WILLIAMSVILLE, NY - It was a beautiful evening Tuesday for a stroll down Main Street in Williamsville. But village officials feel it may be an even more enjoyable and safer experience once a new project is finished in late October to help calm down the traffic.
When a community likes to pride itself with signs proclaiming "Walkable Williamsville" they better be able to well, "walk the walk". But when you've got 35,000 to 40,000 cars zipping down your Main Street each day, it's a bit of a problem.
Mayor Dan DeLano says, "This is absolutely crazy traffic wise - essentially design is set up to squeeze everything down."
That "design" six years in the making is behind the roughly three million dollar plan to calm down traffic in just under one mile stretch of Main Street from Union Road to the Williamsville South High school area at Hircshfield.
Starting next week, there will be six phases of work ranging from new trees, benches, bike racks, and drainage to curbs, with special attention to work on sidewalks with the so-called "bulbout" design.
We asked, "When you say kinda changing it a little bit - what are you talking about?"
DeLano explains, "There will be bulbouts here, and what it'll do is it extends the curb out and it comes around to just beyond, somewhere where near the receiver. And it'll be on both sides and what that does is, especially, it prevents people from jumping into the parking lane and making a right turn on red. And it also shortens your crosswalk by another 16 feet."
In addition, right near village hall, a new pedestrian crossing with a special Hawk-High Intensity Activated Signal to boost safety.
The Former Mayor, now Amherst Supervisor Brian Kulpa, says they had to prod the State Department of Transportation on this to get a $2.5 million state grant, because Main Street is technically Route 5.
"The village said okay, we're going to lead. We're going to tell you what we wanna see. The state gave us active participation in all of our meetings."
DeLano says the improvements will also help restore some vitality to his community. "It's gonna have a much better look, hopefully inspiring people to sweep their sidewalks."