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Welcoming Our New Board Members!

We are thrilled to welcome three incredible new members to the Reconnect Rochester board! Each brings a wealth of expertise and dedication to advancing multimodal transportation choices in Rochester. Their diverse backgrounds and shared commitment to making a meaningful impact in our community will strengthen our efforts and broaden our reach. Join us in celebrating and getting to know Katie, Josie, and Steve!

Katie Austin

I have long admired Reconnect Rochester’s work to make our community stronger and more equitable, and am so excited for the opportunity to support Reconnect as a board member.

I grew up riding the New York City subway and walking around Brooklyn in all weather. One of my first experiences of the power of local government to change things for the better was when the city installed traffic lights at a dicey intersection on my route to school. One of my early jobs was also transit-related: the summer before college, I interned with Transportation Alternatives, helping survey parents and other caregivers about street and sidewalk conditions for a “Stroller Report Card.”

When I first moved to Rochester, I enjoyed a daily bus commute. With two kids and a tighter schedule, I am now much more reliant on driving. We have one car, but luckily for me my husband is a runner and is generally content to motor around the city by foot.

In my professional life, I am a criminal defense attorney. Since law school, I have also worked as an immigration attorney, as a civil litigator at a big law firm, and as a law clerk for two federal appeals court judges.

Josie McClary

My name is Josie McClary. I was born in Brooklyn, New York and moved to Rochester in 1989. Along with my four children and 3 grandchildren we call Rochester home. Growing up in NYC with both my parents we walked and took public transportation everywhere as my parent did not drive. As you can imagine that took a lot of planning ahead to ensure you made it to appointments, events and functions on time.

I have been employed by Monroe County for 29 years and currently work for Monroe County Executive Adam Bello as his Chief Community Engagement Officer. Prior to that I was Adam’s Executive Administrative Assistant.

My passion for community engagement and organizing goes back to my childhood days in Brooklyn where I watched my parents get involved in our community affairs and well-being. Both of my parents were civil servants working for the school system in NYC. They would organize block parties, neighborhood meetings and church events. They understood knowledge and education of the systems, laws, practices and procedures that would mold our lives was very important.

When I was President of the 19th Ward Community Association I was introduced to Reconnect Rochester and their work. I respectfully love the advocacy and community engagement work that they do. Whether it’s a street makeover, showing a film, or hosting a bike event, Reconnect Rochester is a champion in creating better mobility for the City of Rochester and Monroe County.

When my grandson best friend Ryan Gratham Jr. was hit and killed on Thurston Road, June of 2023 once again I was able to see the support Reconnect Rochester gave a grieving community. Farasa Brown and I along with community petitioned to get some traffic safety measures in place at the accident site. Today we have a crosswalk and Rapid Beacon Lights. Still there is much work to do in the area of pedestrian traffic safety.

Steve Roll

For most of my adult life, I only got around by car. I didn’t own a bike and never rode the bus. I grew up with epilepsy, and in 2019, I had a seizure again. This meant I wasn’t allowed to drive for about a year. During that time, I realized firsthand the challenges of living in Rochester without a car. This experience is why I became an active advocate for multimodal transportation with Reconnect Rochester.

Living in Rochester, I rely on bicycling, public transit, and walking to get around and that has given me valuable insights into both the possibilities and current limitations of Rochester’s transportation infrastructure. As a non-driver, I think I bring a unique perspective to discussions about how safe, reliable, and accessible transportation options are important for the 1/4 of Rochester households who don’t have access to a car.

Beyond my transportation advocacy, I’m an actuary and co-owner of Rising Fellow, an actuarial exam prep business, and an active member of Roc City Rotary. I grew up in the Rochester area and moved back here after living eight years in New Hampshire and Colorado because Rochester is a great place to live, and I want to be part of it.

I’m excited about joining the Reconnect Rochester board. I believe my combination of lived experience and professional skills will help advance Reconnect’s mission of making Rochester a more walkable, bikeable, and transit-friendly city for ALL its residents.

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Car Lite Rochester: My Walking Life

Car Lite Rochester is a blog series that highlights the stories of Rochesterians living a car-lite lifestyle. The term “car lite” encompasses a variety of multimodal transportation lifestyles, featuring little dependence (but not NO dependence) on a car.  It typically looks like sharing one car within a household or only using a car when absolutely necessary.

So, we hope you’ll continue to follow along.  Maybe you will be inspired to join our bloggers in living a car-lite lifestyle!

Wanna rep it? Check out the t-shirt in our online shop.

Car Lite Rochester: My Walking Life

By Karen Nozik:

I leave for work around 7:30 each morning. In winter, that’s when the sun clears the horizon, slicing through the trees and spotlighting treasures like my neighbor’s PEACE sign—a gem I would surely have missed if not for its timely glow as I walked by. Stunningly beautiful!

Today’s scene was no less inspiring. The sky displayed every shade of pink and orange against freshly fallen snow. These are the moments that make life worth living! Had I not been outside walking I most certainly would have missed it.

When I think of my walkable life, the gratitude I feel cannot be contained. While reflecting on why I often choose walking over driving, I realized it’s because walking outdoors is the only time I truly feel free. When I am out walking it is my time—precious stretches between hither and yon where no one can find me. I go at my own pace, look at things that catch my eye, see things about my city that can never be seen from inside a car. It’s a time when I truly live—focusing not on what I have to do, but on what I want to (traffic being the only exception, of course!).

Art Everywhere

Once you break free from the shackles of traffic—with its constant demands and occasional mean-spiritedness—you’ll be amazed to discover art all around you. It’s in the gargoyles perched on buildings, staring down from above, and in the vibrant murals bursting with color on their walls. It’s in the historical markers scattered through parks, offering fresh context and appreciation for the struggles of those who came before us, the vision of past civic leaders, and the progress we’ve made in transforming neighborhoods into more livable spaces. You’ll find it in splendid gardens, cascading fountains, and the intricate beauty of stained-glass windows.

Add Time to Your Day

A lot of people wonder how I can be so prompt if I always arrive on foot. They mistakenly believe that driving is always faster than walking. But I am almost never late. I pride myself on arriving on-time, mindful not to “steal other people’s time.”

The truth is— “trip-chaining” errands– the practice of linking multiple walking trips together in a single outing and combining several tasks into one journey is the most efficient way to travel! It minimizes travel time and distance and reduces repeated car starts and stops. Consider that I never have to waste time looking for parking. Or wait for traffic lights to change. I just keep moving by crossing the street in the other direction to get across and continue on my way. If you feel like you don’t have enough time in your day, try walking where you need to go. I promise it will feel like you are gaining time back from everything that has been conspiring to rob it!

Who Needs a Gym? (Or Pharmaceuticals?)

And forget excuses about not having time to work out. Or seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Walking is an antidote to the winter blues. As a bonus, while enjoying surroundings and avoiding road rage, I can also hit my 10,000 steps, listen to music (and even dance along), stay up-to-date on podcasts, reduce stress, breathe fresh air, and reflect on the day’s events. Nothing like a walk through the park to blow off steam, get your Vitamin D on, and forget about work.

Speaking of work, some of the best work meetings happen on a walk. The open air makes it easier to deliver bad news or tackle tough problems head-on. There’s something about walking and talking that sparks creativity, eases tension and builds camaraderie.

It’s All about the Gear (and Planning Ahead!)

Arriving at work after a cold Monday morning walk. Wearing black from head to toe without reflectors isn’t the best idea, but against a snowstorm?! (Take that logic with a grain of salt!)

Of course, walking everywhere sometimes requires a little planning ahead—what shoes will you need once you get there?  (What shoes will you need to walk there?)  It’s all about the right gear to weather the weather and get you where you’re going. The common phrase “use the right tool for the job” fits. I call my closet the convertible wardrobe, because every piece of clothing should do double-time in my walkable life.  Those walking tights pair nicely with my work dress and boots!  

Still, how will you get groceries home? Is it raining? These are trivial obstacles to a walking life, and nothing that a lightweight trusty backpack, sturdy boots, an umbrella, and a warm hat cannot solve.  (My Jan sport is still going strong after 40 years. I wouldn’t call it fashion, but it’s black and fits in anywhere—business meetings, theatrical performances, the public market).  For a middle-aged woman fighting osteoporosis, carrying weight on my back helps keep bones strong and is just what the doctor ordered.   

Get to know your Trees, and your Neighbors

In short, there are dozens of reasons why walking is preferable over driving. Walking offers so much more than just a way to get from point A to point B —it’s a lifestyle choice that enriches every part of my day. It helps to assuage highway anxiety, allows chance meetings with neighbors and friends, and connects me with my community. It supports local businesses, keeps me active and healthy, and allows for notice and appreciation of the art and nature around me. Trees look different 365 days a year, and just by watching them while walking we can learn things. Walking gives back time for simple pleasures while saving money and sparing my car wear and tear. Most importantly, it brings a sense of peace and serenity that driving simply can’t match. That’s why, whenever I can, I choose to walk.  And you can, too.

Get Involved

Reconnect Rochester has been integral to improving transportation options in Rochester and Monroe County. This work is important so that transportation is less of an obstacle for daily living.

Join Reconnect Rochester in making our city and county more livable by expanding transportation options:

Be part of the change happening in Rochester by getting “multi-modal” yourself and riding a bike, taking the bus, walking, or rolling for your next trip!


At Reconnect, we’re inspired by the stories of people in our community, like Steve Roll, Calvin Eaton and Yamini Karandikar, who are passionate about living a car-lite or car-free lifestyle. 

Let us know if you want to share your mobility story! What’s in it for you? The intrinsic reward of knowing you’ve inspired others, and a free t-shirt from our online shopContact Chaz to submit your story. 

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Announcing the Winners of the 2024-25 Complete Streets Makeover

(Drumroll please…)

Announcing the Winners of the 2024-2025 Complete Streets Makeover

In August, we asked you to help identify the intersections and trouble-spots in your daily travels where you don’t feel comfortable walking or biking, and that could be designed to be safer for everyone.

A big shout out to all those who took the time to submit a nomination! We received a total of 64 nominations for 39 locations in Monroe County.

Click here to view the nomination locations in Google Maps

Met with such esteemed and thought-provoking submissions, the Steering Committee employed the utmost levels of consideration to determine the winners for this year! After establishing criteria for both the Complete Streets Makeover Winner and the Design Rendering Winner, we reviewed each and every submission with painstaking care.

Without Further Ado, Our Winners!

  • COMPLETE STREETS MAKEOVER WINNER: Avenue D & Hollenbeck St in the El Camino neighborhood
  • DESIGN RENDERING WINNER: Webster Ave and Bay St in the Beechwood neighborhood

Why Avenue D & Hollenbeck?

  • Street redesign potential
  • High degree of safety concerns showing need for intervention
  • Strong community support from impassioned residents and community organizations to combat the area’s historical marginalization

We will collaborate with organizations such as the Ave D R-Center, the Northeast Neighborhood Service Center, and Ibero-American Action League to help us capture the spirit of El Camino and transform this intersection in the spring of 2025!

Next Steps…

We’ll hold a Community Workshop in February to gain insight from the residents of the El Camino neighborhood about the enhancements they would like in the intersection. No one understands what it’s like to use our streets better than those who walk, bike, roll, and ride along them everyday.

