GBNRTC Newsletter 1Q 2011

Hamburg project cited as a national model of collaboration

T

he “Route 62 Project,” which has transformed the Village of Hamburg’s business district, has become a national symbol of transportation projects that promote livable communities.

It was selected as one of the top ten transportation projects in the nation by a panel of judges representing the American Association of State highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the American Automobile Association (AAA) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) was praised for its innovative management” of the project through “collaborative teamwork” with the community that resulted in a design with “far-reaching and positive effects on the quality of life in the village.”

As described by NYSDOT, the

A new roundabout on Route 62 in the Village of Hamburg.

$23 million reconstruction of Buffalo Street and Main Street, which was completed in 2008, “rehabilitated the village’s central business district and replaced four signalized intersections with modern roundabouts.”

The Village Mayor, Thomas Moses, declared, “The extraordinary involvement of the community and the collaboration and responsiveness of NYSDOT has resulted in a distinctive project that has created a healthier community through improved traffic flow, reduced vehicle accidents and increased safety for pedestrians.

“Through the use of roundabouts, narrower traffic lanes, bulbout curb extensions, crosswalks and amenities such as street trees, street lighting and stamped, colored concrete this project has helped to

change the look, feel and attitude of the community in a positive way.

“The Village of Hamburg is experiencing a revitalization as businesses and homeowners continue to invest in the community. The village has become a walkable place with a ‘can do’ attitude that is working to become more sustainable.”

Paul Gaughan, a village trustee, said, “The project has created surroundings that have sparked a meta-

First Quarter 2011 Hamburg project cited as a national model of collaboration Rail projects perceived as bi-national opportunity $980 million in projects for fiscal years 2011-2015 ‘A record decade’ for road safety across the world

morphosis in our business climate.

Business immediately started to invest in their buildings coinciding with the project. A strong citizen volunteer base has been the driving force in innovative landscape design and maintenance, “I cannot stress enough the importance of the aesthetic side of this project. It is like hubcaps on a car.

The innovative design of the project to include four roundabouts has become a very popular feature. Two years later businesses are growing and new businesses are moving in.

People are excited about the new energy the project has created.

Our community, both business and neighborhoods, feel a new sense of purpose.”

The Village Police Chief, Dennis Gleason, said that traffic accidents had declined by 57 percent on the Route 62 sector from Oct. 1, 2009 to Sept. 30, 2010, compared with the previous three years, or from an average 79 accidents a year to 34 a year.

“People were skeptical at first,” he said, “but the roundabouts have spoken for themselves. I think they are great. Traffic flows.”

Michael Wallwork, a traffic engineer associated with Walkable Communities, was quoted in a New Urban publication as saying that the original route had been “noisy, ugly” with several signalized intersections that had “significant crash problems.”

As described in an AASHTO report, “The initial objectives in the reconstruction of U.S. Route 62, in the Village of Hamburg, were to address severe safety, capacity and infrastructure deficiencies. Route 62 is not only the center of local business, but also a major truck route. This project had the potential to have farreaching and positive effects on the quality of life in the village …”.

2

Its selection as one of the ten best projects in the nation was focused upon NYSDOT’s “innovative management” of a relatively small project. “A NYSDOT initiative to be more customer focused encouraged collaborative teamwork between the agency and the community, which resulted in well-informed and community valued design alternatives,” AASHTO reported. “Accidents have dramatically reduced in the project corridor … and congestion has been minimized.”

Kenneth Kuminski, the project engineer for NYSDOT, said, “Give the village credit. Roundabouts weren’t really on our radar yet” when the state’s plan was presented to the village in early 2002, although they have since moved into the spotlight.

“We had a lot of naysayers,” Kuminski recalled. “Everybody was a naysayer at one point in time. The question was when did you have that enlightenment -- that ‘ah-ha’ moment.”

