We would like to thank everyone who participated in the 2026 Week Without Driving! We will report the number of trips and miles to the national campaign to show the collective impact of people getting around without a car nationwide.
We truly hope you have gotten something out of this initiative that you will take with you going forward. Getting this real life perspective of the joys and challenges of car free living is important and will serve as a reminder of why we do this work. With 24% of Rochester residents and 12% of Monroe County residents lacking car access, thousands of our neighbors don’t have the option to wait until the system improves. They rely on it today. The more of us who understand the benefits and the barriers firsthand, the more likely we are to build a multimodal community that works for everyone.
In 2026 we saw 40 participants logged 604 non-car trips for a total of 2,196.12 non-driving miles!
Special shout out to Hannah Geitner who used Flix bus to get to Ithaca instead of driving! We have included her thoughts on the experience below your comments.
Biking Comments
I biked to and from school today and I did better than I thought when I was biking up one of the hills, but the way back was much harder than I thought. My hack is remembering to switch gears when I go up big hills.
Biked to the eye dr, about 2.5 miles from my house. The route is pretty ok, but I wished there was bike parking.
Biked, Roundtrip, Home to the grocery store to buy more coffee beans. Not tricky. It was very easy and I’ve done it before. Mine was the only bike in the rack and I wondered if I’d ever find it full? Would be nice…
I went out for coffee. The biggest challenge was the pavement quality – potholes and broken pavement forced me into the road even when there were bike lanes next to the driving lane.
Today I biked from the Erie canal trail to Jefferson Rd for work today. There’s no good connection from the trail to Jefferson. I needed to bike on the shoulder S winton road which was awful
I rode from home to the Greece Library, using primarily bike boulevards. It’s tricky crossing Latta and Long Pond (several left and right hand turning cars), so I make sure the cars see me before I move into the intersection. I have a light in the front and rear of my bike and on my helmet, and wear a high visibility jacket. It’s pretty hard NOT to see me!
I biked to the pharmacy then stopped at the grocery store on the way back to pick up some stuff. My route starts going north on Mt Read for about 1 mile. The only difficult part is the intersection at Mt. Read/Stone. It’s tricky on a bike.
I’ve been working on low-stress bike route mapping for a few months, and today really emphasized the challenges of our current network. As a confident cyclist, I took some very direct routes that have little or no formal infrastructure (Scio St, Circle St, Woodbury Blvd) rendering them very uncomfortable for many. Anyone who is less confident is stuck using meandering, indirect routes that can add significant amounts of time to a trip. If we want to encourage cycling in our City, we need to make the most direct routes safe for all ages and abilites; even if that means re-routing or inconveniencing drivers.
I rode my bike to the public market to do some produce shopping on my way to the Roc the Riverway guided bike ride. I forgot to snap a picture but Jesse saw me there. Then I picked up a bottle of wine for dinner from Schuber on Park on my way home.
I’m in my own forever war against disappearing bike lanes. Shouts to Culver and Winton! Constantly asking myself if I should just take the lane even when the current stretch has a bike lane just so I don’t risk getting clipped when trying to get in the lane when the bike lane ends. But then I risk the revenge pass! Where a driver passes unsafely because they were annoyed that I slowed them down.
I did a big grocery shopping trip on bike, including a full-size watermelon and a carton of eggs! My panniers make me feel unstoppable!! However, I do despise the East Ave Wegmans parking lot with any form of transportation, but especially on a bike…
Heavy headwinds coming home on the Canal Trail in the afternoon. “Slow but steady wins the race.
Commute to and from work that I do all the time. Riding 7/10 miles on the canal is great. Rough spots are Lee Rd north of the canal, the Chili Ave intersection, and getting to near the Brickyard Trail from the canal.
Bowling on Monday night. I decided to get a locker last year so I could ride my bike without having to worry about carrying my bowling ball and shoes every week.
I rode my bike to the Y for yoga class this morning, then on to Walgreens to pick up photos. This afternoon I rode my bike to get a haircut and used bike boulevards to travel there and home safely.
Biked with my 6-year old to his choir practice on S Clinton. It required a very circuitous route and more sidewalk riding than we typically do. Luckily, the weather was perfect. We probably won’t do this regularly, but I’m glad to know it’s an option.
