Action Plan: Accessing

Purpose

This section is designed to outline a series of systematic changes to Downtown’s access and transportation related infrastructure

Context

Downtown Buffalo has the infrastructure and potential to become an accessible, user-friendly, and easy-to-navigate central business district that effortlessly facilitates commerce and supports business growth, residential development and increased visitors. A comprehensive access system that integrates various modes of transportation can help improve this potential. 

One of the obstacles to achieving this vision is the ironic reality that in many ways, Downtown Buffalo is too easy to access. An abundance of highway systems, convenient streets and transit options provide easy access into Downtown. Finding your way around, however, is difficult unless you are a regular user of Downtown, and even then it is sometimes necessary to drive eight blocks to get around a single block.

Important to the question of access is parking. Parking is still essential to securing office tenancies and to counter the continued movement of business to suburban locations that offer easy parking. There has been much work done to help address the imbalance of parking in the CBD. Many of recommendations of the Destination Downtown Buffalo 2002! have been implemented, and gains have been made. But until the question of management of the parking system is addressed, and a shift in how parking is viewed (service versus revenue generator) problems will continue.

The current perception is that Downtown Buffalo needs a true transportation system, rather than separate modes as they currently are, and a plan to maximize efficiencies among them. The Destination Downtown Buffalo 2002! plan fulfills many of these goals, but there is a perceived need for an expanded focus to help achieve the overall goals and objectives.

(back to the top)