It’s amazing to thing that an intersection on Delaware Avenue, just one block from Gates Circle and at the doorstep of historic Forest Lawn Cemetery, could look like this (lead photo). With two gas stations and a Rite Aid occupying three of the corners, and a massive amount of paved surface area in all directions, this intersection is nothing short of tragic. The fact that it remains so dated (and not in a good way) is most likely due to a number of factors.
First off, the businesses situated on the corner all depend on major parking lots for their business. That means that the aesthetic solutions may be somewhat limited… but maybe if we thought about encroaching on the actual street, then we might have something to work with. Not being a traffic engineer, I am asking for a bit of help with the design ideas (be respectful of traffic flow and patterns) because the entranceway to Forest Lawn is much different than the other three corners, and therefore is somewhat of a curveball.
If you look at this hypothetical project alongside the long overdue Delavan Avenue corridor fixes (that would go a long way towards connecting Canisius College to the parkway system), you might come up with something that looks more like what is seen in the images below. Remember when they began to work on the Linwood-Franklin-North intersection where Sisti Park sits? Well, if you look at the photos below, you will see what can be done when corners are expanded and confusing traffic patterns are eliminated (see history). Can a similar project of this sort be done with the Forest Lawn intersection so that it wouldn’t resemble a highway interchange?
North-Franklin-Linwood…
Again, Delaware…