New York State Route 78
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
NY Route 78 |
|||||||||||||
Length: | 73.49 mi[1] (118.27 km) | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Formed: | 1930[2] | ||||||||||||
South end: | NY 19 near Gainesville | ||||||||||||
Major junctions: |
NY 400 in East Aurora US 20 near West Seneca I-90 / Thruway in Cheektowaga NY 31 in Lockport |
||||||||||||
North end: | NY 18 in Olcott | ||||||||||||
Counties: | Wyoming, Erie, Niagara | ||||||||||||
|
New York State Route 78, most commonly known as Transit Road, is a state highway in Western New York, USA. While it is signed north-south, the lower portion runs in an east-west direction across Wyoming County, from its beginning north of the Village of Gainesville.
NY 78 is most closely identified in the region with Transit Road, a major north-south trunk road through the center of Erie County and Niagara County, although it does not follow Transit for its entire length, nor is Transit more than half its length.
In those two counties, Transit Road is a major road between the towns it passes. It joins Transit Road north of East Aurora and stays with to its end in Lockport.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Route description
Route 78 can be divided into three main segments: the east-west section mostly in Wyoming County, Transit Road, and the section north of Lockport to Lake Ontario.
[edit] Wyoming County to East Aurora
78 begins just north of the small village of Gainesville, at a junction with NY 19. It heads due west, its north-south signage notwithstanding, across rural Wyoming County, its mostly straight route providing exciting dips and rises for the driver as it crosses the gently rolling uplands. At the hamlet of Hermitage, the route actually starts trending to the south. 78 is on this heading when it reaches its first junction, NY 362 west of Smiths Corners, running southward from there a short distance to Bliss.
A few miles further on, the southward trend stops. At Waldos Corners, 78 turns and for the first time runs north-south. This lasts only two miles NY 98 intersects from the north at Five Corners and the combined wrong-way concurrency is once again heading west. That situation ends at Java Center, where 98 turns left to go south, NY 77 goes north and 78 continues straight ahead.
From this area, on clear days, the Buffalo skyline is sometimes visible. 78 begins to descend from the Allegheny Plateau as it once again turns north near Java Village and starts following the Buffalo Creek valley into Erie County. Shortly after crossing the county line, the road again begins to turn westward and finally returns to that orientation when it joins with US 20A. Thus joined, the two routes intersect NY 400, the Aurora Expressway, and enter the busy village of East Aurora as Big Tree Road.
[edit] Transit Road
Route 20A parts company with 78 after East Aurora, but it nevertheless leaves the village still overlapped, this time with NY 16. The two routes parallel the 400 expressway until they reach Transit Road, at that point designated as US 20. 78 turns north to join 20 while 16 continues toward the city.
Just north of this intersection is another cloverleaf interchange with NY 400. Serious development begins past this point, and Transit is often four lanes, dividing towns, for many miles past this point as it heads due north along the transit line first surveyed by the Holland Land Company.
20 and 78 have only one other state highway junction, at Clinton Street, with NY 354, before 20 goes east while NY 130 goes west at the Broadway junction outside Depew. Several miles to the north, a flurry of junctions with major regional roads — NY 33, the New York State Thruway (I-90) and NY 5, occur within two miles.
After the 5 junction, a busy traffic light, Transit passes the now popular Eastern Hills Mall on the right. Once the Buffalo area's best, its has lost some to the Walden Galleria in nearby Cheektowaga, but has been reinvented in past years to an upscale mall. A gradual descent begins as Sheridan Drive, NY 324, crosses on an overpass just after the mall, and the road's inerrant, straight course ahead is briefly visible.
North of here, the development begins to ease and large strip malls vanish in favor of smaller mom-and-pop shops and restaurants. The road narrows again to two lanes as it enters the newly-trendy East Amherst area. There are no junctions with existing state highways until the Millersport Highway, NY 263, comes in at an oblique angle from the south. After this, Transit begins once again to widen as it crosses the Tonawanda Creek and enters Niagara County. NY 93 crosses just south of the city of Lockport, and finally the miles-long Transit strip comes to an end just past the NY 31 junction and the Erie Canal.
[edit] North of Lockport
Transit's northern end comes as a residential side street, but by then 78 has already left it, following Lake Avenue north from Lockport through some rolling countryside (mostly fields). It runs north, but no longer along the straight course set by Transit. Commercial development returns at the Wright Corners junction, where the highway is briefly concurrent with NY 104.