Cold morning – warmed up after 5 miles or so, but it was a brisk start to the day.
On my bike home from work on Monday, I took a detour to run an errand near Cobbs Hill Park. I usually would’ve taken the Harvard St bike boulevard for this route, but I decided to try out Park Ave itself. And what a nice ride it was! Super low traffic volume on Park Ave at 4:30pm on a Monday, and I played “tag” with a roller skater headed the same way as me; we passed each other a few times. Then to get home from there I biked up and over Cobbs Hill & Highland Park, which were tough but rewarding climbs with beautiful views.
Walking Comments
The weather was perfect today. Walking downtown with the construction on Main Street
There wasn’t always a side walk, other than that it was an easy trip.
All of my walks today were extremely pleasant on account of the perfect weather and being in Manhattan for work. I love when a City supports all 4 of Jeff Speck’s walkability tenets (useful, safe, comfortable, interesting).
I walked to Trillium Ribbon Cutting on Jefferson Ave and very surprised by the lack of visible crosswalks
Walked to dinner and convinced all my friends to go walk too!
Downtown construction made staying on the same side in the correct lane difficult and placed me walking into places cars werent expecting- the closer to State st, the more difficult
I walked from my house to The Rochester Oak Street Complex Center for the HBCU Tailgate party..I walked through the Bullshead Revitalization area and so excited to see ao much done and stating to see the vision come together. If I would have drove im sure I would had been frustrated by the detours.
First time walking to my house to the gym in Gates. I noticed the total difference walking in a town vs city…I almost don’t want to complain anymore about city sidewalks….what an adventure….not sure if I will do that again.
Walked to and from the Y on Thurston, then to and from work downtown and to and from a neighborhood community event. A beautiful day to be outside walking.
I walked from my job County Office Building to Local’s Only on 311 Alexander Street for a lunch meeting and let me tell you I love walking downtown. Seeing the diversity in people walking, handling their business, sitting out talking or people watching makes me happy.
I walked from work to the convention center and truly took in the view of the Genesee River.
Bus Comments
Super easy bus ride to and from work!
Loved event at Salinger’s. Took bus there and back.
Brighton bus line ends in a highway with no sidewalk to cross the river- was disappointed since there’s a trail system right underneath that could be connected by the bridge!
Grateful for living on the bus line direct to work when it’s pouring outside!
I like bikes and I like the bus but I don’t like transferring buses because there’s so much waiting in-between. So I bike to the transfer point where I get on the bus that gets me to work.
My Amtrak got into Rochester late so I had to litterally run with a week’s worth of luggage from the train station to the Transit center to catch the 18:00 pulse or I would have been stuck waiting for an hour. We need 15 minute frequencies or better on all urban fixed routes ASAP
One thing that’s been on my mind for months is the RTS policy of closing its bathrooms during the busiest hours of the commute to prevent bad behavior, but also preventing accessibility and basic human dignity.
Bus to an actual brewery + Bug Jar!
I had a bus delay completely alter my route home today. While this delay was happening at the Transit Center I helped another man pack up his groceries while RTS staff chided him and told him he couldn’t get on another bus. Feels like the bus system requires a lot of patience from riders without giving riders any respect in return, to put it delicately. I had a time I needed to be back, and thankfully I gave myself a lot of time, so I made it home by 6 pm, but it was closer than it should have been.
E-Bikes/E-Scooters
I took an ambitious trip up to Irondequoit from Rochester on my e-scooter. It was a lot of fun! The bike accomodations were spotty, but no one was yelling at me in the road and there weren’t many moments I felt unsafe, even when riding at night.
I took a trip up to Home Depot on Ridge Road, I had to return some items and buy more. Using my scooter in a hostile environment was challenging. I rode a lot on the sidewalks near the Home Depot because there was no dedicated bike lane and driving in traffic felt risky. But coming up from the city there’s bike lanes / easier roads on Goodman, Norton, and Main street. So most of the trip had some infrastructure.
I rode my e-scooter to RIT for a meeting. I rode down the Lehigh Valley Trail for the first time. It could definitely use some maintenance, but it’s a nice way to get between UofR and RIT.