At the “request of village officials and residents,” NYSDOT hired Dan Burden of Walkable Communities, Inc., a “nationally recognized specialist of inclusive transportation design,” to hold workshops with village residents to “develop design alternatives.” Burden met with groups of stakeholders and community workshops were held.

A grass-roots Route 62 Committee, sometime known as “Imagine Hamburg,” was organized and worked with Gaughan, the village trustee, to encourage communitywide participation.

Focus groups included local businesses, schools and community organizations, senior citizens, public service-providers, pedestrians and bicyclists.

From these collaborative sessions “a picture of the participants

GBNRTC

top concerns and needs was developed” with emphasis on “their desire to live in a friendly, attractive village” with “slower traffic, more walkable spaces, and a restoration of the commercial core and character of the village.”

They also wanted “to preserve historical sites and have greater access to their downtown nature area, 18 Mile Creek.”

On a return to the village last summer Burden noted that the redesign includes not only the four roundabouts but mid-block pedestrian crossings, more on-street parking, narrow travel lanes and fourfoot safety lanes between the travel lanes and the on-street parking.

“There is an abundance of new buildings, new activities,” he said, according to the New Urban article.

“The walk-up line at the ice cream store was 150-people deep” The project is an embodiment of the “livability” theme that has since been stressed by the Obama administration for transportation investment. In 2009 U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood joined with the U.S. secretaries of Housing and Urban Development and Environmental Protection Agency in announcing an “Interstate Partnership for Sustainable communities” that would involve joint development and transportation initiatives.

It was reminiscent of a Hamburg theme. A village trustee, Laura Hackathorn, is credited with launching an initiative with the village’s Economic Development Committee that produced a grant from the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal that generated business renovation and restoration projects that harmonized with the transportation projects.

S

Rail projects perceived as bi-naƟonal opportunity

trategies to harness the Niagara Frontier’s role as an international gateway into an economic renaissance are a growing point of focus among political, and transportation leaders of Erie and Niagara Counties.

At a recent meeting of the GBNRTC, Mayor Paul Dyster of Niagara Falls and his senior planner, Thomas DeSantis, emphasized the pivotal role that the city’s International Railway Station near the Whirlpool Bridge could play in bi-national progress. Their report was covered by news media from both sides of the border.

Scheduled for completion in 2013, this intermodal transportation center, at the site of an historic U.S. Customhouse, could also serve as a tourism and business axis for a proposed high-speed rail connection between Toronto and New York City, the speakers declared.

GBNRTC’s Executive Director, Hal Morse emphasized that a high-speed rail system along the state’s Empire Corridor, between the Niagara Frontier and New York City, would greatly increase the efficiency of rail travel.

He noted that between Niagara Falls and AlbanyRensselaer “less than 50 percent of Amtrak trains arrive on time” and between Buffalo and Albany-Rensselaer “the average actual running time is 58 minutes longer than the scheduled time.” As proposed by the state, a high-speed system would increase reliability and frequency of rail travel with speeds of at least 110 miles per hour compared with the present average of about 55 miles per hour.

In a parallel presentation by Alexander King and Mark Berndt of Wilbur Smith Associates, the role of the region as an “inland port” for freight traffic, particularly that associated with railroad container shipments, was discussed in a final report on their Niagara Frontier Freight Transportation Study.

Richard Guarino, manager of the study for GBNRTC, in introducing King and Berndt, observed, “The freight study was born out of a desire to leverage past, present and future infrastructure investments to achieve economic development for the region” in spite of a “no-growth” forecast for area population.

The study suggests creation of a Buffalo-Niagara logistics complex, perhaps at the old Bethlehem Steel site, that would integrate truck, rail and marine shipments and provide access to air cargo.

It proposes that the site could not only provide transload facilities and information technology, but serve as a base for wind energy, green-energy, and other developments, including recreational facilities related to its lakefront and “greenway” access. “Companies tend to locate near transportation/distribution hubs,” the report noted.

