From The Buffalo News, September 5, 2008:
"Orchard Park's Quaker Crossing bus route starts under protest: Plaza owner bars service from private roads on interior part of lot as safety measure"
Metro buses have begun running to the Quaker Crossing shopping center in Orchard Park — over the objections of its owner, who said his sprawling plaza isn’t safe for pedestrians.
“It’s a very bad idea, and it’s creating a liability,” owner Gerald Buchheit said.
Buchheit barred buses from the private roads that connect the interior of the 100-acre plaza. However, Metro service has begun running on a town-owned road that bisects Quaker Crossing.
Lacking sidewalks to connect the long distances between its stores, the plaza is designed for cars, Buchheit said, not pedestrians.
But restricting bus access to the plaza isn’t the answer, Orchard Park Supervisor Mary Travers Murphy said.
“I think the way to make it safer would be to allow buses to go on private roads,” she said, reducing the need to cross vast parking lots.
“I’m extremely concerned about the safety of pedestrians.”
 | ...town requirements have shaped the plaza’s car-oriented design. The area around it is low-density residential because of zoning, making pedestrians rare. Nearby roads such as Milestrip lack sidewalks. And requirements for green space and extra-wide parking slots leave little room for pedestrian amenities like crosswalks.” Gerald Buchheit, Owner, Quaker Crossing Shopping Center |
| Whenever I talk to residents they want trails, connecting sidewalks; they want to be able to walk where they’re going.” Mary Travers Murphy, Orchard Park Supervisor |
Both Murphy and Buchheit invoked the memory of a fatal accident at the Walden Galleria in 1995, when store worker Cynthia Wiggins crossed busy Walden Avenue because the mall had blocked her bus from its property.
That racially charged incident sparked a boycott by the NAACP and drew O. J. Simpson lawyer Johnnie Cochran to Buffalo to take up a lawsuit for Wiggins’ family.
Buchheit denied that keeping city dwellers out of the plaza is a factor in his resistance to Metro.
“It’s not a walking delight,” he said. “In a mall, buildings are clumped together — this is a spread-out strip mall.”
Metro buses are using town-owned roads that bisect the plaza — Amelia Drive and Amanda Lane. Starting Tuesday, the 14 Abbott Road and 42 Lackawanna began using a stop on Amelia, making a combined total of 15 trips a day.
Metro sought to use the plaza’s private roads to penetrate it better, but pulled back after resistance from the owner, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority spokesman Douglas Hartmayer said.
“Initially we looked at that, and we had conversations with the property owner, who had concerns about traffic,” he said.
Talks began about a year ago, as the fast-growing shopping center was being built out, he said. Most major shopping centers in the area already have Metro bus access, he said, including the Walden Galleria and Boulevard Mall in Amherst.
Buchheit said town requirements have shaped the plaza’s car-oriented design. The area around it is low-density residential because of zoning, making pedestrians rare. Nearby roads such as Milestrip lack sidewalks. And requirements for green space and extra-wide parking slots leave little room for pedestrian amenities like crosswalks, he said.
Buchheit added that he wasn’t aware of any tenant stores at Quaker Crossing seeking bus service for their workers or shoppers.
But with gas prices still near $4 a gallon, resisting mass transit doesn’t make sense, Travers Murphy said. She will urge the Town Board to discuss ways the plaza could accommodate pedestrians, she said. “Whenever I talk to residents they want trails, connecting sidewalks; they want to be able to walk where they’re going.”
By Fred Williams, News Staff Reporter
The Buffalo News
Photo credit: Mark Mulville/Buffalo News
Find this article at:
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/431368.html
© 2008 The Buffalo News. All Rights Reserved.
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