I’ve found that it is sometimes faster to use a e-scooter than the bus since the routes are sparse. The lack of connection leaves long walk times at either end, so using the e-scooter shaves off quite a bit of time compared to the crosstown bus.
Hanna Geitner’s Flix Bus Experience
It is Reconnect Rochester, Inc‘s #weekwithoutdriving! Yesterday’s challenge was to take public transportation. At first, this seemed like a challenge as I had two site visits in Ithaca (75 miles away) but with a quick internet search I booked a round-trip ticket on a Flixbus! Conveniently, the Rochester bus stop is within walking distance to my office where I stashed my bike for the day and the Ithaca bus stop was 0.2 miles from my first meeting. I was able to walk to almost every other meeting site thanks to Ithaca’s downtown density and carpooled with 4 colleagues to one site outside the city center not connected via sidewalks.
Some things I noticed–
- Its much easier than you think to use the bus. Flixbus, Greyhound, Trailways, etc. have impressive routes across the country that can get you where you need to go.
- Taking the bus is like having a personal driver, I answered emails, took a quick nap, prepped for my meetings, and enjoyed the first glimpses of fall foliage around the Finger Lakes!
- Dense community design makes being carless far less intimidating. All but one of my meetings in Ithaca were in a 0.5 mile radius. Within this, I stopped to check out 3 different restaurants/cafes and spent some down time in the public library taking advantage of the free wifi and phone chargers.
- You can learn a lot about a place by showing up without a car and not relying on rideshares. This felt important as I showed up as a non-native to analyze potential projects. Before my first meeting, I had seen the main bus stops, saw how folks can access them (or not), seen their proximity to services, food, and stores, and used them myself. This was an incredibly small glimpse but it was one I would not have had if I had driven from my house, parked right outside each meeting, then drove back to Rochester.
What our elected officials say
State Senator Jeremy Cooney, Transportation Committee Chair, on RTS
“We like our drivers, we feel safe on the bus, RTS buses are newer and riding is a great experience! But do they get you to your destination frequently and on time?
We secured money to study Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to dedicate a lane just for bus service with transit signal priority to move our buses quicker. So if someone misses a bus they’re not waiting 45 minutes for the next one, they’re waiting 5-10 minutes.
I need everyone to call their state representatives and tell them to make transit a priority this budget session. It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity.”
Watch State Senator Cooney’s video on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.
Deputy Mayor Michael Burns on Walking
“One of the great things about living downtown is that we reduced the number of cars in our house from one to two because of good public transit and the walkability of downtown.
ROC Vision Zero is our initiative to make sure our streets are safer for all residents whether they drive, walk, or bike. A key component is safe crosswalks with crossing times that are adequate especially at high traffic intersections.
We also have a hazardous sidewalk repair program that identifies hazardous sidewalk areas throughout the city to ensure that folks walking have safe sidewalks.”
Watch Deputy Mayor Burns’ video on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.
Monroe County Executive Adam Bello on Biking
“Monroe County believes there should be a complete streets approach to how we design our streets. To make sure it’s safe for everybody to use our roads regardless of the mode they choose.
We changed county policy to allow for bike lanes to be installed on county roads. We have more lane miles planned for the future so it’s not just the city of Rochester but we’re connected into the suburbs as well.
Try riding a bike to get to where you’re going today and Monroe County’s commitment is to design roads that are safe for you to ride your bike and safe for motorists as well.”
Watch County Executive Bello’s video on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.
Dr. Miriam Moore, Chief Diversity Officer for Brighton on Disabled Mobility
“I do think if there were better transit options there would be fewer cars on the road subsequently lending more parking for individuals who need accessible parking.
Living with Avascular necrosis makes walking difficult. Having infrastructure that is in good condition with no cracks or bumps is important. Brighton now has a crosswalk that lights up. I’ve used it and I think it’s awesome for individuals who may not be able to cross at the speed that healthy individuals can.”
Watch Dr. Moore’s video on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky
Our local Week Without Driving initiative inspired the following news coverage:
- Could you go a week without driving? A Rochester nonprofit thinks you can and says it could save you money (News 10 WHEC)
- Could you go a week without driving in Rochester? (Democrat and Chronicle)