Compared to other large metro areas, the region’s roadways are less congested and safer, the report said, and the area has good east-west rail connections. But it also noted that railroad infrastructure, particularly in the case of key bridges and the congested CP Draw at Buffalo, needed

A rendering of the new Niagara Falls International Railway Station.

First Quarter 2011

3

upgrading, and highway connections to the south and southwest are “indirect or circuitous.”

Marine freight was also cited as having a growing potential although “eight of 22 terminals within the BuffaloNiagara region are inactive.” The Port of Buffalo, although relatively small, has “a diverse traffic base,” ranging from food and farm products to petroleum, manufactured products, coal, lime, cement, sand and iron ore. “Maritime is the safest and most fuel efficient mode of transportation,” the report notes.

Close collaboration with Canadian and U.S. rail carriers is recommended “to investigate the possibility of a joint marketing agreement for inter-modal service between the Port of New York/New Jersey and the Ontario terminal” at Brompton, where Ontario rail cargo is currently transferred to trucks for cross-border shipment to New York.

Support for a Southern Expressway (Route 219) extension and a Route 63 bypass between Interstate 90 and 390 were suggested as were steps toward resolving railroad delays associated with the CP Draw and financing of repairs or reconstruction at key bridges, such as the Norfolk Southern span at Portageville near Letchworth State Park.

Other recommended “steps forward” included exploring “additional uses of the Lehigh Valley Yard” at Niagara Falls, near which the present Amtrak Station is situated -- some distance from the downtown business district and the Niagara River cataracts and gorge that are the focus for tourism.

DeSantis described the current location as “remote, isolated from other activity modes within the city, with no public transit connection and a very uncompetitive situation for cross-border travel.”

The new Amtrak station, consolidated with an upgraded U.S. border inspection and processing facility, would be strategically situated near the heart of business and tourism interests, with “intermodal capability” for passenger rail, automobiles, taxis, public bus transit, NYS-Parks trolley, pedestrian and bicycle alternatives. The project is also associated with development of an Underground Railroad interpretive center in the city’s North End. DeSantis, who has been promoting the intermodal complex for years, declared, “It will become a hub and catalyst for new forms of development for decades to come” and potentially could mean far less time crossing the border.” He said the project creates the potential for a shared U.S.-Canadian border facility for passenger rail.

David Duchscherer, owner of Wendel Duchscherer, the Buffalo firm handling design of the station, said that his experience with other intermodal projects, such as those in Binghamton, N.Y., and Petersburg, Va., shows that they reinforce the regional economic climate with new invest-

4

ment even before the projects are completed.

The Falls project involves renovation of the historic U.S. Customhouse, which would include “specialized border-inspection facilities,” as well as construction of a new passenger station and atrium with associated roadway, parking and substantial rail improvements. The $44 million project has been supported by federal matching funds, the latest of which was $16.5 million from the TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) program.

“That investment will finally enable the city’s International Railway Station and Intermodal Transportation Center to come to fruition,” DeSantis declared.

Mayor Dyster said that the project would also provide a basis for improved rail commuter service between Niagara Falls and Buffalo and service to the Toronto area.

“We are acutely aware of our economic, social and in some cases even political relationship with the great megalopolis of Toronto, which is as important to us as our relationship with the great city of New York at the other end of our state,” the mayor said. He emphasized the role that highspeed rail could play in the bi-national relationship.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said that high-speed rail could be a “top priority of his administration” and could be the 21st century Erie Canal … and help rebuild upstate New York’s economy.

Early last year, the Obama administration announced $151 million for high-speed rail in the state, considerably less than the $4.7 billion the state had requested. More recently the federal government allocated another $7.3 million to the state after Ohio and Wisconsin had rejected high-speed rail..

The premiers of Ontario and Quebec have jointly urged the Canadian government to support high-speed rail and Ottawa has joined in a feasibility study but reportedly has concerns about the costs. Government insiders have been quoted as saying that at least five to eight years of environmental assessments would be required “before shovels could go into the ground.”

