Rethinking Empire Boulevard: A Multimodal Future

On December 15th, 2018, Jean Dietch, age 95 at the time, was meeting good friends for dinner at Mario’s on a typical Sunday afternoon. Her younger son started to make a left turn off Empire into the restaurant. He didn’t see a driver coming down the hill from the east, t-boning the car and killing Jean immediately. Neither of the drivers were harmed.

After a News 8 Investigation found over 800 crashes on Empire Blvd in a five year period, Jean’s other son who lives in the Water’s Edge apartments, Howard Dietch, reached out to News 8 to share his story of turning his mother’s tragedy into action. Howard has spent the last six years advocating for New York State DOT to do something to make Empire Blvd safer, enlisting support from local officials and the County Legislator from Penfield. As of 2024, no changes have been implemented to make Empire Blvd safer, and Howard is hoping that advocates calling for multimodal safety improvements can step in and boost his message.

In 2023, Empire Boulevard was the run-away winner of Reconnect Rochester’s annual “Mind the Gap” campaign. We reached out to Howard who was happy to have community support for his safety efforts. The nomination text read:

Now, after years of Howard’s advocacy, Reconnect Rochester’s campaign, and significant news coverage, NYSDOT has announced that it raised $5 million for engineering work to enhance safety on Empire Boulevard. Now is the time for advocates to build support for a safer and multimodal Empire Boulevard with local residents and town and state officials.

We’re happy to provide an inspirational design rendering of the 2.4 mile stretch of Empire Boulevard to advocates for their advocacy. Click here to access the PDF. As we’ll explain below, there are low-cost changes that can be made that will not only make the space more welcoming to active transportation users, but also help mitigate the risk of more lives being lost on the road.

NYSDOT is increasingly showing openness to these changes, as stated in 13 WHAM’s coverage of safety concerns on Empire:

“Safety is always the priority for the New York State Department of Transportation, and the agency is in the early stages of design for a project to enhance safety along Empire Boulevard in Penfield, Monroe County, which is scheduled to begin in late 2025. DOT looks forward to engaging with our local partners and stakeholders to discuss concerns and areas for potential enhancements prior to the implementation of this project.”

Empire Blvd and the area it serves have a lot of unique features. As NY State Route 404, it spans the Towns of Irondequoit, Penfield and Webster and it hugs the southern end of Irondequoit Bay. Its beautiful setting has attracted new apartment buildings, restaurants and breweries as well as investments to enhance access to Irondequoit Bay via LaSalle’s Landing Park. 

On the other hand, Empire Blvd is not at all unique in its speed and unfriendliness to people outside of fast-moving vehicles. It is typical of state routes where commercial and residential development has progressively been added over many years. What used to be a road whose singular purpose was to connect towns, is now a residential hub, with over 600 new housing units added over the last 10 years.

The latest, Bayview Landing, will add 60 units next to the K2 Brothers Brewing Company, just west of where Jean Dietch was killed. And yet the road design remains configured primarily to move cars and trucks through as quickly and efficiently as possible (it is the designated truck route for the area).

For people walking or biking, getting around Irondequoit Bay is a pain. The Irondequoit Bay Outlet Bridge operates mostly outside of bike season (we’d like to see that run all year around too). While cars have the option of traversing Irondequoit Bay over 104, bikes are limited to Empire or Browncroft Blvd. Browncroft is not an ideal option for cyclists coming from Webster as it would require a longer detour to the south. Even traveling down Browncroft in a car, one would experience higher speeds and similar hills as Empire. While both roads are envisioned for future Monroe County Active Transportation Network consideration, we believe Empire is the better option for investing in bike infrastructure.

Proposed Multimodal Improvements  

We hope our vision inspires you to take action and mobilize support for a safer, multimodal corridor on Empire Blvd.

The first step in our advocacy effort was to hire a Licensed Qualified Engineer (thanks to funding generously provided by long-time cycling advocate Dr. Scott MacRae). We brought on Mode Choice Engineering, a multimodal transportation focused company in the Buffalo-Niagara region, who has experience retrofitting New York State routes for improved multimodal options. 

The goal was to create a design rendering to show improvements that could be made along the 2.4 mile stretch from Winton Rd to Bay Rd that would help make Empire safer and more welcoming to people who want to travel to and through it on foot or on bike.

Together we analyzed current conditions, road design and speed, and vehicular traffic patterns. With support from Genesee Transportation Council, we also conducted independent speed data collection. Results showed that in the 40 MPH speed limit zone, the 85% percentile speed was between 52-56 MPH meaning that most people were going more than 10 MPH over the speed limit. A vehicle traveling eastbound was clocked at a maximum speed of 90 mph. We also looked at crashes from 2017-2023 and found that Empire had a higher rate of crashes during that period than similar roads in NY State. 

