This assignment has easily been my favorite project I’ve worked on. Essentially, the entire class was assigned to re-design a portion of Main Street, right next to UB’s South Campus. We had the opportunity to perform a site analysis of this portion, as observed in Observed Issues & Opportunities. I had taken some photos of some issues I had noticed—most notably the frequent jaywalking and bicyclists riding on the sidewalk. Both issues were clearly a result of bad design. The focus area has no crosswalk, despite the fact that it is located between the campus and a residential neighborhood. Why would pedestrians travel such a long distance to cross the street when they could just jaywalk?

For cyclists, the street is even more intimidating. This is a area with frequent high traffic. Most cyclists in the area would not be brave enough to ride on these crowded streets. The redesign replaces the on-street parking for a protected bicycle lane. It also features a Bike Box to allow cyclists to move in front of vehicles at intersections, and most importantly for easier access to campus. Businesses featured parking behind the stores, so removing these parking spaces would not interfere with customer access. Finally, I added a pedestrian refuge island to allow for safer crossings.

Interestingly, months after this assignment was complete, Main Street had added a pedestrian refuge island at this location.