AMHERST, N.Y. — "We need to change," said Amherst Supervisor Brian Kulpa Friday. "We can't subsist with what we currently have."
He's talking about Niagara Falls Boulevard.
At his State of Amherst address, Kulpa came ready with figures to explain why changes need to happen this year.
He said there were 1,500 accidents in the past five years. Of those, 31 were pedestrian involved crashes, 29 people were hit on bikes. 6 of the pedestrian crashes were fatal.
The big update on pedestrian safety improvements along this roadway, according to Kulpa, is that the New York State Department of Transportation met with Amherst and Tonawanda town supervisors, engineers, planning and police recently.
While state contractors are still in the middle of their year-long study of the boulevard, the Amherst supervisor says the state is now talking real solutions.
Kulpa: "Ultimately they're now saying, 'Okay, we're interested in talking about potential lane reductions, potential lane width reductions, some traffic calming, and maybe a road diet.'"
But all of this is only for just a portion of the Boulevard, north of the 290.
In terms of funding, Kulpa says there's $2-million dedicated to pedestrian safety improvements for that section of the roadway this year. NYSDOT made it clear they don't plan to make any significant changes to the boulevard until their safety study is complete. That could be this spring...even into the summer.
Kulpa said he hopes that means some sort of construction will start this year, but he didn't have anything concrete.
Right now, the state is in the process of re-calibrating pedestrian signals to give people enough crossing time Kulpa says there is more signage, electronic alerts, as well as increased patrolling.
Kulpa pointed Main Street Williamsville as an example of how the boulevard can be improved.
"Main Street is 34,000/36,000 vehicles in front of Village Hall," said Kulpa.
"Farther down the block it's some 40,000 near Union Road. That's not so different from the same volumes that you see here on Niagara Falls Boulevard. It's just that Niagara Falls Boulevard has entirely different street treatment at the moment. So, it's going to take a lot to change it, but that's what we're going to work on."