Buffalo Rising Online

May 19th, 2:56pm By Justin Booth

You may have heard the rumors. Maybe read a small bit or piece about a new group coming…more details to follow. However, the wait and anticipation is over. This is the official announcement of Green Options Buffalo! I know, we are not promising to build a new skyscraper or anything but with gas prices skyrocketing, obesity epidemic, and climate change all serious issues that affect us all, it was time to unveil our mission.

The mission of Green Options Buffalo (GO-Buffalo) is to provide Healthy, Environmentally Sustainable, and Community Friendly Transportation within Greater Buffalo. Housed within the non-profit Wellness Institute, we bring along with us such well known programs as Buffalo Blue Bicycle and the award winning Recycle-A-Bicycle initiative.

In case you were not aware of our work on bicycling here is some background information:

Buffalo Blue Bicycle is an innovative bicycle lending program and cooperative workshop that has been established to provide bicycles as a convenient and accessible form of transportation to all residents within Greater Buffalo. All bicycles are donated and recycled by community members at our workshop. Whether it’s through accessing the lending program or attending our workshops, Blue Bicycle is making cycling a fun, healthy, economical and environmentally friendly way to travel. Official Launch date May 30th!

Recycle-A-Bicycle is our award winning youth initiative. Established in 2001, our objective has been to teach youth the skills associated with bicycle repair and maintenance, safety, and promote health, environmental issues and community engagement. This activity teaches problem solving, provides life skills and creates trained bicycle mechanics while positively impacting our environment by reducing the amount of unused bicycles going to the waste stream, curtailing car emissions and circulating bicycles back into the community while increasing quality of life. Operations currently occur at Enterprise Charter School as an after-school program and at the Blue Bicycle workshop with Baker Victory. We are always looking to expand and willing to work with other interested schools and organizations within the community to do so.

In addition, Green Options Buffalo is working with many partners and collaborators city-wide. Look for future information and posts on a mural project, bicycle valet service, complete streets policy, bicycle parking program, adopt a trail program, savvy cyclist classes, bicycle map, Safe Routes to School and other initiatives to encourage the use of healthy modes of travel.

For more information you can visit our new and evolving website Green Options Buffalo or email us at BuffaloBlue Bikes.