U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter has declared that Canadian and U.S. proposals for high-speed rail, involving Toronto, Montreal, New York City, as well as Buffalo and Niagara Falls, could “give us, population wise, the largest economic development areas in the Western Hemisphere.”

From the perspective of transportation officials at the federal, state and regional levels, increase in the use of rail and marine traffic offer potential opportunities for dealing with the financial and environmental challenges posed by surging truck traffic.

GBNRTC

$980 million in projects for fiscal years 2011 to 2015

T

Timothy Trabold, Transportation Programs Manager, is seated second from left at meeting of the Transportation Projects Subcommittee.

he GBNRTC has undertaken a 2011-to-2015 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for Erie and Niagara Counties that anticipates some $980 million in funding, of which approximately 80 percent would be federal.

The TIP represents a “regional consensus on which priority transportation projects are essential in the BuffaloNiagara region during this time period.” A representative Transportation Projects Subcommittee (TPS) is charged with development of the TIP. Opportunities for public involvement are provided at all stages of planning and development of the TIP. About 71 percent of the TIP, which is based upon federal fiscal years, October 1, 2010 through Sept. 30, 2015, would focus on projects involving infrastructure maintenance. Another 16 percent would be for public transit, and lesser amounts for economic development, technology, bicycle/pedestrian accommodation, congestion relief, safety and “quality-of-life” projects.

Timothy Trabold, Transportation Programs Manager, noted that “although fiscally constrained, as mandated by federal law, it will be subject to any uncertainties that may result from government financial pressures.”

A sample of some the major projects, as listed in the TIP report, includes the following:

•

Seneca Street in Buffalo, from Hayden Street to Indian Church Road, $1.17 million.

•

Kenmore Avenue, from Starin Avenue to Main Street, at Buffalo border with Tonawanda and Amherst, $6.75 million.

•

Feigle Road, in the Town of Pendleton, $2.8 million.

Mobility and Accessibility •

Lincoln Avenue Corridor improvements, at Lockport, intersection reconstruction, Akron Road to State Road at Summit Street, $5.8 million.

•

East Robinson Road/North French Road, from Niagara Falls Boulevard to Sweet Home Road, in the Town of Amherst, widening, $11.4 million.

•

Allen Street extension, from Main Street to Ellicott Street in Buffalo, at Buffalo-Niagara Medical Center, $6.3 million.

•

Interstate 90 (Thruway)/290 Interchange (Youngmann Expressway), $268,000 for corridor study, with reconstruction programmed for 2018.

Infrastructure Maintenance •

Buffalo Avenue in Niagara Falls, from Veterans Drive, near Gill Creek, to Cayuga Drive, near the LaSalle Expressway overpass, $13.6 million.

Public Transit Improvements •

Replacement Bus Purchase (about 20 buses per year), $34.3 million.

First Quarter 2011

5

•

Rail Car Rebuild, on-going rehabilitation of existing fleet, $9.6 million.

•

Replacement of Paratransit vehicles, $3.3 million.

•

New Freedom Program, for improvement of services to persons with disabilities, $3.2 million.

•

Job Access/Reverse Commute Program (JARC), to transport welfare recipients and low-income persons to and from jobs and to transport residents of urban centers, rural and suburban areas to suburban employment by bus, rail, carpool, vans, or other means, $5.5 million.

• •

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) maintenance and operations of innovative technology, $15.6 million.

•

ITS Phases 4 and 5 at Interstate 190, Interstate 290 and Route 5. messaging boards for drivers, $13.8 million.

•

Regional Signal Coordination Feasibility Study, study results being implemented.

•

Regional Arterial Management Systems, Phases 1-4 $4.4 million.

Environmental, Cultural and Historic Resources

Economic Competitiveness •

•

•

Union Ship Canal Open Space, current working costs -- $2 million.

Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Improvements, Buffalo, $6.3 million.

•

Tifft Street Wharf, new pier and improved shared-use paths, $1.4 million.

John B. Daly Boulevard Extension, Niagara Falls, Niagara Street to Pine Avenue, $4.7 million.

•

Erie Canal Harbor Streets, Phase III, $1.1 million.

•

Amherst to Lockport Canalway Trail, $3.9 million.

•

Niagara River Gorge, Robert Moses Parkway North Feasibility Study, $1.47 million.

Meadow Drive Extension, in City of North Tonawanda, Nash Road to Erie Avenue, $242,000.

•

Fruit Belt Redevelopment, in Buffalo, Carlton and High Streets, $1.7 million.

Land Use and Transportation

Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation

•

•

West Ferry/Black Rock Canal, $7.7 million.

•

CSX Railroad Bridges Over Route 104, current working costs, $6 million.

Porter Avenue Phase II, in Buffalo, reconstruction, Niagara Street to Symphony Circle, $2.2 million.

•

Niagara Street Gateway Project, corridor enhancements, Carolina-Virginia Streets to Niagara Square, $2.3 million.

Routes 5 and 20 Bridge at Cattaraugus Creek associated with Roundabout for junction of Routes 5 and 20 and Route 438, $17.5 million.

•

Cemetery Road/Erie Road, Norfolk Southern Bridge at Plum Bottom Creek, $1.5 million.

•

Bailey Avenue/Cazenovia Creek and Buffalo River, $17.8 million.

Technology Implementation

•

South Ogden/Mineral Springs, $4.1 million.

•

•

Local Bridge Maintenance Program, $23.5 million.

• •

•

6

Robert Moses Parkway at John B. Daly Boulevard, Niagara Falls, southern access intersection reconstruction, $5 million.

Scajaquada Expressway, in Buffalo, corridor improvements, study phase funded with further funding programmed for fiscal year 2016.

Staffing at Niagara International Transportation Technology Coalition (NITTEC), which helps to implement Intelligent Transportation Technology (ITT) in regional collaboration with Ontario, Canada, on transportation improvements, $9.2 million.

GBNRTC

recession. However, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the U.S. increased by 0.2 percent in 2009 over 2008 levels and continued to increase slightly in 2010.

“Today’s numbers reflect the tangible benefits of record seat-belt use and strong anti-drunk-driving enforcement,” according to NHTSA Administrator David Strickland. ”But we are still losing more than 30,000 lives a year on our highways, and about a third of those involve drunk driving. We will continue to work with our state partners oadway fatalities are declining significantly to strictly enforce both seat-belt use and anti-drunk driving throughout much of the world. According to the law as across this nation, every day and night.”

International Transport Forum (ITF), based in The ITF reported that the risk of dying in a road acParis, the figures show that the past 10 years have been “a cident was smallest in Sweden, the United Kingdom and record decade for road safety,” with the number of fataliSweden and highest in Korea, the Czech Republic and ties declining during the first decade of the 21st Century in Malaysia. An estimated 90 percent of global road deaths 30 of 33 countries reviewed by the ITF. are in low and middle-income countries.

The largest decline in traffic fatalities, according to New York State registered a 2009 decline in fatalithe ITF, was in Portugal, with a 55 percent dip and in ties of 6.6 percent, compared with the national dip of 9.7 Spain with a 53 percent drop. France had a reduction of 47 percent. However, according to the NHSTA, New York percent and the United Kingdom 35 percent. Only three in 2009 had 5.92 fatalities per 100,000 of the countries showed an increase -population compared with 11.01 for the Argentina, Cambodia and Malaysia. national as a whole.