Our friends in the complete streets design team at Stantec will use community input from the workshop to create conceptual design enhancements of an improved streetscape. We’ll then see these concepts transform into reality through a temporary on-street installation in May. This transformation is only possible through the input and support of neighborhood residents coming out to help with the installation. Keep a look out for updates along the way!

Let’s not forget about our Design Rendering Winner (Webster Ave & Bay St)!

The design team at Stantec will create a conceptual drawing of street design improvements that will be given to the communities surrounding Webster & Bay. The neighborhoods can use these illustrations as a launch pad for community discussion, and a tool to help advocate for changes that would make these streets safer for everyone.


Do you have an intersection where you don’t feel safe? Although our Complete Streets Makeover nominations are closed for the year, you can always fill out the Traffic Safety Concern form from Monroe County to ask for special attention for trouble spots in your daily travels!

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Top 10 Things We’re Most Proud of in 2024

2024 was another non-stop busy year at Reconnect Rochester as we worked on many fronts, both on stage and behind the scenes, to champion better mobility in Monroe County. Check out below the Top 10 things we’re most proud of accomplishing this year. 

We do not do this work alone, and give thanks to all the people and partners who took part in these efforts by bringing your energy and gifts to this work — whether coming out for a community bike ride or rally, showing up to public meeting, partnering with us on a project, or sharing the good word on social media. All of it counts in this mobility movement we’re building together!

Financial support is another way to be part of the movement. We hope you’ll consider making a donation to Reconnect Rochester so we can keep up the good work! 


Top 10 Things We’re Most Proud of in 2024

(In no particular order of importance)

#1

Building Bike Community

Through bike classes, tours, community rides and pit stops, we work to build bike community and educate and inspire more folks to get on bikes, always innovating and finding new ways to reach people. In 2024, we hosted our first mass bike rally at the Ride for the Spine, where over 150 cyclists rode from Genesee Valley Park to meet up with our top public officials on the steps of City Hall. Rochester Bike Week in May keeps getting bigger and better every year and we got great visibility and news coverage to show off our incredible bike community! We also hosted a community conversation about how to start a “bike bus” to school, piloted an after school bike club at RCSD School # 12, and kept churning out great social media and blog content in our #ROCbyBike and Surprisingly Easy by Bike series.

There are so many accomplishments we now have a TOP 10 CYCLING HIGHLIGHTS list our rock star cycling manager, Jesse Peers, put together if you want to check that out!

#2

Securing Funding for Intercity Bus Terminal

Our biggest win of the year came in April with news of $18 million in the NYS budget to fund the Intermodal Station Phase II bus terminal expansion, which means that people traveling to and from our region by bus will at last be provided what they deserve – a comfortable and respectable place to wait. Reconnect Rochester played a pivotal role working for several years behind the scenes to rally support. If you’re one of the 500+ concerned citizens who signed our petition during the final push, thank you for proving that citizen action works!  A big shout out to State Senator Jeremy Cooney for championing this project and the entire NYS Delegation for bringing this funding home to our community.

#3

Adopting ROC Vision Zero

In June, Mayor Evans stepped up to declare a Vision Zero commitment, with the goal of bringing the number of traffic fatalities and severe injuries down to zero, making the City of Rochester became the first city outside of NYC to adopt a Vision Zero commitment. This wouldn’t have been possible without Reconnect Rochester’s persistent advocacy and City Councilmember Mitch Gruber also championing the idea! ROC Vision Zero is a comprehensive set of solutions that includes street design, community outreach and education, policy changes, and driver accountability measures. As we gathered with the families of crash victims on the World Day of Remembrance in November, we were reminded how critical this work is to reducing harm and saving lives.

#4

Expanding Advocacy Efforts in Monroe County

Thanks to our awesome advocacy team, we’ve wildly expanded our efforts in the towns and suburbs of Monroe County this year. Forming a new walk-bike advocate group that now meets quarterly, joining community partners to organize a walk audit on Calkins Road in Henrietta, and laying the groundwork for an advocacy push for improvements on Empire Boulevard, are just a few examples of how we are making inroads (pardon the pun).

#5

Amping Up Statewide Advocacy

In 2024, our advocacy team, led by Cody Donahue, grew our network of statewide partners and we’re doing more than ever to advocate for statewide legislation and budget investments that will support public transit and safer streets. We traveled to Albany in January to share our transportation priorities with lawmakers, and again in May with the Safe Streets Coalition. We’re participating in even more coalition groups, partnering with like-minded folks in coalition groups like New Yorkers for Transportation Equity. With lots of NYS offices on the ballot, our candidate questionnaire informed the electorate about their views on matters of mobility. We have an incredible State Delegation full of champions for mobility, and this year, we celebrated the appointment of Senator Jeremy Cooney as Chair of the NYS Senate Transportation Committee!

#6

Engaging the Community

One of our favorite things is to host quarterly Engagement Breakfasts, open to anyone interested in learning more about our work and plugging in. Every gathering brings a new mix of people, and fruitful connections and conversations. In addition to inviting people in, we are going to where people are, talking up mobility at marches, community meetings and events around the community. The list of subscribers to our Mobility Action Alerts that provide real-time opportunities to take action, has grown to over 300 folks from all over Monroe County who’ve signed up to be part of the mobility movement!

#7

Celebrating Safe Streets Investments

We had lots of thrills this year celebrating major investments that will be made in the coming years to improve safety for people walking and biking in Monroe County. In the first round of Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant funding, the City of Rochester and Genesee Transportation Council were awarded a combined total of $4.9 million for plans to improve sidewalks, bus stops, bike facilities and trails. Later in the year, Senator Schumer announced another $23M investment will be coming to Rochester to implement protective bike and pedestrian infrastructure. Rochester is also receiving $2.5 million in CMAQ funds for traffic calming elements on 15 more miles of designated Bicycle Boulevard routes. We can feel good that our letters of support and vocal advocacy played a part in these wins for better mobility!

#8

Sparking Land Use Conversation

This year, we put a spotlight on smart land use policies as a key ingredient to creating transit rich communities. Over 180 people joined us for The Sprawl Effect edition of Rochester Street Films where we explored the costs and consequences of our auto-centric land use policies, and how we can grow our communities smarter to deliver access, vitality and upward mobility. The focus on this topic came from discussions around the Transportation Impact Collective table. The TIC is a 20-member group that exists to unite local efforts around equitable, systemic solutions to address our region’s transportation challenges, and Reconnect Rochester provides “backbone” support to the group.  

#9

Engaging Local Media

Building on our Open Letter to the Rochester Media blog post last year, this year we invited members of the media to have a deeper conversation about responsible coverage of crash reporting. Our engagement effort has been bearing fruit all year as we’ve seen more informed coverage of crashes, more stories covering mobility topics, increased outreach to Reconnect as a source of expertise and information, and increased interest in covering matters of transportation that affect everyday people. 

#10

Building an All Star Staff Team

In 2024, we bid sad farewells to a few key staff members that moved on to new challenges, but happily welcomed some fantastic new additions to our staff team, including Lourdes Sharp in the newly created role of Project Manager. Human power means more impact, and we are loving all the new and expanded ways we’ve been able to fulfill our promise to pursue hopes and dreams for mobility in Monroe County.

Reconnect Rochester’s organizational growth has been made possible in great part by the continued support of Dr. Scott MacRae, a generous grant from the ESL Charitable Foundation’s Building Strong Neighborhoods initiative, and a growing base of supporting members — folks like you who share ownership for the mission and express that with your dollars. If you like what we do, we hope you will consider making a one-time or monthly donation to join us as a Reconnect member!

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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

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Reflecting on the 2024 World Day of Remembrance

On Sunday, November 17, Reconnect Rochester hosted a community conversation in honor of “World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims in the US” to remember victims of traffic violence, support victims and their families, and discuss ways to improve road safety. Reconnect opened its doors to anyone who has been affected by traffic violence, directly or through a friend or family member, to listen and connect. 

The event kicked off with an informational presentation by Director of Policy and Advocacy Cody Donahue and Rochester City Council Member Mitch Gruber about crash statistics, current efforts to reduce traffic crashes such as ROC Vision Zero and the Monroe County Community Traffic Safety Team.

Attendees who felt comfortable shared their stories about loved ones lost on Monroe County roads. 19th Ward community member Farasa Brown recounted the community’s efforts to put in a crosswalk where her 6 year old son Ryan Grantham Jr. was struck and killed on Thurston Rd. in June 2023. Rochester City Council Member Bridget Monroe shared her son’s story of being hit by a driver who fled the scene.

(photo courtesy of the D&C)

According to our Monroe County Crash Map, each year, an average of 13 people are killed on Monroe County streets. Over the last 10 years more than 5,000 vehicle crashes occurred involving people walking or biking with 2,279 of those resulting in an injury or a fatality.  In 2024 so far at least 10 pedestrians and 3 cyclists have died. Additionally we’ve seen some very serious crashes in the last few weeks and are monitoring their conditions.

The World Day of Remembrance is an international effort to remember, support, and act to prevent car crashes, injuries, and fatalities. Every year, millions more road victims are added to the current toll of over 50 million killed and hundreds of millions injured since the first road death. It is an actual pandemic, affecting primarily our vulnerable and our young. In addition to the trauma of injury and bereavement, it also has a devastating economic impact. Therefore, during the Decade of Action 2021-2030 the World Day has an important role of helping to achieve the 50% road casualty reduction target.

The global objectives of World Day of Remembrance 2024 are to provide a platform for road traffic victims and their families to:

  • Remember all people killed and seriously injured on the roads
  • Acknowledge the crucial work of the emergency services
  • Draw attention to the generally trivial legal response to culpable road deaths and injuries to push for an appropriately serious response
  • Advocate for better support for victims and their families
  • Promote evidence-based actions to stop further road traffic deaths and injuries

If you or anyone you love was impacted by a crash, 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. You can directly contact their social worker:

Bobby Preti
Email: bobby@familiesforsafestreets.org
Phone: 646-957-2109
Web: FamiliesforSafeStreets.org

The event ended with a moment of silence for the victims:

On this World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, we gather to remember the victims, support them and their loved ones, and act to prevent future tragedies on our roads. One life is too many. One injury can have lifelong consequences. We stand here to take a moment of silence for all of the crash victims who have been injured or lost their lives this year and in past years in Monroe County. Please join me in observing a moment of silence. Thank you.


If you would like to join our planning committee for the 2025 World Day of Remembrance event, please contact us at info@reconnectrochester.org

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#ROCbyBike – ’23-’24 Instagram Contributors

By: Jesse Peers

In our climate, most people ride bikes in the Spring, Summer and Fall and that’s okay! When the cycling scene slows down in November, our cycling Instagram account would go almost completely dark for several months. The thought struck us in 2019 that we could use that season to feature guest contributions from area cyclists. It would be a fun way to celebrate biking in Rochester. Contributors could give us a glimpse of their biking lifestyle, what it means to them, what got them into riding, their favorite places to ride and groups to ride with, etc. It’s become a neat way for cyclists who bike in different ways for different reasons to find commonality.

We are proud to present below consolidated stories of our contributors from fall 2023-spring 2024. We hope it inspires you to get out and ride!