The most recent 5 year period saw 770 crashes involving vehicles, 2 involving cyclists and 5 involving pedestrians. 72% of these crashes took place during the day so darkness wasn’t a factor. We estimate the bike and pedestrian number is low because the area is so inhospitable to people outside the car.

With this analysis in hand, we turned to what we can do within the existing “right-of-way”, meaning we wouldn’t have to change the width of the roadway or acquire land that is currently town or private property. Our big picture goal was to improve safety with a short-term/quick build solution, using low-cost materials.

 We could accomplish this in a cost minimized way by:

• Narrowing the travel lanes to 10 feet
• Lowering the speed limit to 35 MPH
• Converting the 8 feet shoulders into protected bike lanes with low-cost flexible bollards

This proposed design solution meets FHWA proven safety countermeasures and was designed by Mode Choice Engineering to be able to be done with in-house engineering from NYSDOT.

Another major improvement to the area would be to install a High Intensity Activated CrossWalK (HAWK) Crossing near LaSalles Landing Park, which would provide a traffic calming effect and safe crossing to and from key destinations.

The City of Rochester has installed similar technology downtown and below is an example of this type of crossing in use in Phoenix.

This multimodal retrofit would provide significant benefits to residents and folks planning to access Irondequoit Bay. For cyclists, it would provide a continuous bike lane eastbound and westbound as well as protection from cars. For pedestrians, it would connect existing sidewalks to shared pedestrian space throughout the corridor and the ability to cross safely midway through the corridor.

We see this design as a stepping stone toward the future where hard curbs with fully continuous sidewalks and some sort of hardened bike lane protection can be added as part of a larger reconstruction project. Our goal in this round was to find cost-optimized ways to add the amenities outside the scope of the often decades-long reconstruction cycle.

Let’s keep up the momentum for positive changes to Empire Blvd!

If you’re inspired by this vision, we’re encouraging you to reach out to share your enthusiasm with state and local officials. And perhaps the most important thing you can do is share this blog with residents, businesses, neighbors and friends who are also concerned about Empire Blvd and ask them to take action with you.

Take Action: 

1. Write an email or call the office.
2. Targets:
   1. NYSDOT – let NYSDOT know you support improvements to Empire Blvd and you plan to reach out to Town and state officials to also share your support. Email: Region 4 Director Chris Reeve – Christopher.Reeve@dot.ny.gov or 585-272-3310
   2. Town of Irondequoit – Town Supervisor Andraé Evans supervisor@irondequoit.gov or 585-467-8840
   3. Town of Penfield – Town Supervisor Jeff Leenhouts supervisor@penfield.org or 585-340-8600
   4. Town of Webster – Town Supervisor Tom Flaherty  supervisor@ci.webster.ny.us or 585-872-1000
   5. County Legislators:
      1. Paul Dondorfer: legislatordondorfer@gmail.com
      2. Mark Johns: legislatorjohns@gmail.com
      3. Dave Long: legislatorlong@gmail.com
      4. Rachel Barnhart: rachel@rachbarnhart.com
      5. Yversha Roman, President: yversha.roman@gmail.com
      6. William Burgess, Chair of the Transportation Committee: legislatorburgess@gmail.com 
   6. State Assembly
      1. Assembly Member Sarah Clark represents the western portion of the roadway: clarks@nyassembly.gov or 585-467-0410
      2. Assembly Member Jennifer Lunsford represents the eastern portion of the roadway: lunsfordj@nyassembly.gov or 585-223-9130
   7. State Senate
      1. Senator Samra Brouk represents the area: brouk@nysenate.gov or 585-223-1800
      2. Senator Jeremy Cooney is the Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee: cooney@nysenate.gov or 585-225-3650
3. What to ask for:
   1. I, resident of [Town of X] and your constituent, support Reconnect Rochester’s proposal to make Empire Blvd/NYS RT-404 a safer, more welcoming place for residents and people walking, biking and taking transit throughout the Winton Rd. to Bay Rd. corridor. I believe that Empire Blvd is an important gap in our cycling network, and the current conditions are preventing residents from all over the county from accessing the beautiful and historic Irondequoit Bay and frequenting the small businesses along the road. We have lost too many people to traffic violence on Empire Blvd and we need to change the way it’s built. I would urge you to support NYSDOT adding protected bike lanes, connecting the sidewalk network, slowing speeds and narrowing the travel lanes on Empire. Thank you.

Note: if you or your family members have been impacted by motor vehicle crashes, the organization New York Families for Safe Streets exists to support you. They can provide one-on-one or group support to individuals and families. Their social worker, Bobby Preti, is available if you’d like to talk to someone and learn more about how they can support you.

Email: bobby@familiesforsafestreets.org

Phone: 646-957-2109

Web: FamiliesforSafeStreets.org