Heated Sidewalks For A New Main Street!
After owning a retail business in the city I can honestly say that one of my dreams was to see heated sidewalks installed along commercial districts. The 24-hour store located at Elmwood and Bird had them installed when the streets and sidewalks were dug up a few years back. I was amazed that the process had become affordable and practical. Installing the heating system was a smart move for any landlord who either owned a shop within the building, or wanted to market the storefront in a very shopper-friendly way.
Can you imagine if all of the sidewalks were heated from City Hall to the Gallery District? These heated walking lanes do/should not stop at the street either. The crosswalks are all part of the equation if there is to be no disruption of pedestrian-friendly thoroughfares installed in commercial district. It may be too late for Elmwood (until the sidewalks are torn up again), but is it too late for Main Street?
Being a business owner in a commercial district, you tend to see things that other people might miss. Like people wiping out at the corners because the property owner or the business owner didn,Aeot shovel their walk that morning. By noon the foot traffic creates a compact sheet of ice that gets more and more dangerous as the day goes by. Add a dripping gutter to the formula and it,Aeos a recipe for one angry shopper. Shoveling laws are not enforced, and even if a business owner is diligent about taking care of his or her walk, there is little or no attention paid to the street crosswalks that are vital to getting people from one block to the next.
Honestly, can you blame a customer who doesn,Aeot want to shop due to the hazards of treacherous walking conditions? If you don,Aeot think that this is an important issue, then ask any business owner in any shopping district how their sales are when the crosswalks make it impossible to cross in the dead of winter. And the residential districts that can be found in-between the business districts? Forget it! Good luck if you want to walk past those stretches.
I Googled ,AeoHeated Sidewalks,Aeo earlier this morning and was excited to find that there are cities and colleges all over the world that are looking into the idea.
,AeoMoscow Times reports that the sidewalks outside of City Hall will be heated.,Aeo
,AeoThe University of Idaho in Northern Idaho provides heated sidewalks throughout the central campus. Steam tunnels below ground heat the sidewalks.,Aeo
And the list goes on. Another discovery that I came across this morning was a PDF from the city,Aeos site that was, in essence, a survey for business owners along the Main Street corridor that will soon see traffic return to the streets. From what I understand, the business and property owners have been made aware that the feature is available:
This survey is directed to property and businesses representatives on Main Street along the Buffalo Place pedestrian-transit mall. Please take a few minutes to fill out this questionnaire so we will be sure to include all property and business concerns in the design process for the Cars Sharing Main Street project. Main Street between Edward/ Goodell Streets and the Erie Canal Harbor is being re- designed to allow automobile traffic to share the trainway with Metro Rail. This survey is being conducted by DiDonato Associates under contract with the City Of Buffalo, in cooperation with NFTA and Buffalo Place, Inc.
Property and business representatives are asked to complete one survey for each of their separate properties on Main Street.
TRAFFIC ON MAIN STREET QUESTIONNAIRE
If heated sidewalks could be installed as part of the current project, would you be interested in having that done, bearing in mind that you would be responsible for all maintenance and that the utility hook up would have to be linked to your building?
This an unbelievable opportunity for the business district (what remains of it) to do something truly innovative. The city should be playing up this feature that they have come across and instead of polling the property and business owners planners should be looking into the viability of making all new sidewalks heated. This would be a feature that would attract new businesses to Main Street, draw shoppers to the area who want to walk on unobstructed sidewalks, allow downtown residents the ability to utilize neighboring services without worrying whether businesses have shoveled the walkways or not. I know that Buffalo Place has snow removal strategies in place to make it easier for mobility of urbanites, but it is impossible to keep the snow and ice off the sidewalks like heated walkways do.
Some may say that heating the walkways would be expensive. Maybe. But to know that we are neighbors to an incredible power source the likes of Niagara Falls? We were the first city to offer electricity en-mass to the public. This is a golden opportunity to show the world that we are forward thinking and creative again. Imagine what a difference heated sidewalks would do to the city,Aeos image? Even if it just started with Main Street. A feature like this would make Main Street the dynamic street of yesteryears.
What Others Have To Say
What Do You Think?
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Comment Options
vv
Dindn't Bergers Dept store on main have heated sidewaks many years ago? I often wondered why it was not done today. It is probably one of the best moves they can make when redoing main.