Carlo Jereza

“I got into biking primarily for health reasons. I’m in my 50s and my health was starting to decline due to being a couch potato. Biking has become some sort of meditation for me to get away from the world. My favorite places to ride are the Erie Canal Trail and the beaches by Lake Ontario. I’ve found Rochester to be pretty bike friendly.”

(five posts Nov 10-22, 2023)

Gina Cardarelli

“Rochester has natural topographical advantages for a bicycle friendly city: waterways and a mostly flat landscape in the city. The improvements in infrastructure are very encouraging. “Aren’t you afraid of cars?” People ask. The reward still outweighs the risk for me. I can get from A to B while improving my mood, cognition, and fitness. I’ve also learned when pairing a bike with a bus, many of the most troublesome legs of some trips can be eliminated with planning.”

(six posts Nov 24-Dec 7, 2023)

Nick Giordano

“I moved from the suburbs into the city and traded my car for a bike for parking reasons. I quickly fell in love with the joy of biking and have been regularly riding for the last ten years.
My favorite group rides are the Flower Pedal Populaire and the Fall Classic. Dressing up and biking with a big group is so much fun. The Keeping it Classy Cycling Club is great at keeping riders safe. I’ve also done Reconnect Rochester rides and the (now defunct) Coffee and Cogs 585 group. One of my favorite rides is the Genesee Riverway Trail going past the Maplewood Rose Garden, through Turning Point Park and heading down to Abbotts at the Lake. On the way back I like to ride the trail that runs parallel to the @senecaparkzoo and then take the el camino trail back into the city.”

(five posts Dec 8-20, 2023)

Kathryn O’Brien

“I’ve never not had a bike in my life. I’ve always loved biking for its ease and speed. Fast forward to my 20’s and you’d find me barcycling to the Bug Jar, around the corner to Lux so that I didn’t have to walk even one block alone, or riding to friends’ apartments to avoid parallel parking/paying a meter. I try to spread the word about Reconnect Rochester’s on-bike classes to everyone I know. Even though I was already a strong rider, the class just helps you feel more empowered to realize biking is transportation too. Be loud; take up space!”

(five posts Jan 5-18, 2024)

Monique Peterson

“My cousin Karen Rogers at EE Pathways got me into biking. I enjoy riding along the Genesee Riverway Trail. I join the Flower City Feeling Good community bike ride series on Wednesdays with Reconnect Rochester and EE Pathways. Also the Unity Ride and with family. Biking is therapeutic! It helps with arthritis in my knee and is just a lot of fun. Through biking, I hope to live a healthier, better life.”

(five posts Jan 19-31, 2024)

Andrea Parros

“What I like about riding is it’s a meditation – you have to focus your attention and maintain total awareness of your surroundings at all times. I stay active while saving on gas, it’s better for the environment and it helps both my physical and mental health. When I’m riding, I love checking out people’s dogs while they’re out walking, and I think it’s fun to spot the bunnies that live in my neighborhood.”

(seven posts Feb 2-14, 2024)

Scot Makai

“I’ve been riding bikes since I can remember. I now ride my bikes for fun on wooded trails with my friends, on the road between parks or to a restaurant in town.  I volunteer with the Genesee Regional Off-road Cyclists. I ride trails to connect with nature, to have fun with friends, to challenge my technical riding skills, but mostly to decompress from my workday and experience a surprisingly clear and “quiet” mental flow state. Everyone should ride bikes!”

(six posts Feb 16-29, 2024)

Linda Agnello

“My husband and I sold our house, moved to an apartment in Greece, and purchased bikes in 2012. Being one street over from 390 trail was perfect. I can’t begin to tell you how biking has changed my life. Not only am I stronger physically but also mentally. It just gives me such a high and being with nature and places you can’t access with a car are simply outstanding. I am recently retired so everyday is a biking day. I try to balance home with biking, but biking always WINS!”

(six posts Mar 1-14, 2024)

Robin Hill

“I really started biking when I saw bike riders in my neighborhood every Thursday on the Unity Ride. I was so intrigued by the diverse group of people. I wanted to be a part of that! I joined them and have been riding ever since. Biking is freeing from being behind the wheel all the time. It is a kind of meditation for me. Being out and the sights and sounds really relax my mind. I’m always going to ride but we need more safe places to ride so more people can experience the joy of riding.”

(six posts Mar 15-27, 2024)

Lisa Roberts

“We live in one of the most beautiful bikeable places…I can bike commute from my driveway, ride to my local mt bike park via multi-use trails, and get to the Erie Canal trail via rail trails.
Biking isn’t always about the destination. I mix it with other hobbies such as visiting historical places & buildings. There’s lots of cycling groups in Rochester & the surrounding area, try one or all of them! You’ll find there’s more than one you like to ride with.”

(five posts Mar 29-Apr 10, 2024)

Tom Paradise

“I really like to ride on my own but I am a big extrovert and like to plan fun for people. There are great group rides in Rochester, but I wanted to start my own. In 2022 I started Coffee and Cogs 585. I was inspired by coffee.and.bikes for the idea of early morning rides and combining it with coffee. I am a big coffee head and wanted to use this as a way to support the great local coffee scene in Rochester. I love going to group runs with @rocrunningco and wanted to create my own version by bike. We’ve built a great little community.”

(six posts Apr 13-May 8, 2024)

If you’re interested in sharing your story for our 2025-26 #ROCbyBike series, reach out to Jesse at cycling@reconnectrochester.org.*

*Diversity is important to us. So, it may take a while to fit you in the queue so we can make spots for other voices.

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Surprisingly Easy By Bike, Volume 3

By: Jesse Peers

For fun on social media this year, Reconnect Rochester posed the following question: What’s a destination, that at first glance, would seem quite difficult & stressful to bike to, but is actually pretty easy *IF* you use a certain route, probably an unintuitive approach or easily overlooked back way? (Definitely not the way you’d drive there). Over the course of this series we hope to inspire and equip more folks to bike to popular destinations, at least in good weather. 

Responses have been coming in and we’re excited to share our next several destinations.

Two helpful links before we jump in:

  • Our ROC Easy Bike map – the easy ways to bike around the area. Many of the zoomed out maps below couldn’t label every street along the way. You’ll get your answers here.
  • Most of the following maps incorporate the growing Bike Boulevard network. Reading this recent deep dive on the bike boulevards is highly recommended before proceeding.

ROCHESTER’S CITY-RUN PUBLIC MARKET

Our award winning public market is one of the most popular destinations in the area, especially on Saturday mornings. The parking lots are extremely congested but one doesn’t have to worry about that at all when biking there. There is ample bike parking throughout the complex and as long as you have a way to haul what you buy, biking is probably the easiest and most convenient way to get to and from for nearby residents. The City’s bike boulevard network takes riders to the Market comfortably from all four directions. If you haven’t checked it out, definitely enroll in their bicycle incentive program: “Each time you ride a bike to a regular Market shopping day or free-admission special event, you can enter drawings for Market Gift Tokens!”

EAST AVE WEGMANS

Let’s be very clear: University & East Avenues’ intersections with Winton Road need to be made bike-friendly. In the meantime, many folks have easy access to Wegmans via Harvard Street, Colby Street and the bike/ped bridge over 490. From the north, access is pretty easy via the University (north side) and Winton (west side) sidewalk. Though sidewalk riding is not generally advisable, it tends to be fine in instances like this – short, finite stretches with few conflict points. Bike parking at Wegmans is the best! Right up in the front.

*Remember to use the ROC Easy Bike map for more detail on these routes!

THE FREDERICK DOUGLASS GREATER ROCHESTER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Thanks Doug Kelley for this entry. Unlike so many airports, Rochester’s is quite close to downtown; very bikeable! Brooks Avenue, as it’s currently configured, is uncomfortable to bike on but there’s another way to access the airport by bike. Just take the Genesee Valley Greenway southbound from the Genesee Valley Sports Complex (131 Elmwood Ave). There’s a traffic light that helps you cross Scottsville Road to E Airport Road, which is very low traffic and overall bike-friendly. The main parking garage has multiple bike racks, which many riders have found secure. Whereas car parking is $12 per day, bike parking there is free! Granted, biking to depart for a flight isn’t for everybody, but it can be done, especially if packing lightly. Furthermore, access to the airport isn’t just for airline passengers. The airport is an employment hub and many employees can use this way to bike to work in an easy manner, especially if they live in the 19th Ward, South Wedge or West Brighton.

PITTSFORD PLAZA AND WHOLE FOODS

As we explored in this 2021 blog, the newly improved Auburn Trail makes it super easy (and downright delightful!) to bike to Pittsford Plaza, Whole Foods – heck, even the PGA when they’re in town. Getting there does require biking on Highland Ave for a tiny bit. Most riders can bike on Highland over 590 with no trouble. Once past Clover, there are multiple lights and crosswalks that allow you to cross Monroe to visit destinations such as Barnes & Noble and Trader Joes.

NAZARETH (AND ST JOHN FISHER TOO!)

Thanks Tim Franz for this entry. Similar to the map above, if you go just a bit further along the Auburn Trail past Pittsford Plaza, you’ll come to French Road. A nice sidepath there takes you straight to Nazareth University. St John Fisher is just a short ride along East Avenue, which has shoulders.

That’s all for Volume 3!

Got another destination we can include in the series? Reach out to us at cycling@reconnectrochester.org. Get more details on the ROC Easy Bike map

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A Recap of Our 2024 Rochester Street Film: The Sprawl Effect

On October 8th, we hosted The Sprawl Effect, the latest edition of Rochester Street Films. We examined the costs and consequences of our current auto-centric land use and how we can grow our communities smarter to deliver access, vitality & upward mobility.

It is well worth watching the panel discussion, video clips, and presentations on our YouTube Channel, but in case you don’t have the time, or prefer to read about it, we have put together a recap of the evening below.

Film Clips

CNBC: How Suburban Sprawl Weighs On The U.S. Economy

(Clips shown 1:49-4:20 & 9:48-10:55)

In the 1930’s the Federal Housing Administration provided loans to make mortgages more affordable yet the loans came with guidelines to standardize neighborhood design which directly contributed to sprawl and auto-centric infrastructure:

  • No sidewalks (hostile to pedestrians)
  • Minimum lot sizes (homes are more expensive to build and farther apart)
  • Separated land use due to exclusionary zoning (homes far from amenities and difficult to reach without a car)

Not Just Bikes: Suburbia is Subsidized Here’s the Math [ST07]

(Clips shown 0:00-9:18)

When services are built far from homes this contributes to sprawl. It also costs more to subsidize auto-centric neighborhoods due to requirements such as more asphalt to support the parking requirements and more frequent road repairs due to degradation from heavy use. When we build transit oriented developments with a mix of high density residencies (instead of exclusively single family homes), along with commercial, office, and entertainment spaces in the same neighborhood; they financially outperform auto-centric suburbia every single time.

The diagram below from Urban 3 shows that cities are much more profitable and actually subsidize suburbs with their tax dollars. The revenue bars of the dense downtown area vs the expenses associated with sprawl is clear in the visual provided. While this graph is from Lafayette, Louisiana, Urban 3 found this phenomenon is true with every city they studied all over the country.

