Main Street traffic thing of future

[steven]

The first visible step in returning vehicular traffic to downtown Buffalo's Main Street spine should take place by the end of summer.

Buffalo Place Inc. officials confirmed that construction to transform the 700 block of Main between Tupper and Goodell streets will start within the next three weeks.

Most of the construction work should be completed by late fall, meaning two-way traffic could be back on that block for the first time since the early 1980s. That section has been limited to one-way, northbound traffic since the construction of the Buffalo Place pedestrian mall.

Landscaping and planting will take place next spring, said Debra Chernoff, Buffalo Place director of planning.

Several other steps are also being taken as part of the "Cars Sharing Main Street" initiative that will return one lane of northbound and southbound vehicular traffic to downtown Buffalo in the next few years.

In conjunction with the 700 block work, crews will be preparing Tupper Street for two-way traffic. Tupper is currently one-way, eastbound, between Franklin Street and the Kensington Expressway.

Chernoff said the street will be re-striped and new traffic signals will be installed. Two-way traffic along Tupper between Franklin and Ellicott streets should return by late fall or early spring.

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/s...l?surround=lfn

[ghosthunter]

It's about time. If Buffalo is dying fast, that stupid pedestrian mall was one of it's initial tumors. Drive through any major city and the one thing you can be sure to see are cars driving down the main drag downtown.

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall during that brainstorming session. "Hey guys - I think I have it! Let's get rid of vehicle traffic on Main Street and put in a subway that goes nowhere!"

[some head scratching, some intense thought}

In unison: "That's IT Bob!"