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sbrof
they are fine until something breaks and you need to tear up the sidewalk to get access to the pipes. The best and cheapest way to do these sidewalks is to push some of the pipes deep into the ground and pull out the earths heat. At least you get up to 50 degrees before you need to heat it saving money.
I heard that the Asbury church is heated in this way. can anyone confirm?
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vv
And I think you hit the nail on the head when you say it would re-invigorate downtown. Downtown business develoment districts (starting with main place) should take the initiative rather than individual property owners
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Steve
Main Street should definitely include heated sidewalks in the master plan. As they are about to tear up much of the street anyway, might as well do the sidewalks at the same time instead of waiting for a later time.
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Apollo
Heating the sidewalks in the major shopping districts is a good idea and one worth pursuing. Making shopping convenient in the winter would seemingly boost interest and foot traffic.
Queenesyes: Check out Holland, Michigan. The last I knew downtown Holland had the largest and most intricate system of heated sidewalks and streets in the country. Holland is a relatively small, but thriving community in Western Michigan. It is most famous for its Tulip festival.
Sbrof: Yes, "The Church" is using geothermal heat, as does the Darwin Martin House. While it is very efficient, the initial costs are very high. In a city that is strapped for cash, I do not believe a large- scale project using geothermal heat would be feasible at this point, but you never know.
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granpa
Will I have alittle more down to earth suggestion that is alittle more unfriendly to pedestrians that a little snow on sidewalks: WIND!
Plant some damn trees so people dont go flying into the streets or falling down everytime a strong gust swoops down between the buildings.
Back in the days where there was a canopy of Elms, Oaks, Chestnuts, etc...the wind was able to stay above the street...and it was wonderful for pedestrians and it was easier to keep the sidewalks clean since the wind wasnt blowing the snow back on the streets and sidwalks to melt and refreeze.
Just a thought that before we invest millions in heated sidewalks maybe we can invest a fraction of that to a canopy of trees that would act as a wind break for pedestrians.
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ChetKowal
The new building at Potomac & Brantford appears to have heated sidewalks around it - I saw them laying the plastic loops, before they poured the concrete .
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hook
As does the new apt building on Elmwood where Lu Modern is. The walkways are heated between Elmwood and the parking lot in the rear. Excellent idea.
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Jerry Sohl
Can't the city just put the heaters into the sidewalk while everything is torn up and then leave it up to the business/building owners to turn it on? Once it becomes a competitve advantage to turn them on they will be turned on.
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sbrof
how expensive can they be? Yes they are more than regular sidewalks but in essence we are talking about some big holes in the ground with water and pipes to tap the heat from. So more expensive yes, millions of extra dollars? maybe, maybe not. The real expense I see would be to create a backup system so that on the coldest days the pipes don't freeze. Either way it would be worth looking farther into.
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carl
hate to be the devils advocate, but this seems like something that would waste a lot of energy, it seems like more trees and other types of wind breaks would go a long way. and if the city has to pay for this (it is city property) it seems that there would be much better ways to spend the money.
ps, there are heated sidewalks around the county office buildings as well...
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tom
I agree, first trees to break the wind....then other things like heated sidewalks...
also, youd think that exploring that idea for distributed heating would have taken root.....where they bring a fuel cell to generate power for multiple buildings in a downtown district....cheaper than Niagara Mohawk or an alternative supplier could do
it would be a way of providing cheap power as an incentive to downtown development.
Im all for that....lower taxes, lower water, lower electricity prices for downtown locations and inner city neighborhoods....kinda like creating increasing rates based on the distance from center city
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STEEL
The sidewalks around the old Wester SAvings building an Main and Court used to be heated
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terry
What I avoid in the winter is WIND?
My rubbers and boots can handle snow and ice...but when you get a good gust of WIND it will cut through anything and chill you to the bone......so I have to say....plant some trees first and create some wind breaks so that people dont have to avoid downtown in the winter....heated sidewalks should be plan B
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Shopitall
This is a GREAT idea!
Perhaps solar energy or some other sustainable power source could be utilized. Who knows; a bit of research into new materials may turn up a "super concrete" much in the same vein as the "drainable asphalts" that wouldn't need a power source at all!
Sounds like a project for Dr. Simon @ UB's Environmental Studies!
It's more a matter of WILL TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!
Old Buffalo or New Buffalo? The choice is really ours.
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