Presentation on Local Data & Stats

Cody Donahue, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Reconnect Rochester

(6:34-21:10 in our Street Film Video)

Even if you have access to a car and all of the expenses that come with it, losing access to basic amenities in your neighborhood deprives it of its usefulness and its character. Our sprawling land use patterns have a substantial human cost in limiting the ability of too many of us to access what we need. This stands in the way of upward economic mobility.

Thanks to the resource Zoning Atlas, we see that single family homes can be built virtually anywhere in Rochester. Yet building higher density homes such as apartments, ADUs, or even single family homes on small lots is more restricted.

Irondequoit and Penfield data is currently unavailable.

We believe connecting Monroe County with robust transportation options and utilizing less restrictive land use will increase the vibrancy of town centers, reduce harmful air pollution, and allow seniors to age in place without relying on driving. While understanding that we need to build on what we have, before building anything new we recommend considering the following:

  • Using land that is located in town, village and city centers productively by building denser, mixed use buildings along transit corridors & filling in disused parking lots 
  • Choosing development patterns that make the car and car storage optional, not the center of the design
  • Using new transit developments such as bus rapid transit or incentives to stimulate economic growth in areas well served by transit options or walkability

Special Remarks

Simeon Banister, President & CEO of Rochester Area Community Foundation

(22:30-32:18 in our Street Film Video)

Land use decisions are often attributed to organizations instead of people but Homer Hoyt is an actual person who made decisions that brought us many of the problems that we have discussed today. Hoyt was the Chief Land Economist for the Federal Housing Administration who approached his work through the lens of his preconceived biases about people of color and immigrants rather than letting data itself inform his research. He is the architect of redlining which led to zones of deprivation in our community and all across the United States. Hoyt made a choice based on fear, and we can do the same or make a choice for vibrant neighborhoods that embraces smart growth in transit policy.

Panel Discussion

(33:57-1:24:07 in our Street Film Video)

Moderator: Abigail McHugh-Grifa, Executive Director at Climate Solutions Accelerator

Panelists:
Aqua Porter, Executive Director of RMAPI
Kevin Kelley, Office of City Planning Manager
Miguel Velázquez, CEO of RTS

Aqua Porter emphasized that building power, autonomy, dignity, and belonging is key to upward mobility and economic opportunity. Exclusionary zoning and car-dependent infrastructure are costly and restrict residents’ autonomy. By addressing land use and embracing dense, mixed-use neighborhoods, we can offer people more choices in where they live and engage with their communities. This shift can help reduce social isolation, fostering more connected and vibrant neighborhoods compared to the isolating, sprawling suburbs created by single-family zoning.

Kevin Kelley discussed the Rochester 2034 plan and Zoning Alignment Project, which aim to promote density along transit corridors and address land use issues. However, he cautioned that Rochester’s history with a struggling market could present a barrier to building high density projects. He also highlighted the need for more inclusive zoning in suburbs and rural areas, along with increased state and federal funding for public transit. Raising awareness about zoning problems and solutions is key to making progress.

Miguel Velázquez discussed how frequent service is crucial for robust public transit, but RTS has faced decades of underfunding, limiting its effectiveness. He noted that land use plays a role, as many people want to get by without needing a car but are scattered across Greater Rochester. Miguel also emphasized the importance of involving RTS when large companies plan new facilities, as many opt for highway-adjacent locations with big parking lots instead of transit-accessible downtown sites. To address this, the NYS Assembly and Senate are considering bills to fund transit services when companies receive tax incentives for building in the region: S8563/A9225.

Get Involved

We hope that this discussion resonates with you and that you will consider watching the program in its entirety on our YouTube channel. While you’re over there, make sure to subscribe!

  • Stay informed by following Reconnect Rochester on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
  • Sign up to receive our monthly e-news!
  • Want to help more directly? Sign up for our weekly Mobility Action Alerts to stay in the loop with opportunities of how to advocate for safer streets, bicycle infrastructure, and transportation options.
  • Also please consider donating to support our advocacy work building a community connected by a robust transportation network that makes it easy for everyone—regardless of physical or economic ability—to get around.

Got an idea for a blog post about mobility? Contact Chaz to get started. 

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Where They Stand: 2024 Candidates for US House of Representatives, NY Senate, & NY Assembly

Reconnect Rochester surveyed general election candidates for US House of Representatives, NY Senate, and NY Assembly to learn where they stand on issues related to transportation and mobility.

Questions were designed to give the candidates the opportunity to share their opinions, ideas and vision for a well-connected and accessible community.  We contacted every campaign by email or mail to request a response.

Click on the candidate names below to read their full, unedited responses. 

We hope this information will help you make an informed decision when you head to the polls! Early voting starts Saturday, October 26th and runs through Sunday, November 3rd. Click here to find early voting sites!

To check if you are registered to vote, confirm your polling location for November 5th, and even see a preview of what your ballot will look like: click here.

Candidates for US House of Representatives 25th District

Joe Morelle

Candidate Email: info@votemorelle.com

Website: votemorelle.com 

 

1. What are Monroe County’s greatest transportation challenges?

Rochester and Monroe County face several key transportation challenges, including aging infrastructure, limited public transit options, and pedestrian safety concerns. Many of our roads, bridges, and public transit systems need updates and repairs to keep up with modern demands. Furthermore, residents in rural areas have limited access to reliable transit, which restricts their mobility and access to employment and services. And sadly, our streets are often unsafe for pedestrians and bicyclists, leading to too many tragic incidents each year. Addressing these issues requires a coordinated, long-term approach to make transportation safer, more reliable, and more equitable for everyone in our community.

2. In the U.S., pedestrian fatalities are up 83% since 2009. In Monroe County, an average of 10 bicyclists and pedestrians die on our streets every year and thousands more are injured. Rochester recently announced a commitment to “ROC Vision Zero” aiming to eliminate traffic deaths from our streets. If elected, would you support this program and if so, how?

Yes, I am already working closely to support the ROC Vision Zero initiative. This commitment to eliminating traffic deaths is essential for improving public safety and enhancing our quality of life. I recently helped secure $23 million in federal funding for the City of Rochester’s Safe Streets for All initiative, which closely aligns with ROC Vision Zero. Through this type of coordinated collaboration with elected officials, community organizations, and local advocacy leaders, we can create safer streets and save lives.

3.  Recently, the House majority leadership recently released a proposed Transportation budget that included large cuts to transit and safe streets funding that would pull back on the commitments made in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). These cuts appear to halt efforts to repair aging infrastructure, expand transit options, and move towards a cleaner, more equitable transportation system. As THUD appropriations negotiations are continued, how will you ensure that mass transportation and safer streets continue to receive funding?

I am committed to ensuring that Monroe County receives its fair share of funding to support mass transportation and safer streets. We cannot afford to backtrack on the critical progress we’ve made in upgrading infrastructure, improving public transit, and developing sustainable transportation systems. I will continue to utilize my position on the House Appropriations Committee to deliver funding for critical infrastructure projects.

4. Why should Monroe County residents who care about safer streets, better mobility, and better public transit vote for you?

I have always been a steadfast ally in the effort to make our streets safer and more accessible to everyone. I have been proud to utilize my position to advocate for infrastructure improvements that protect pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike while prioritizing transportation investments that reconnect our communities and uplift underserved communities. I look forward to the opportunity to continue fighting for the needs of our community and working collaboratively to implement solutions that improve access to transportation and mobility for all.

Gregg Sadwick

Candidate Email: Not available

Website: sadwickforcongress.com 

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Luther Layne

Candidate Email: lutherlebronlayne@outlook.com

Website: lutherlebronlayne.wixsite.com

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Candidates for NY Senate 54th District:

Scott Comegys

Candidate Email: ccomegys42@gmail.com 

Website: electscottcomegys.com

1. What are Monroe County’s greatest transportation challenges?

I would say that the challenges for transportation in Monroe County stem from the disconnectedness it has due to sprawling development. Housing developments continually sprout without thought to access to basic needs like groceries, pharmacies, schools, or healthcare facilities while commercial properties were developed without thought to how communities would access them except by traversing busy roadways. Everything has been developed with the idea that everyone would have access to automobiles. Very little effort was put into past development to ensure that there were good pedestrian and bicycle friendly ways of getting from home to work to basic needs facilities to recreation. This, in turn, has also contributed to communities being cut off from each other as we place senior living in one area away from suburban middle class communities away from lower income affordable housing, resulting in the need for more public transportation systems, many of which are inefficient and expensive in their operation.

The greatest challenge Monroe County has in relation to transportation at this point is creating the connections between communities so that the people can easily go from home to all the places they need to go, whether by foot, pedal, or motor.

2. In the U.S., pedestrian fatalities are up 83% since 2009. In Monroe County, an average of 10 bicyclists and pedestrians die on our streets every year and thousands more are injured. Rochester recently announced a commitment to “ROC Vision Zero” aiming to eliminate traffic deaths from our streets. If elected, would you support this program and if so, how?

After reviewing the initial proposals I would support this initiative by finding funding resources in the state budget that could support the design and infrastructure costs necessary. Bear in mind that the state cannot fully fund the initiative just for the city, but should create a program to fund these types of initiatives for many different areas around the state. My district is largely a rural district, but has some other urban areas that could benefit from similar programs. Monroe County can be the test subject and success can be beneficial to many areas in the district. I am particularly supportive of the bicycle network idea as that can also create safe ways to connect the city with rural areas. I am leery of the automated traffic enforcement proposal and would have to see what exactly that entails. While I agree that reduced speed also reduces accidents and fatalities, I worry that the automation would not have the intended effect and may cause more expensive legal battles than cause better traffic behaviors.

3. The Governor’s pause of congestion pricing has put the MTA in a financial emergency and has threatened jobs across our region. When the MTA is in trouble, Albany often prioritizes downstate before addressing upstate transit needs. How would you work to find a reliable funding source for capital and operating costs of public transportation in Monroe County?

This is where building a stronger upstate coalition is necessary with the goal of reminding the State of NY that the Finger Lakes Region, as well as Upstate and Western NY Regions, contribute a great deal to the state and deserve equitable distribution of resources. If, in order to ensure the resources get to our region as well, we need to insist on the congestion pricing being put in place, that is one avenue. However, perhaps the better option is to invest more in our transportation infrastructure and public transportation services so we can better market our areas as places that can provide more of what NYC is famed for and create a shift that brings more people and commerce to our area, ease some of the burden NYC is dealing with, and create a healthier, stronger economy statewide. We have to do better marketing the Finger Lakes as a better region to live, work, do business in, and play to entice people here, and those resources the state can provide will have a better impact if invested here.

4.  Amtrak’s Empire Service has far exceeded pre-pandemic ridership numbers and trains to NYC regularly sell out Thursday-Sunday. What actions by the NYS legislature will you take to support the expansion of rail service and make other improvements to inter-city travel in upstate New York?

Ultimately the answer here has to be more investment in the infrastructure surrounding rail service, ensuring that stations are found in more communities, are easily accessible, and working to ensure that operations are run convenient to the public. What I would really like to see in NYS is a high speed rail system, which I believe will become more of a priority if we are increasing the use of rail in the state as it is, supporting that system with better stations, more convenient ways of accessing the system, and keeping the ticket prices affordable. Naturally, partnering with federal government partners increases the likelihood of this happening, so I would also assist in efforts making the case to those federal colleagues.

