Pearl Street is close to wrapping up its plans for two-way traffic conversion. The milling and the paving is near completion, and the striping, directional signs and traffic lights are mostly in place. The street is scheduled to open to two-way vehicular traffic this coming Saturday.
For years Downtown Buffalo has been plagued with having too many one way streets that don’t allow people to get to their intended destinations very easily. The radial street grid that once flowed so well has been disrupted with poor planning decisions, time and time again. Now, street by street, The City will be rectifying many of these wrongs (where they can).
Once complete, Pearl Street will also be outfitted with bike lanes – something that will go a long way towards figuring out better bike connectivity in Downtown Buffalo… something that is desperately needed. Biking around Downtown can be risky at times. The Cars Sharing Main Street project has certainly helped to bring bike-friendliness to the area. Now is the time to tackle streets such as North and South Division, and Elm and Oak. Oh, and Michigan Street.
“The Pearl Street project extends from Exchange Street to Tupper including some lane reductions in the one-way, south-bound Main to Tupper Street block. Pearl Street will be laid out with parking, bicycle and automobile travel lanes on both the north and the south bound sides of the street.”
-Catco Construction
To learn more about the street conversion project, click here.