According to jibin123, Buffalo is a city in the United States, in the state of New York. It is the second largest city in the state after New York City, and is the principal city of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area which has a population of 1,162,000 (2,021). Buffalo itself has 277,000 inhabitants.
Introduction
Buffalo is located at the eastern end of Lake Erie, on the border with Canada. The city is close to the famous Niagara Falls, and has some important border crossings with Canada towards the Canadian cities of Hamilton and Toronto. The metropolitan area is located in western New York State, 480 kilometers from New York City, 420 kilometers west of the capital Albany and 100 kilometers south of Toronto.
Like many industrial cities in the Great Lakes region, Buffalo is also experiencing a population decline. In 1950 the population peaked at 580,000 inhabitants, today it is less than half. In Buffalo, many lots along residential streets are also empty, or there are empty and dilapidated houses. Buffalo is the second largest US city to have so many vacant lots, after Saint Louis. Some of the population has migrated to other parts of the United States, and others to the new suburbs. The poor quality of housing in Buffalo has contributed to this. Many industrial sectors have left the city since the 1950s. Despite this, unemployment is not extremely high. The large-scale vacancy has meant that housing is very affordable in Buffalo.
Road network
Buffalo’s road network.
Buffalo has a fairly large road network given the size of the conurbation, mainly because the road network is designed for more inhabitants. There is an inner and outer ring, and a few more radiating highways, mainly State Routes and US Highways. Interstate 90 is the main highway, connecting Buffalo to Cleveland and Boston. There is a north-south highway along the Niagara River on both the American and Canadian sides. Highway 405 connects the conurbation with the Canadian cities of St. Catharines, Hamilton and Toronto. Most highways have 2×2 or 2×3 lanes.
History
Buffalo was an important city at the end of the 19th century. In 1900 it was the 8th largest city in the United States with a population of 352,000. This grew further to 580,000 inhabitants in 1950. The Buffalo agglomeration grew to a maximum of 1,113,000 inhabitants in 1970. After that, a significant decrease in the population set in, both the city itself and the entire agglomeration. The city of Buffalo lost half of its inhabitants.
Because Buffalo was a fast-growing city until the 1950s, an extensive highway network in and around the city was also planned from the 1950s. Originally, a large network of parkways was planned by Robert Moses, but little was actually built. The creation of the Interstate Highway system in 1956 contributed to the rapid construction of highways in and around Buffalo. The first freeways opened to traffic in 1954, namely the I-90 and the I-190. Virtually all highways in and around Buffalo were built between 1955 and 1970. In 1961, the I-190 through Buffalo was ready. In 1965, I-290 along the north side of Buffalo was completed, followed by the Scajaquada Expressway (SR-198). In 1965 was also the Kensington Expressway between Downtown Buffalo and the airport completed. US 219 south of Buffalo was the last new highway built in the early 1970s. No new highways have been built in the Buffalo region since then.
Congestion
Congestion is rare, and travel times are very acceptable. The traffic volumes are also usually well below the capacity of the highways, so that long traffic jams are an exception.