5. Many residents of the Rochester area either can’t, or can barely afford to own a car. To meet our climate goals, personal vehicle trips will have to be reduced. How will you support transportation options such as walking, biking and public transportation in our community, and improve accessibility to jobs and resources for residents who don’t own or want to use a car?

This gets into my first statement with the challenges that Monroe County (and to be honest every county) faces with regards to transportation. To be more environmentally friendly and sustainable, which helps to meet our climate goals, we have to look at redesigning neighborhoods to ensure that resources are within the neighborhoods, that we are not creating so much division between demographics (such as the separation of senior living, affordable housing neighborhoods, and random cul de sacs), that the spaces are walkable and bikeable, have public transportation that can run efficiently and with vehicles that are not powered by fossil fuels.

While we are supporting this redesign we should make more of an effort to increase education about the benefits of connected communities. If any of this is to work we have to have the people supporting the effort, and they won’t so that unless we demonstrate the benefits they will enjoy. Sadly, at this point people need to be convinced that being more connected physically is actually healthier, more affordable, and more secure than having jobs and resources being located 5 or more miles away from home and cars being a necessity for survival.

Lastly, let’s talk about public transportation again in a broader county and district sense. We are aware that we can run buses in a city an they will get regular ridership. The farther out we go the ridership numbers go down both due to fewer people living in concentration as well as the frequency for need of transportation and the increase in distances between homes and access points for public transportation. I will be honest in that I don’t have a real solution for making public transportation accessible in these types of areas, but I believe that if we had a better system of light rail, buses, and on demand public transportation we could reduce the need for everyone to have an automobile. I realize that is an incredibly safe thing to say, but I am willing to commit time and resources to create a good solution.

6. Why should Monroe County residents who care about safer streets, better mobility, and better public transit vote for you? 

I am standing up, as an ordinary citizen, to put in the hard work to find the solutions to all of these questions about transportation and every other priority the state has, rather than behave as those who have served this district in the past who have focused on coming up with reasons for why we can’t move forward with solutions. My focus on what we can do and finding ways for how our goals can be accomplished is what we need right now if we want a state that is more affordable, more vibrant, and more secure and fulfills its potential as being a place where everyone can live the life they choose as their genuine self with dignity, prosperity, security, and justice. That is what you are voting for by voting for me.

Pamela Helming

Candidate Email: pamhelming@gmail.com

Website: helmingforny.com

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Candidates for NY Senate 55th District:

Samra Brouk

Candidate Email: info@samraforsenate.com 

Website: samraforsenate.com

1. What are Monroe County’s greatest transportation challenges?

The greatest transportation challenges facing Rochester and Monroe County are equity, justice, and vision. Equity involves ensuring that communities receive the necessary state and federal funding, as well as making investments in transportation that prioritize a multi-modal focus. It also pertains to which communities receive funding, linking directly to the challenge of justice. Justice means addressing the historical wrongs of transportation design and implementation that have left communities scarred and divided. It requires ensuring that new investments do not replicate past harms. Ultimately, we need a vision for transportation that serves everyone and every community—a vision capable of withstanding the climate crisis, healing the wounds of a century of transportation decisions, and empowering our community in every facet.

2. In the U.S., pedestrian fatalities are up 83% since 2009. In Monroe County, an average of 10 bicyclists and pedestrians die on our streets every year and thousands more are injured. Rochester recently announced a commitment to “ROC Vision Zero” aiming to eliminate traffic deaths from our streets. If elected, would you support this program and if so, how?

I will support ROC Vision Zero. Communities across the United States and around the world have successfully committed to Vision Zero, and it is crucial for Rochester to join them. As an elected official, I will advocate for ROC Vision Zero by ensuring that the state provides the necessary resources to implement policies such as traffic calming measures, equitable investments, and enforcement support.

3. The Governor’s pause of congestion pricing has put the MTA in a financial emergency and has threatened jobs across our region. When the MTA is in trouble, Albany often prioritizes downstate before addressing upstate transit needs. How would you work to find a reliable funding source for capital and operating costs of public transportation in Monroe County?

Since taking office, I have advocated for an independent and reliable funding source for upstate transportation in each state budget process. Monroe County and the greater upstate transportation network would greatly benefit from a dedicated revenue source. While there are multiple possibilities for this funding, it is essential that we do not impose another tax burden on residents. Instead, we should explore the largely untapped potential of taxing the ultra-wealthy and mega-corporations to finance the transportation improvements we need and contribute as it directly contributes to a more mobile and productive workforce as well.

4.  Amtrak’s Empire Service has far exceeded pre-pandemic ridership numbers and trains to NYC regularly sell out Thursday-Sunday. What actions by the NYS legislature will you take to support the expansion of rail service and make other improvements to inter-city travel in upstate New York?

While in Albany, I was proud to help pass train safety legislation through the Senate and pleased to see some of that legislation signed into law. However, this is only the first step in bringing New York’s train infrastructure into the twenty-first century. I will support initiatives that increase state involvement in expanding our rail services in Upstate New York, whether through studies on new routes, additional funding for existing corridors, or partnerships to ensure federal investments reach Upstate New York, where we see firsthand the demand for enhanced rail services.

5. Many residents of the Rochester area either can’t, or can barely afford to own a car. To meet our climate goals, personal vehicle trips will have to be reduced. How will you support transportation options such as walking, biking and public transportation in our community, and improve accessibility to jobs and resources for residents who don’t own or want to use a car?

Supporting investments, such as the newly funded long-distance bus terminal included in this year’s state budget, will continue to be a priority of mine in every budget cycle. Transportation dollars should not be allocated solely for private vehicles; they must be used in a diverse and multi-modal fashion. By funding a range of transportation options, we can encourage more individuals to forgo driving while simultaneously improving the essential public transit services that many people across the economic spectrum rely on every day. Transportation justice and climate justice go hand in hand, and our actions must reflect this connection.

6. Why should Monroe County residents who care about safer streets, better mobility, and better public transit vote for you? 

As a parent, I understand the statistics that highlight the dangers of vehicle-related accidents for children. We owe it to not only the children in our communities but also to everyone who travels by bike, bus, train, on foot, or private vehicle, to create safer streets. Safer streets are essential not only for our climate future but also in our pursuit of justice. Addressing the wrongs of past transportation development and investments requires a committed approach that centers on multi-modal and community-focused design. I am dedicated to making these investments as an elected official.

Luis A. Martinez

Candidate Email: LuisMartinezforNYSenate@gmail.com

Website: luismartinezforsenate.com

 

This candidate declined to return our survey.

Candidates for NY Senate 56th District:

Jeremy Cooney

Candidate Email: cooney@nysenate.gov

Website: jeremycooney.com

1. What are Monroe County’s greatest transportation challenges?

Access to public transportation is one of the region’s greatest transportation challenges. I believe RTS and the RTS drivers do a great job with the resources they have available. However, we can greatly increase ridership, and to do that we must increase route frequency and dependability. The only way RTS can achieve this is with increased STOA funding, and I commit to fighting for a significant STOA increase next year as Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.

2. In the U.S., pedestrian fatalities are up 83% since 2009. In Monroe County, an average of 10 bicyclists and pedestrians die on our streets every year and thousands more are injured. Rochester recently announced a commitment to “ROC Vision Zero” aiming to eliminate traffic deaths from our streets. If elected, would you support this program and if so, how?

Increasing pedestrian and bicyclist safety is a priority of mine as Transportation Chairman, and as a Senator for the 56th District. Earlier this year, I secured a state grant for Reconnect Rochester to support their bicyclist safety programs. I stand ready to support the City of Rochester with their ROC Vision Zero program in any way I can be helpful.

3. The Governor’s pause of congestion pricing has put the MTA in a financial emergency and has threatened jobs across our region. When the MTA is in trouble, Albany often prioritizes downstate before addressing upstate transit needs. How would you work to find a reliable funding source for capital and operating costs of public transportation in Monroe County?

Upstate transit agencies need a dedicated revenue stream. In the 2024 State Budget, I advocated for dedicated revenue to support STOA, such as a tax on rental cars. I will continue this fight with the 2025 budget. Upstate deserves it’s fair share.

4. Amtrak’s Empire Service has far exceeded pre-pandemic ridership numbers and trains to NYC regularly sell out Thursday-Sunday. What actions by the NYS legislature will you take to support the expansion of rail service and make other improvements to inter-city travel in upstate New York?

Passenger rail is an issue I care deeply about. I recently met with the NYS Department of Transportation on this subject and expressed my support for increased routes. My staff have also met with Amtrak on several occasions and expressed a need for increased routes. Additionally, I am always pleased to work with the Empire State Passengers Association on improving passenger rail and finally implementing higher speed rail across Upstate.

5. Many residents of the Rochester area either can’t, or can barely afford to own a car. To meet our climate goals, personal vehicle trips will have to be reduced. How will you support transportation options such as walking, biking and public transportation in our community, and improve accessibility to jobs and resources for residents who don’t own or want to use a car? 

While some aspects of this question are answered above, I would like to focus on the job connection piece of the question. I have had discussions with RTS about developing dedicated routes going from the bus depot to major employers outside the City of Rochester, such as the new T-Mobile Call Center in Henrietta. Unfortunately, many major economic development happens outside areas typically accessible by public transit. Attracting new employers is important, but we must also remember access to public transit in new projects.

6. Why should Monroe County residents who care about safer streets, better mobility, and better public transit vote for you? 

Seeing transportation as more than roads and bridges has always been a priority of mine. Last year I was proud to lead the push with Reconnect Rochester for phase two of the Louise M. Slaughter Intermodal Station. We were successful in this push, securing $18 million to construct a long-distance bus terminal. In May, I was named Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, because of this, Monroe County residents can look forward to many more transportation accomplishments to come.

Jim VanBrederode

Candidate Email: jvb@jimvanbrederode.com 

Website: jimvanbrederode.com

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Candidates for NY Senate 62nd District:

Robert Ortt

Candidate Email: info@robortt.com

Website: robortt.com

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Candidates for NY Assembly 130th District:

Brian Manktelow

Candidate Email: bdwlmank@gmail.com

1. What are Monroe County’s greatest transportation challenges?

  • Non medical appointment transportation for those without vehicles. 
  • Safe and affordable transportation to and from work during off peak hours. 
  • Residential parking, on street.

2. In the U.S., pedestrian fatalities are up 83% since 2009. In Monroe County, an average of 10 bicyclists and pedestrians die on our streets every year and thousands more are injured. Rochester recently announced a commitment to “ROC Vision Zero” aiming to eliminate traffic deaths from our streets. If elected, would you support this program and if so, how?

Absolutely, bringing the right players to the table and take a hard long look at identifying possible solutions. Also putting a financial component to the solutions, short term and long term goals.

3. The Governor’s pause of congestion pricing has put the MTA in a financial emergency and has threatened jobs across our region. When the MTA is in trouble, Albany often prioritizes downstate before addressing upstate transit needs. How would you work to find a reliable funding source for capital and operating costs of public transportation in Monroe County?

My first priority has been and will continue to be proper funding for upstate transportation. We must come up with a fair and equitable solution that makes all of our highly populated cities more self sufficient. Leaving our hard earned dollars upstate, thus allowing for local control, not Albany controlled.

