City spruces up popular Elmwood Ave

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - The City of Buffalo is building a path to a greener future by slowly making its urban landscape more user-friendly for bicycles and pedestrians.

If you take a look around Elmwood Avenue days, crews are busy paving and doing streetscape work, an investment the city is hoping will pay off.

"We're focusing more on adding bike lanes in the City of Buffalo, making the city more bicycle friendly, more walkable in certain areas," Mayor Byron Brown explained.

Millions of dollars in improvements are underway, and while it's a bit of a traffic flow headache, many folks like Linda Anderson think it'll be worth it.

"I think it'll be nice when it all gets done," Anderson said. "They're finally getting after the European concept of bikes and cars on the same road."

The idea is to blend different modes of transportation along the Elmwood shopping district.

Craig Gore, a bicyclist who works on Elmwood, said, "I believe that the drivers are a little bit more aware of their surroundings now. Where as before we were getting run off the road and now we're sharing the road. I think it's awesome. I think it's a great improvement."

Mayor Brown is hoping it'll attract more residential and commercial investment in the city. From a bike and pedestrian pathway, to lights, curbing and benches, the goal here, he says, is "to make Buffalo a more attractive place to live, work and invest."

A city spokesperson tells News 4 the bike and pedestrian pathway running from Forest to the 198 is expected to be finished by fall. The bulk of the streetscape project - the lights, curbing, and benches - should be finished by next summer.