The United States registered a drop States with the biggest fatality of 19 percent in traffic-related deaths drops in 2009 included Connecticut, during the 21st Century, including a down by 26 percent, and Nevada, by decline of 9.7 percent from 2008 to 25 percent. In contrast, North Dakota 2009 with the lowest number of fataliregistered an increase in fatalities of 35 ties since 1950, according to a report percent and Rhode Island 28 percent. by the National Highway Traffic Safety Alcohol-impaired fatalities were Administration (NHTSA) down by 7.2 percent in New York State Early reports indicated a continufrom 2008 to 2009, compared with ing overall U.S. decline in fatalities for a national drop of 7.4 percent. They the first nine months of 2010, in spite represented 28 percent of 2009 fatalities of an increase of 3 percent from July to in New York State and 32 percent at the September, ending the longest stretch national level. of declining quarterly road deaths toDavid Strickland focused on drunk driving.

In New York State motorcyclist tals since 1975. No immediate figures deaths were down by 13 percent in were available for the last quarter of 2009, compared with 2008; bicyclist deaths dropped by 3 2010. percent and pedestrian deaths 26 percent. Comparable naNevertheless, the Transportation Research Board of tional figures were 16 percent, 12 percent and 7.3 percent. the National Academies has issued a report recommending Nevertheless, federal safety officials recently noted that the U.S. learn from the experiences of “benchmark that despite a decline in motorcyclist deaths in 2009 the nations” how to benefit from rigorous safety programs. more than 4,000 fatalities were still nearly twice the level The TRB report acknowledged that state and local juof a decade ago and urged all states to require motorcyrisdiction on safety issues made a coordinated approach clists to wear helmets, as is already the case in New York. more difficult and suggested greater federal use of carrot The International Transport Forum noted that in spite and stick inducements. of the “marked reduction” in overall fatalities, there has The TRB took note of the enforcement of lower been “a significant rise in deaths associated with motorblood-alcohol levels in Canada, Australia and Japan and cycles in many countries.” “nearly every country in Europe.”

“This increase is only partly explained by the rise in The ITF attributed the global decline to improved law the number of motorcycles,” said Veronique Feypell-de La enforcement, an increase in the use of seat belts, better Beaumelle of ITF. safety technology in new cars, as well as the economic

‘A record decade’ for road safety across the world

R

First Quarter 2011

7

PRESORTED STANDARD US POSTAGE PAID BUFFALO, NY PERMIT NO. 3803 438 Main Street, Suite 503 Buffalo, New York 14202-3207

R

Ramsey Kahi, PCC Chairman.

amsey E. Kahi, of the New York State Department of Transportation, has been unanimously elected to serve as Chairman of the GBNRTC’s Planning and Coordinating Committee in 2011.

The chairmanship is rotated annually. Kahi succeeds Douglas J. Tokarczk, Deputy Director of the Buffalo Division of the New York State Thruway Authority. Kahi had been named Acting Planning and Program Manager for NYSDOT’s Region 5 with the recent retirement of Gary Gottlieb. “I see this upcoming year for the committee to be exciting and challenging,” Kahi declared. “I see the spirit of cooperation among PCC members continuing as we implement our fiscally constrained Transportation Improvement Program to provide the most effective and efficient transportation system for the region.”

Comments as well as requests to be added or deleted from the mailing list are welcome and should be sent to:

Planning and Coordinating Committee (PCC) meetings begin at 9:30 AM

February 2nd

Buffalo City Hall Niagara Square Buffalo, NY

March 2nd

Erie County DPW 95 Franklin St. Buffalo, NY

April 6th

NYSDOT 100 Seneca St. Buffalo, NY

Meeting dates and times are subject to change: please call (716) 856-2026 for confirmation.

Greater Buffalo-Niagara Regional Transportation Council Phone: 716-856-2026

GBNRTC Editor 438 Main Street, Suite 503 Buffalo, NY 14202

Meeting Calendar

Fax: 716-856-3203

www.gbnrtc.org

This newsletter was prepared with the financial assistance of the U.S. Department of Transportation. However, the contents represent only the view of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the review or approval of the U.S. Department of Transportation.