4. Amtrak’s Empire Service has far exceeded pre-pandemic ridership numbers and trains to NYC regularly sell out Thursday-Sunday. What actions by the NYS legislature will you take to support the expansion of rail service and make other improvements to inter-city travel in upstate New York?

By adding back the third railline adjacent to the current CSX lines. Dedicating that railline to passenger travel. Having travelled by rail in Europe, understanding the possibilities of safe and efficient travel by rail should be considered a possible long term solution. Also looking at the possibilities of powering this line by electric power.

5. Many residents of the Rochester area either can’t, or can barely afford to own a car. To meet our climate goals, personal vehicle trips will have to be reduced. How will you support transportation options such as walking, biking and public transportation in our community, and improve accessibility to jobs and resources for residents who don’t own or want to use a car? 

We could take a look back at how carpooling was done many years ago to help save energy. We could look at ways of improving our bicycle lanes, making them safer for the rider. Thinking outside the box for other solutions, looking how other states and countries do it.

6. Why should Monroe County residents who care about safer streets, better mobility, and better public transit vote for you? 

Having the experience, understanding and the ability to think and look forward to solutions that are both, safe and affordable. Also having the trust and respect from legislators across New York State to sit down and brainstorm with them why Monroe County’s transportation needs are important and necessary for the success of our part of New York.

James Schuler

Website: schuler4nysassembly.com

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Candidates for NY Assembly 133rd District:

Colleen Walsh-Williams

Candidate Email:wwforassembly@gmail.com

Website: walsh-williams.org

1. What are Monroe County’s greatest transportation challenges?

  • We need more public transportation in rural areas
  • Maintaining our infrastructure
  • Making our roads safer and more accessible to pedestrians and bicyclists

2. In the U.S., pedestrian fatalities are up 83% since 2009. In Monroe County, an average of 10 bicyclists and pedestrians die on our streets every year and thousands more are injured. Rochester recently announced a commitment to “ROC Vision Zero” aiming to eliminate traffic deaths from our streets. If elected, would you support this program and if so, how?

I absolutely support ROC Vision Zero. I would support public awareness, funding for research, and safety improvements. I would sponsor legislation to further this cause.

3. The Governor’s pause of congestion pricing has put the MTA in a financial emergency and has threatened jobs across our region. When the MTA is in trouble, Albany often prioritizes downstate before addressing upstate transit needs. How would you work to find a reliable funding source for capital and operating costs of public transportation in Monroe County?

I would seek out state and federal grants and network with colleagues at all levels of government to reach every dollar available to us.

4. Amtrak’s Empire Service has far exceeded pre-pandemic ridership numbers and trains to NYC regularly sell out Thursday-Sunday. What actions by the NYS legislature will you take to support the expansion of rail service and make other improvements to inter-city travel in upstate New York?

I would advocate for expanding rail service. We need more trains to NYC and more trains to more destinations.

5. Many residents of the Rochester area either can’t, or can barely afford to own a car. To meet our climate goals, personal vehicle trips will have to be reduced. How will you support transportation options such as walking, biking and public transportation in our community, and improve accessibility to jobs and resources for residents who don’t own or want to use a car? 

I support building the infrastructure we need to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists safely.

6. Why should Monroe County residents who care about safer streets, better mobility, and better public transit vote for you? 

I understand the vital role of safe, accessible transportation in our communities. I’m a strong advocate for improvements that reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. We will build the neighborhoods our children and grandchildren inherit, and I’ll work hard to make them better, safer, more accessible, and environmentally friendly.

Andrea K. Bailey

Email: abailey4assembly@gmail.com

Website: andreabailey4assembly.com

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Candidates for NY Assembly 134th District:

Josh Jensen

Email: jensenfornewyork@gmail.com

Website: jensenforassembly.com

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Candidates for NY Assembly 135th District:

Jennifer Lunsford

Candidate Email: jen@votejenlunsford.com

Website: votejenlunsford.com

1. What are Monroe County’s greatest transportation challenges?

Our public transportation system is woefully inadequate.  Outside of the city, the bus runs on such an infrequent loop as to be virtually useless for many residents.  The bus that runs from Penfield, through ER and into Fairport is on a 2 hour cycle.  I have tried to use this bus myself on several occasions and could literally walk where I needed to go faster than the bus would take me. You also can’t go north-south in my district, you can only go east-west, into the city and out.  This prevents people from choosing the bus when they have other options. Until our system is robust enough for people to opt-in we won’t have the ridership we need to truly impact our reliance on cars.

2. In the U.S., pedestrian fatalities are up 83% since 2009. In Monroe County, an average of 10 bicyclists and pedestrians die on our streets every year and thousands more are injured. Rochester recently announced a commitment to “ROC Vision Zero” aiming to eliminate traffic deaths from our streets. If elected, would you support this program and if so, how?

Yes. As a long-time personal injury attorney, I have seen the impact of pedestrian accidents up close.  Deaths aren’t the only issue.  I have represented dozens of people who live with life-long injury and trauma from these accidents. I would provide funding to help the county realize this vision.

3. The Governor’s pause of congestion pricing has put the MTA in a financial emergency and has threatened jobs across our region. When the MTA is in trouble, Albany often prioritizes downstate before addressing upstate transit needs. How would you work to find a reliable funding source for capital and operating costs of public transportation in Monroe County?

We need to find a dedicated funding stream built upon growing interests to support non-MTA transit so we aren’t dipping from the same bucket every year. The current funding sources for non-MTA transit are long-distance telephone lines and oil interests.  This isn’t sustainable any longer. I support taxing short term rentals and using that funding for local transit. I am open to other ideas as well.

4. Amtrak’s Empire Service has far exceeded pre-pandemic ridership numbers and trains to NYC regularly sell out Thursday-Sunday. What actions by the NYS legislature will you take to support the expansion of rail service and make other improvements to inter-city travel in upstate New York?

I would LOVE to be able to take a train to Albany every week, but the trains run at very inconvenient times and take LONGER than driving! As the mother of a young son I need to be able to leave Albany on short notice in case of emergencies.  Our current train schedule doesn’t allow for that. We also need to create a reliable system along the I-90 corridor to support Micron and the boom in semiconductor related jobs we expect to see between Batavia and Clay. A high speed rail connecting the cities and technical schools along this corridor would help alleviate the anticipated work force shortage. Tell me where to put the money and I will fight to get it there!

5. Many residents of the Rochester area either can’t, or can barely afford to own a car. To meet our climate goals, personal vehicle trips will have to be reduced. How will you support transportation options such as walking, biking and public transportation in our community, and improve accessibility to jobs and resources for residents who don’t own or want to use a car? 

As seen in answers above, we need reliable dedicated funding for non-MTA transit to be able to expand our existing bus service.  We also need safer streets to allow for biking.  People often think of my district as a suburban utopia, but we have a serious sidewalk problem. Between Pines of Perinton (now known as Evergreen East), one of the poorest parts of my district) and the Penfield Target, a major retail zone and bus hub, there is no sidewalk along 250. I regularly watch a blind man with a cane traversing the shoulder of this road on this way to Wegmans. This is wholly unacceptable.  This past year I funded sidewalk improvements in the village of Honeoye Falls, but one-off projects funded member by member aren’t going to make a big enough dent.  We need a serious infrastructure investment to complete our streets.

6. Why should Monroe County residents who care about safer streets, better mobility, and better public transit vote for you? 

Over the past 4 years I have been a staunch supporter of public transit, fighting for overall increases in STOA and other lines of funding for non-MTA transit, but also worked hard with my colleagues to secure funding for Monroe County and Rochester City priorities, including the transportation hub and intermodal station, filling in the inner loop, and funding upgrades at RGRTA to support their transition to a ZEV fleet.

Kimberly DeRosa

Email: hello@voteKimberlyDeRosa.com

Website: kim4commonsense.com

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Candidates for NY Assembly 136th District:

Sarah Clark

Website: sarahclarkforassembly.com

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Orlando Rivera

Email: rivera4stateassembly@gmail.com

The candidate decided to provide the following statement in response to our questionnaire.

Statement on Transportation and mobility

As a candidate for State Assembly, I believe that improving transportation and mobility in Rochester, NY, is essential for fostering economic growth and enhancing the quality of life for our residents. Our city deserves a transportation infrastructure that is efficient, reliable, and responsive to the needs of all citizens.

We must prioritize investments in our roads and bridges to ensure safe travel and reduce congestion, while also advocating for responsible public transportation solutions that respect taxpayer dollars. Encouraging private sector partnerships can lead to innovative transit solutions and improved accessibility for everyone, including our seniors and those with disabilities.

Moreover, promoting policies that support safe biking and walking routes can enhance mobility while reducing our carbon footprint. By focusing on practical, fiscally responsible solutions, we can create a transportation system that works for all Rochesterians and strengthens our community for future generations.

Orlando Rivera

New York State Assembly Candidate 136th District

Candidates for NY Assembly 137th District:

Demond Meeks

Website: votedemondmeeks.com

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Marcus Williams

Website: marcus4rochester.com

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Candidates for NY Assembly 138th District:

Harry Bronson

Email: bronsonh@nyassembly.gov

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Tracy DiFlorio

Website: votediflorio.com

Email: VoteTracyDiflorio@gmail.com

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Candidates for NY Assembly 139th District:

Stephen Hawley

Website: hawleyforassembly.com

 

We did not receive a response from this candidate.

Reconnect Rochester would like to thank all of the candidates (and their teams) for the time and effort they’ve dedicated to our community, and for taking the time to answer our questions. We look forward to working with them very soon.

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#ROCbyBike – A 2022-2023 Season Recap

By: Jesse Peers

In our climate, most people ride bikes in the Spring, Summer and Fall and that’s okay! When the cycling scene slows down in November, our cycling Instagram account would go almost completely dark for several months. The thought struck us in 2019 that we could use that season to feature guest contributions from area cyclists. It would be a fun way to celebrate biking in Rochester. Contributors could give us a glimpse of their biking lifestyle, what it means to them, what got them into riding, their favorite places to ride and groups to ride with, etc. It’s become a neat way for cyclists who bike in different ways for different reasons to find commonality.

The #ROCbyBike series has been a hit!  To see our recap of the first three seasons, read here.

We are proud to present below consolidated stories of our contributors from season 4. We hope it inspires you to get out and ride!

Ronnie McCrea

“Several years ago, I ran into an old friend who enjoyed bike riding and after several not-too-subtle hints, she convinced me to purchase a bike so we could ride together. The rest is history! I had no idea there were so many trails. Riding my bike allows me to clear my mind. An added benefit is an opportunity to exercise because as I age, I want to be more active. Participating in the Flower City Feeling Good bike rides on Wednesdays with Reconnect Rochester and EE Pathways has introduced me to a great group of people. It amazes me how diverse this group is with young, old, beginners and true cyclists. The best part of riding with the group is riding through the city, kids joining in, and drivers cheering us on by honking their horns. I am so happy I was reintroduced to one of my childhood favorite pastimes – riding my bike.”

