fallen behind its own timeline to improve its bike infrastructure. 

The Syracuse Bike Plan is part of the city’s “Comprehensive Plan 2040,” which was created over a decade ago. Of the bicycle projects proposed in that plan, only 11% have been fully completed while another 14% are partially completed, the auditor wrote in the report. 

The plan separated recommendations between short-term and long-term projects. Less than 30% of the short-term projects are completed, while just 1 of the 28 long-term recommendations has been completed, according to the report.

According to the report, if the city had implemented the 88 infrastructure recommendations in the 2012 bike plan, it would have created 83 miles of new bike pathways.

As the City lags on implementing bike-friendly infrastructure, use of bikes and other “small things with wheels” – such as e-bikes, scooters, mobility devices, skateboards, and more – expands each year.

“We have seen the growth of bike-sharing, with the City partnering with VeoRide to provide a shared scooter and bike system across the City,” Marion wrote. “Local bike enthusiasts have begun more cycling events and organizations throughout the community, including various charitable rides and the regularly-held Syracuse Bike Party.”

Marion acknowledged that creating a safe bicycle network in Syracuse is challenging due to the range of weather conditions the city sees. The report, though, suggests that the city could follow the examples set by the cities of Montreal, Quebec and Minneapolis, Minnesota, which both have implemented bicycle networks despite receiving heavy snowfall each year.

The report made several recommendations to improve and expand the city’s existing bike lanes, such as:

  • Painting all bike lanes green
  • Establishing a violation for blocking a bike lane in the City Traffic Code
  • Widening bike lanes and prioritizing protected lanes
  • Ensuring snow removal for bike pathways
  • Creating a bicycle awareness and safety plan
  • Encourage cyclists to register bikes to help combat bike theft

The report also called on the City to update the Syracuse Bike Plan to reflect the projects that have been completed, and the many that have not. Marion called for a 25-year plan for re-envisioning the city’s street network through 2050.

“City leaders should convene a Syracuse Bicycle Working Group to revisit that plan, update it to reflect the improved bicycling conditions, and re-evaluate the bicycle pathways which should be prioritized for the future,” Marion wrote.

In an effort to get more riders to wear helmets, the report suggests the city could re-create an initiative from the Onondaga County Health Department, which sold bike helmets at a reduced price to individuals who could prove they were income-restrained. 

Elsewhere in the report, Marion outlined suggested changes to bike and scooter sharing programs, such as the city’s agreement with the e-vehicle contractor Veo.

Marion suggests that these and other recommendations in the report would improve traffic safety for both drivers and cyclists, while severing Syracuse’s transit network from car dependence as more residents continue to explore alternative options to travel around the city.

“Making Syracuse a City where ‘small things with wheels’ can thrive is a challenge but not an insurmountable one,” Marion wrote.

If you’d like to read the city auditor’s report, click here.

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Patrick McCarthy is a staff reporter at Central Current covering government and politics. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell and Newhouse Schools, McCarthy was born and raised in Syracuse and...