I often like to tell people I live out on County
Road 7. That’s usually met with some head-scratching and confusion because
Niagara County is not a place that uses county road signage. Thus, unless you
are versed in the County’s history, you will be unfamiliar with the system.
It shouldn’t be that way. Numbered county roads and
the appropriate signage serve great benefit.
If you’ve ever been to Allegany County then you
know what I’m talking about. There, the attractive blue background, yellow
lettered signs adorn every county road, making it easy for residents and
visitors alike to navigate the back roads that are just as much primary roads
as the more well-known state routes. For example, if you want to get from
Alfred to the Wellsville area, you’d jump on County Road 10 or County Road 12.
If you plan to travel from Friendship to Belmont you’d likely use Route 31A.
A numbered highway system makes it easy for
connecting the dots on your travels, meaning you don’t have to remember lengthy
road names which often change when travelling through various towns. Plus, the
junction signs that come with such a practice further the convenience of
travel. It’s really tough to get lost.
This has proven to be a major asset and a tool for
the various businesses in Allegany County that rely on tourism. The county’s
tourism department uses the numbered system in its brochures to promote the ag,
arts, and scenic trails while using it as an aid for parents who might be
visiting their kids at Alfred University or Houghton College.
Such a way of identifying our roads would prove
quite meaningful in Niagara County. Here, tourism defines our economy, rather
than complimenting it and, as recent history has shown, we are much more than
Niagara Falls. Tourism experts are making sure that Niagara Falls is just one
stop of a multi-faceted experience and they have been sending tourists further
out and deeper into our county, whether it’s to enjoy the artsy flair of Lewiston,
the fishing in Newfane, the waterfront in Olcott, the locks in Lockport, the
Niagara wine trail, or the agritourism in places like Gasport.
Getting people to those locations requires an
infrastructure with ease of use. Sure, a lot of people have GPS systems, but
many don’t travel with them and few rental cars come equipped with them. And,
many Niagara Falls visitors originally didn’t expect to leave the City limits
until the options were presented to them. We need to make it simple for them to
enjoy all of the great things we take for granted.
It’s not so easy to navigate a whole new world when
we throw a map at them or they go to a website and they read and have to
remember names like Upper Mountain Road, Lockport Road and Slayton Settlement
Road. It would be much simpler if they could reference and retain County Roads
5, 6, and 7, respectively.
That’s especially important when they don’t speak
English (but everybody “speaks numbers”). One busy day last summer in Olcott I
counted 6 different foreign languages being spoken by tourists. How did they
get there and did we make it easy on them?
Being an international destination we have to be
embracing and accommodating…and it starts with our highway system. All of our county roads are well-maintained by
the County’s excellent road crews and they have seen years of investment from
residents. Why not capitalize on all of that and promote these thoroughfares
accordingly? Not only will the tourists benefit, but so will every one of our
wineries, restaurants, shops and farms.
From the 06 June Greater Niagara Newspapers
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