(six posts Nov 11-23, 2022)

Lori Burch

“It wasn’t until the arrival of grandchildren that I got back on a bike. Part of cycling is inherently social. Riding with various bike groups since then helped me to improve my skills, to find new places to ride, and led to making so many new friendships! We have so many beautiful, quiet, country roads to ride on in our area, along with many wonderful nature trails.
Riding helps me shed whatever worries and stresses I might be carrying and puts my soul back at peace! Miles in these locations are indeed my meditation!”

-(seven posts Nov 25-Dec 7, 2022)

Barry Cherney

“Spontaneous ride on a hot Summer eve.
I start out aimless, go where I please.
The sun beckons me to get a shot.
So to the bay I pedal, aimless I’m not.
To the point I ride, swift of pedal.
Rubber rolling, gears of metal.
Will I make it in time, the sun is sinking.
Faster I go, faster I’m thinking.
I look over my shoulder to see the sphere.
Lower it gets, miss it I fear.
I make the spot, I beat the sun.
I get the shot, this ride was fun.”

(eight posts Dec 9-22, 2022)

Arlene Sankey

“My parents couldn’t afford to buy a car when they moved to the USA from Taiwan. My mom rode around a lot. I was a super-avid child rider but got back into it as an adult to improve my health. One day, I saw an article in the D&C about the City Recreation Department’s Flower City Feeling Good Bike Rides. This inspired me because I realized how much I had missed all the fun bike rides from my youth. I wanted to go out and have new adventures. To try something different. This is where I first met Richard DeSarra as a bicycle tour guide. Later I decided to form the Deaf Group bike rides for all variety speed levels in ASL (American Sign Language). In doing so, I was able to create a positive and safe environment for not only all Deaf riders but also for our hearing allies as well.”

(eight posts Dec 23, 2022-Jan 5, 2023)

Alexa Harding

“Cycling is my FAVORITE thing in the world to do! I’ve been cycling since 2007 (which is also the year I moved to Rochester) so my love of this city is directly related to my love of cycling in and around the city! I enjoy the multiple mountain bike legal parks within an hour of driving (with 2 being in the city limits), the network of bike paths and rail trails available to us, the numerous bike shops in the area, and the community of cyclists I’ve gotten to know over my past 15 years of living here. It seems that every time I hop on my bike, I run into a friend! I also enjoy biking to the Public Market on occasion, spinning into the city to grab coffee or for an event such as the Twilight Crit, and I’ve been known to ride my bike to the local yarn shop to buy a skein of yarn for my latest knitting project. I even met my boyfriend on a group ride! So it’s safe to say that cycling has infiltrated every aspect of my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way!”

(six posts Jan 6-18, 2023)

Kadie Tower

“I am Deaf with other disabilities including Sacral Agenesis and Klippel-Feil syndrome. I am proud of my rare condition from birth. I loved to ride a bike until I had spine discomfort. In 2022, I got my first handcycle from a grant award. I love it! Handcycling is more arms with the upper body and less pressure on the spine. I love riding on the old Erie Canal Trail. I appreciate its beautiful history. My favorite places to ride are Ontario Beach Park and Turning Point Park.”

(eight posts Jan 20-Feb 2, 2023)

Lee Lejnieks

“I really started riding when I was 8 years old. I had a D&C paper route. Haven’t stopped riding.

Any weather. Everywhere. Ride for fun. Ride for transportation. Ride to work. Ride. Let it rip.

oh — Never trust cars. Ever. Use lights. There are little hidden trails, roads, paths, find them. The canal path, no cars, and it gets you anywhere. Livestrong!!!”

(six posts Feb 3-16, 2023)

Greg Torres

“We are new to the area and just made Rochester our permanent home. What got me into biking as a child was simply the adventure factor. I think being on a bicycle is the closest thing to feeling like you have wings with the freedom to go wherever you want. This is especially true now with my kids: I want them to remember childhood experiences of discovery and freedom that biking gives you. We love riding along the Genesee Riverway Trail to Upper and Lower Falls. What exists below that bridge on Driving Park is amazing. I love how you can loop around and see a rose garden and a waterfall all within a half mile of the trail. Biking is also practical: grocery runs, riding with my daughter to guitar practice, Rochester Red Wings games, the Genesee Brew House, the Lilac Festival, etc.”

(six posts Feb 17-Mar 1, 2023)

Joanna Prescott

“Riding on the roads never felt very comfortable to me but gravel biking looked like fun so I got one and the rest, as they say, is history. I was lucky enough to find the Just For Giggles, Wheel Women of Tryon and @rar.fingerlakes cycling groups. I’m the founder of the Rochester chapter of @the.gravel.collective. The Gravel Collective’s mission is to build a gravel community that centers underrepresented groups that may identify as queer, women, trans, non-binary, indigenous, black, people of color, and para-athletes. Our goal is to make gravel cycling more accessible for all. We have social rides every month and we’d love to see some new faces!
We have a lot of great places to ride in and around the Rochester area. My favorite routes often include the Erie Canalway Trail, Genesee Riverway Trail, the Auburn and Lehigh Valley trails. For road rides, I really enjoy riding around the Finger Lakes and last year I completed the Bike the Finger Lakes 11 Challenge.”

(six posts Mar 3-15, 2023)

James Gilbert

“I was born and raised near 12 corners in Brighton and biked to school from 6th grade through Senior year. That carried right into biking to class at SUNY Oswego. Biking was so integral to my life, I didn’t even get my driver’s license until I turned 20! When I started working at Channel 8, I first lived in Neighborhood of the Arts, then North Winton Village: Just a few miles ride into work. I saved many gallons of gas as I biked to and from the studio everyday. Now in Fairport I put hundreds of miles on my bike riding through Egypt, Mendon, and Perinton. I now bike while towing my son Mason to the playground and along the Canal. He begs to go every time he sees his bike.”

(five posts Mar 17-29, 2023)

Jena Cinanni

“I got into biking in college after meeting people involved in Rochester Bike Kids (RBK). We went on a weekly ride and had amazing bonfires and scavenger hunt events. I also got into some road riding with a local ladies group when I worked at Towpath. I would ride the canal to commute and participate in the breast cancer event. These days I mostly ride the local mountain trails. I like the solace of nature and flowing through the trees. I get to practice technical stuff and try new skills. The way I look at it, any biking is good biking. Becoming a bike kid (RBK), and now bike adult (LOL) has led me to meet some of the best people of my life. I hope everyone finds joy on two wheels.”

(five posts Mar 31-Apr 18, 2023)

Marita Smith

“When I was a teen and into my young adult years, I rode my bike a lot, especially over to the 19th Ward where many friends from school lived. Once I was in my 30s, I gave up regular biking. About 5 years ago, I was listening to the radio and I heard an interview about the organization, @blackgirlsdobike. They mentioned local chapters and I thought “No way does Rochester have a chapter”. I was pleasantly surprised that there is a local chapter and they are active. I finally attended an event and I haven’t looked back since. Not only was my love of biking reignited, I met a new sisterhood and an entire biking community! Through biking, I even reconnected with two friends I haven’t seen since the 8th grade.”

(three posts Apr 21-28, 2023)

If you’re interested in sharing your story for our 2024-25 #ROCbyBike series, reach out to Jesse at cycling@reconnectrochester.org.*

*Diversity is important to us. So, it may take a while to fit you in the queue so we can make spots for other voices.

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The Future of Irondequoit Bay Parks: Connecting Community, Nature, and Preservation

By: Rob Sliker
President, Genesee Regional Off-road Cyclists

The Irondequoit Bay Park System is a natural gem within Monroe County, providing residents access to some of the region’s most beautiful and diverse landscapes. Yet, despite their value, these parks remain underutilized by many who would benefit most. The reason? Each park exists in isolation, with fragmented and informal trails that don’t offer the continuity needed for a comprehensive outdoor experience. We have the opportunity to advocate for the parks to be interconnected by professionally constructed trails that provide seamless off-road connectivity to cyclists for both recreation and active transportation.


Imagine a future where everyone—beginners, families, adaptive users with disabilities—can easily access and enjoy these spaces through a well-planned, connected trail network.


This vision extends beyond recreation; it’s about building resilience to climate change by giving people more access to green spaces and sustainable transportation options. The recently adopted Monroe County Community-Wide Climate Action Plan emphasizes the need for climate adaptation, and trails can be a key part of this effort. By enabling people to use trails for transportation between destinations, we reduce carbon emissions while promoting a healthier, more active lifestyle. 

Currently, many trails within the Irondequoit Bay Park System cater primarily to seasoned outdoor enthusiasts. However, these trails are often “social trails”—organic paths not designed with accessibility or sustainability in mind. As a result, these parks can feel out of reach for beginners, families, or those with disabilities. To serve the entire community, we need inclusive trails—wider beginner trails, well-maintained and suitable for all, from adaptive bikes to beginner cyclists. In addition, having designated learning areas with gentle grades will allow beginners to explore at their own pace. Accessible facilities like bike parks, lodges, and rest rooms are also key. Imagine adaptive equipment rentals, making it possible for individuals with mobility challenges to experience the full joy of outdoor activities. This level of inclusivity will allow the parks to serve a diverse range of users, turning them into spaces where everyone feels welcome.

Connectivity

Equally important is connectivity. The goal isn’t just more trails but a cohesive, well-designed network linking all the parks. With professional sustainable trail design, we can minimize environmental impact, avoid sensitive habitats, and reduce erosion, all while creating arteries that connect the parks. For example, trails can be carefully routed to avoid wetlands and constructed using eco-friendly materials that blend seamlessly into the natural landscape. These trails can do more than provide recreation—they can act as vital corridors that help protect local wildlife by offering less disruptive routes for human activity. This thoughtful approach preserves both the environment and the experience, ensuring that future generations can enjoy these green spaces.

Trail with leaves and trees on both sides

Additionally, these trails can serve as critical connectors within the community, not just between parks but between neighborhoods, schools, and local businesses. By integrating the park system into the fabric of the surrounding area, we can encourage active transportation—walking, biking, and other non-motorized travel. These trails become more than just recreational; they provide safe, scenic routes for daily commuting or local errands, reducing car dependency and contributing to a healthier, more sustainable community.

Implementation

Let’s explore a practical example of what this future vision could look like. Imagine starting from the “Mind the Gap Season 3 Submission #4” trail near Route 104, where users can head south toward Norton Street. From there, the path seamlessly connects into Homewood Road, leading you to Bay Park West. As you continue, the trail links into Tryon Park, offering the option to exit at Tryon Road or continue south. The trails then extend further, reaching Browncroft Boulevard, where users can access Lucien Morin Park. From here, you can either circle back north toward Empire Boulevard or push onward into Ellison Park, with access points at Blossom and Penfield Roads. This interconnected system would transform how residents and visitors explore these green spaces, enhancing accessibility, connectivity, and community engagement.

The vision for the Irondequoit Bay Park System is clear: a future where these parks are accessible to all, thoughtfully designed to protect our environment, and interconnected to maximize their value to the community. But achieving this vision requires your support. Whether participating in the Monroe County trails study, advocating for responsible development, or joining local organizations supporting these changes, you can help make this future a reality.

Together, we can ensure that the Irondequoit Bay Park System thrives as a space where everyone connects with nature, enjoys outdoor recreation, and preserves our green spaces for generations to come.