Beyond Wrights Corners, 78 continues north to the small village of Newfane, slowly descending along with the terrain. It reaches its northern terminus at Olcott, a small hamlet on the shore of Lake Ontario once home to a small amusement park but now a collection of cottages. After the junction with NY 18, a short local street continues to the lake shore.
[edit] History
The section of NY 78 between Amherst and Olcott was originally designated as New York State Route 32 in the mid-1920s.[3] In the 1930 renumbering, NY 32 became part of NY 78,[2] a new route extending from Gainesville in the south to Olcott in the north, mostly along existing but previously unnumbered roads. However, the portion between NY 362 and NY 19 was in the process of being built.[4]
NY 78's early routing was identical to its modern alignment with the exception of near East Aurora. Originally, NY 78 continued south on Transit Road past NY 16 on what is now NY 187 to U.S. Route 20 (now U.S. Route 20A) in Orchard Park.[5] The two routes then overlapped to East Aurora, where NY 78 continued southeast on its modern alignment.[2] NY 78 was rerouted to overlap NY 16 from West Seneca to East Aurora by 1938.[6]
[edit] NY 78A
NY 78A was an alternate route of NY 78 between Lancaster (at then-NY 35, now U.S. Route 20) and East Aurora in Erie County. The route began at the modern intersection of Main and Maple Streets in East Aurora and followed Maple Street, Jamison Road, Bowen Road, NY 354, and Aurora Street to a terminus at Broadway Street. NY 78A was assigned in the early 1930s[7] and removed by 1947.[8] Its routing is now composed of several county routes.
[edit] Major intersections
County | Location | Mile[1] | Roads intersected | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Wyoming | Town of Gainesville | 0.00 | NY 19 | |
Wethersfield | 6.67 | NY 362 | Northern terminus of NY 362 | |
Java | 12.58 | NY 98 north | Eastern terminus of overlap | |
15.19 | NY 77 NY 98 south |
Hamlet of Java Center; western terminus of NY 78/98 overlap; southern terminus of NY 77 | ||
Erie | East Aurora | 27.77 | US 20A east | Eastern terminus of overlap |
30.01 | NY 400 | Interchange | ||
30.76 | NY 16 south | Eastern terminus of overlap | ||
31.82 | US 20A west | Western terminus of overlap | ||
Elma | 34.87 | CR 574 (Jamison Road) | Former western terminus of NY 422 | |
West Seneca | 37.36 | US 20 west NY 16 north |
Western terminus of NY 16/78 overlap; southern terminus of US 20/NY 78 overlap | |
37.86 | NY 400 | Interchange | ||
Cheektowaga | 39.65 | NY 354 | ||
Depew | 42.55 | US 20 east NY 130 |
Northern terminus of US 20/NY 78 overlap; eastern terminus of NY 130 | |
Cheektowaga | 45.04 | NY 33 | ||
45.67 | I-90 / Thruway | Exit 49 (I-90/Thruway) | ||
Amherst | 46.94 | NY 5 | ||
47.92 | NY 324 | |||
Millersport | 54.99 | NY 263 | Northern terminus of NY 263 | |
Niagara | Town of Lockport | 58.45 | NY 93 | |
City of Lockport | 60.93 | NY 31 | ||
Newfane | 65.07 | NY 104 west | Hamlet of Wrights Corners; southern terminus of overlap | |
65.38 | NY 104 east | Northern terminus of overlap | ||
Olcott | 73.49 | NY 18 |
[edit] References
- ^ a b Traffic Data Report - NY 55 to I-87 (PDF). NYSDOT (2007-07-16). Retrieved on 2007-12-19.
- ^ a b c Leon A. Dickinson. "New Signs for State Highways", New York Times, 1930-01-12, p. 136.
- ^ Rand McNally Auto Road Atlas (western New York). Rand McNally (1926). Retrieved on 2007-12-19.
- ^ Automobile Legal Association (ALA) Automobile Green Book, 1930/31 and 1931/32 editions, (Scarborough Motor Guide Co., Boston, 1930 and 1931). The 1930/31 edition shows New York state routes prior to the 1930 renumbering
- ^ Shell. Niagara Falls and Vicinity [map]. Cartography by H.M. Gousha Company. (1935) Retrieved on 2007-11-22.
- ^ Automobile Legal Association (ALA) Automobile Green Book, 1938/39 edition, (W.A. Thibodeau, 1938).
- ^ Sun Oil Company. Road Map & Historical Guide - New York [map]. Cartography by Rand McNally and Company. (1935)
- ^ State of New York Department of Public Works. Official Highway Map of New York State [map], 1947-48 edition. Cartography by General Drafting.