If you take Parkside Avenue to get around North Buffalo you may want explore a different route.
Tuesday, construction started on a stretch of roadway to help calm traffic and make the area more pedestrian friendly.
A neighbor who spoke to 7 Eyewitness News has deemed the stretch of Parkside Avenue from Florence to Amherst one of the worst in the city.
Construction began along Parkside to cut the flow of traffic from four lanes to three with hopes of reducing traffic and making the area safer for pedestrians.
Addressing the intersection at Florence Avenue has been a goal of the Parkside Community Association since the 70s and they are optimistic these changes will make the area safer.
“Parkside Avenue has been used as a cut through and it’s never really ever been designed as that,” Michael DeLuca told 7 Eyewitness News.
“Because you have residents and a park and a zoo traffic is always a concern for us and we wanted to make sure at the association that it really was a safer condition than it is today and we think this project is going to lead to this.”
In addition to reducing the number of lanes several other changes will take place including landscaping, new stop lights and modifications to parking.
The $600,000 project is expected to finish at the end of the year.
