BUFFALO, N.Y. — Driving down Niagara Street, there’s a clear distinction between the bike lane and the rest of traffic.
But on Wednesday, those lines were blurred.
2 On Your Side obtained new video showing a vehicle driving down the bike lane and nearly striking a biker around noon on Wednesday.
Buffalo Police responded to the scene and said the biker told them the driver proceeded to get out of his car and assaulted him before pulling out a knife and striking him several more times. He then fled the scene.
Renier Uranta, 35, has been identified as that driver and was arrested Friday. He was charged with assault, menacing, harassment and failure to use designated late.
“It is extremely easy to tell. There are signs absolutely everywhere saying that this is for cyclists only,” said Kevin Heffernan, communications director with GoBike Buffalo. “Our entire team, honestly, was hot watching it.
“It was alarming. It was shocking, and it is something that all of us have experienced on our roads, but no one had ever seen a car just flying down the cycle track.”
Heffernan said while the specifics of the incident may be new, the problem is one that’s becoming more common and deadly by the year.
Crashes involving bikers and pedestrians in Western New York have skyrocketed by 300% in just the last four years. Forty-two people died in these crashes in 2023 alone.
The numbers for 2024 won’t be available until next spring, but Heffernan said he anticipates they'll be alarmingly high based on the number of calls GoBike has received this year.
“Every adult watching this right now grew up on streets that are safer than kids have today,” he said.
It’s a trend Heffernan is trying to reverse, as he’s planning to meet with the Department of Public Works on Monday to propose the city add removable bollards to block traffic from entering bike lanes like the one on Niagara Street.
“That's going to keep lunatics like the one in the video off protected spaces like this, and it's going to keep people who could have otherwise parked on the other side of the street from parking right here and forcing cyclists out into traffic where they might get hit,” Heffernan said.
A once unthinkable scenario now has Heffernan and his GoBike staff hoping the lines will be clearer.
“That is absolutely intolerable, and we're happy to see the response from the police that it received,” he said. “If you tolerate cars parked in them, and if you tolerate cars driving in them, you're not calling it a priority, and you're not prioritizing the lives of the people who are using them.”