Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) is in the process of developing a design that would transform one of their busiest bus transit corridors.
New York State Sen. Tim Kennedy (D-Buffalo), alongside NFTA's Executive Director Kim Minkel, announced on Thursday $3 million in state funding has been secured for NFTA's Bailey Avenue Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.
"This Bus Rapid Transit is a new concept for many, but we'll be engaging in a community-driven process in the coming months," said Sen. Kennedy.
"Bus Rapid Transit has features that include dedicated bus lanes, transit-signal priority, intersections designed to expedite transit and put in place stations that are friendly for those that are using the system."
It's early doors for the project as the NFTA's Board of Directors just approved a $3.2 million contract to Creighton Manning Engineering for the preliminary design and environmental reviews, which are estimated to complete in 2026.
"A bus rapid transit is a bus-based transit system that delivers fast, comfortable and cost effective services at a higher frequency and a higher capacity than traditional bus services," explained Minkel.
"The project focuses on a 7.5 mile section of Bailey Avenue from Main Street to South Park and a benefit cost analysis conducted for this project shows that for every dollar spent in this project cost, approximately $3.64 worth of benefits will be generated by the improvements. It would also improve air emissions in the region. During a 20-year operation, CO2 emissions would be reduced by over 2800 metric tons. It would also significantly reduce travel times, not just for transit riders, but for all vehicles in this area."
This project also seeks to greatly minimize the high rate of motor vehicle accidents that occur on Bailey Avenue.
"According to a report from the NFTA and the Greater Buffalo Regional Transportation Council, in the City of Buffalo, over five years, there were a total of over 2500 collisions on Bailey Avenue. It's absolutely unacceptable. It's way too many collisions, not only injuring individuals putting people's lives in danger. And it doesn't have to be like this."
Consultants have estimated that over a 20-year period post-construction, the fully-implemented Bailey Avenue BRT would prevent approximately 14 fatal crashes, 1,074 injury crashes, and 1,185 crashes with property damage only.
Minkel also mentions that the reason that this bus rapid transit concept is the best idea going forward along Bailey Avenue based on the ridership levels in the area. Bailey Avenue bus transit routes have some of the highest ridership levels in the area.
"We look to put BRTs or express busing or enhanced busing based on ridership levels wherever the demand is driving that," Minkel notes.
And as there has been discussion in expanding the metro rail to the Northtowns and UB North campus, Mikel said a BRT project like this could not work as well as metro rail expansion.
"The problem with bus rapid transit for that particular corridor is really the ridership, the capacity issues. So in simple terms, the number of buses, the number of vehicles that we would need to move the projected ridership, which essentially will double what we currently have in the light rail system, we would have issues with the traffic patterns. So we would be sending buses that would have priority over the traffic signals where the light would be changing every couple of minutes, so the cross intersection would fail. So that has been an alternative that we did look at, but based on the ridership levels, it just does not work for that corridor."