Make your voice heard and provide your feedback through the Irondequoit Bay Park Trail User Study by Monroe County Parks:


At Reconnect, we’re always working to improve mobility access in our community. Sign up for Mobility Action Alerts for tangible advocacy and volunteer opportunities involving transportation, safe streets, and bike infrastructure. 

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Surprisingly Easy By Bike, Volume 2

By: Jesse Peers

For fun on social media this year, Reconnect Rochester posed the following question: What’s a destination, that at first glance, would seem quite difficult & stressful to bike to, but is actually pretty easy *IF* you use a certain route, probably an unintuitive approach or easily overlooked back way? (Definitely not the way you’d drive there). Over the course of this series we hope to inspire and equip more folks to bike to popular destinations, at least in good weather. 

Responses have been coming in and we’re excited to share our next destination: Parcel 5 and downtown, which are deserving of their own deep dive.

Photo courtesy of Bryan Agnello

Some helpful links before we jump in:

  • The map below around downtown largely incorporates the growing Bike Boulevard network. Reading this recent blog on the bike boulevards is highly recommended before proceeding.
  • Our ROC Easy Bike map shows the easiest ways for newer/younger riders to bike and scoot around the area. Riders who’ve developed their skills aren’t constrained to the lines on that map. Want to increase your biking know-how and confidence? Take one of our classes sometime.

It has to be said: At the moment, the easy ways to access downtown and Parcel 5 by bike are quite limited.

More and more bike lanes are being added to Main Street over time, which is great. However, what’s been installed so far at the time of this writing doesn’t meet the criteria for riders of all ages and abilities. Main Street between Goodman and Union is built like a gun barrel (an inappropriate design for a road in any city’s heart) and the bike lanes there badly need protection.

Westbound as you approach downtown, there’s the stressful turn-off to the Inner Loop cyclists have to navigate, and as you head further into downtown on Main, the bike lanes between University and Scio are routinely blocked by parked cars. There are no westbound bike lanes from Franklin to Plymouth (except for over the Genesee). At present, there are no eastbound bike lanes on Main Street from Scott Alley to Aqueduct Street.

Furthermore, it’s unfortunate that the northeast side is bereft of decently comfortable bike connections to downtown. Crossing Inner Loop North on St Paul, Clinton, Joseph, North St, or Union is uncomfortable for most riders.

But don’t despair! Five transformational projects are in store that will change the game in coming years:

  1. With the removal of Inner Loop North and the restoration of the surface grid, intersections can be reconfigured and hopefully 🤞the Union Street cycle track can wrap around to Innovative Field.
  2. The gradual building of the ideal Bike Spine Network envisioned in the City’s 2023 Active Transportation Plan. As the Plan clearly states, only protected bike lanes will hit the mark: “It is essential that bike lanes be separated from traffic on high-speed streets that carry a lot of traffic” [along this spine network].
  3. The High Falls State Park and its Running Track Bridge connection to the El Camino Trail
  4. ROC The Riverway’s gradual extension of the Genesee Riverway Trail through downtown
  5. The City is looking into ways to close the gap in the Genesee Riverway Trail north of downtown.

So in the future, we have every hope that bike riders of all ages and abilities will be able to access downtown in ways that are obvious, intuitive, direct, safe and comfortable (no secret backways required!).

In the meantime, here is how we think the average bike and scooter rider can access Parcel 5 without too much trouble.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRACY STREET

Boy oh boy. Thank goodness for Tracy Street. It’s the only decently comfortable bike connection from the direction of Park Ave and Brighton. After Tracy Street, cross to the sidewalk on the other side of Alexander when the way is clear. Bike north on the sidewalk just a bit and take Chapman Alley west to Union. Yes, Tracy Street is technically one-way traffic eastbound for a tiny stretch, but you’re probably fine biking westbound along it (bike on the sidewalk for a few seconds if you want a clear conscience). We’re hoping the City makes it both ways for cyclists, like you see in the below New York City example (right).

THE WESTSIDE BIKE/PED BRIDGE OVER 490

This bridge grants pedestrians, cyclists and scooter riders easy downtown access from the 19th Ward, Mayor’s Heights and Corn Hill.

THE PORTION OF THE GENESEE RIVERWAY TRAIL ALONG PLYMOUTH

A curious detour of the Genesee Riverway Trail, a vestige of the never-quite completed “Plymouth Avenue Greenway,” runs alongside the Plymouth sidewalk between 490/Utah Alley and Allen Street. More or less a north/south cycletrack, albeit less distinct. While bicycling on downtown sidewalks is generally discouraged, bikes are allowed on this “trail” section of the Plymouth sidewalk.

*Remember to use the ROC Easy Bike map for more detail on these routes!

BROAD STREET

Broad Street doesn’t have dedicated infrastructure along its entirety downtown, but it’s plenty wide, tends to have low traffic volumes and slow speeds, and most folks are capable of biking along it just fine. Take “The Grove at Midtown” cut through below (in between Unwine’d and Dice Versa) to access Parcel 5 from the south. Just go leisurely and be polite, yielding to pedestrians.

THE NORTHWEST BIKE BOULEVARD NETWORK

The Bike Boulevard Network through Maplewood, Edgerton and Brown Square grants very easy bike access from the northwest. This allows riders to bike parallel to Lake Ave without biking on Lake Ave itself (thank goodness!). For the tiny stretch of Plymouth that’s one way northbound (Lyell to Morrie Silver Way), use Verona instead or just hop on the sidewalk briefly.

IN SUM

Whether it’s biking downtown for Fringe or the Jazz Festival, a movie at Parcel 5, a fireworks display, RDDC’s Midday Bash, the Central Library, a hockey or lacrosse game at Blue Cross Arena, or enjoying one of downtown’s many great dining establishments, we hope the routes above get you there relatively stress-free by bike. In the future, because of the many investments being made, you’ll have more direct, obvious and comfortable options. We have a lot to look forward to!

That’s all for Volume 2!

Got another destination we can include in the series? Reach out to us at cycling@reconnectrochester.org. Look out next month for Volume 3! Get more details on the ROC Easy Bike map

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Car Lite Rochester: How Biking & Buses Helped Maintain My Independence

Car Lite Rochester is a blog series that highlights the stories of Rochesterians living a car-lite lifestyle. The term “car lite” encompasses a variety of multimodal transportation lifestyles, featuring little dependence (but not NO dependence) on a car.  It typically looks like sharing one car within a household or only using a car when absolutely necessary.

So, we hope you’ll continue to follow along.  Maybe you will be inspired to join our bloggers in living a car-lite lifestyle!

Wanna rep it? Check out the t-shirt in our online shop.

By: Steve Roll

For most of my adult life, I got around using the default transportation mode in America: a car. I didn’t own a bike as an adult and never thought about using the bus. I was perfectly content to drive my Honda Fit to wherever I needed to go.

Then, in the spring of 2019, I had a seizure while walking out into a parking lot after a workout. I grew up with epilepsy, but it was well-controlled and I hadn’t had a seizure in about a decade. As I regained consciousness and the EMTs began loading me up into the ambulance, my mind quickly focused on one thing: not the ambulance bill I was going to get or the fact that I just had a seizure again, but that I wouldn’t be allowed to drive for at least 6 months.

You see, when someone has a seizure in New York State, they lose their driving privileges for 6-12 months until their neurologist and the DMV Medical Review Board clear them. I had to go through this once before when I was in high school and I remember how frustrating it was to lose my independence suddenly and be reliant on others for rides.

That’s what I was scared of: losing my independence to get around because I relied solely on my car for transportation. That’s why this is called “car dependency.”

I lived alone, so my mind was suddenly flooded with questions like:

  • How will I get to work?
  • How will I get groceries or run errands?
  • How will I see friends and family?

The options seemed to be:

  • Get a bike and a use the bus
  • Depend on friends, family and Uber/Lyft to chauffeur me around
  • Be stuck at home for 6-12 month

I chose to get a bike and a bus pass.

Adapting to Life Without a Car

The Importance of Walkable Neighborhoods
One thing that helped a lot is that I live in a walkable neighborhood in Rochester, the North Winton Village. I didn’t fully appreciate the importance of a walkable neighborhood until I wasn’t allowed to drive.

I live about a mile from Wegmans, walking distance to where I worked at the time (Carlson Cowork), and near plenty of shops, restaurants, and parks. This made a huge difference. Life would’ve been much more challenging if I had lived in the car-dependent suburbs.

Getting around by bike
Soon after the seizure, I went to my local bike shop and bought my first bike as an adult, a Trek FX3, which I still ride today. I also made sure to get a bike rack and a set of panniers so that I could carry cargo like groceries (more on that later).

At first, riding my bike on the road around cars was nerve-racking. However, I was lucky enough to find out about Reconnect Rochester’s On-Bike Smart Cycling Class taught by Jesse Peers where I learned how to ride safely on city streets. After taking the class, I was surprised at how much more confident and comfortable I felt biking through Rochester. I highly recommend it!

Getting around with the bus
Besides my bike, I began using the bus more regularly to get to doctor appointments and other trips that were too far away or inconvenient to bike. Although the bus was not as convenient as a car, it was nice not to have to do the actual driving in traffic and I could sit and read.

It’s also really easy to combine a bike and the bus with the nifty bike rack on the front of the bus. Or you can bring your scooter. This adds a lot more flexibility to using the bus and it extends the range of a bike, especially on corridors where it’s unsafe to ride. For example, I recently had to go BayTowne Plaza from the city. Instead of biking on Empire Boulevard and putting my life at risk next to four lanes of 60 mph traffic, I rode my bike from my house to Empire Boulevard and took the bus the rest of the way.

Managing Challenges

Busy Roads
Early on, I used Google Maps to map out a route to bike on. This would often give me a route that was shortest, but that also included busy roads that were very stressful to ride on, especially with all the giant SUVs and pickups these days.

At the Smart Cycling class, I learned about Reconnect Rochester’s Low-Stress Bike map and the Bike Boulevard Network. These tools helped me plan out a safe, comfortable bike route to get where I needed to go.

For example, riding downtown for me includes a lovely ride down Harvard St.

Groceries
I thought getting groceries would be a big challenge without a car, but I quickly realized that a bike is fully capable of carrying a load of groceries. With a set of panniers, I can carry two fully loaded grocery bags with room on top of the rack for more. It’s also easy to hook up a small trailer to carry more and e cargo bikes are becoming more popular options as well.

When I didn’t ride my bike for groceries, it was easy enough to take the bus. I found the bus more convenient than I expected to get to Wegmans, as long as I didn’t stay too long and miss the bus on the way back!

That’s all to say: Good News Everyone! You don’t need an F-250 to get groceries!

Weather
The weather also wasn’t as much of a challenge as I had expected. I try to avoid riding during a downpour, personally, but if the roads are wet or it’s only raining lightly, bike fenders and some rain gear go a long way.

Even in the winter, the roads are usually snow-free most of the time. Also, cold weather isn’t as bad as you’d think on a bike, as long as you have the right gear, like pogies to keep your hands warm. Even if it’s chilly out, riding a bike naturally warms you up with the exercise.

In the summer, the challenge sometimes is hot, humid weather. Riding at a leisurely pace helps, but it can be a challenge if I need to arrive somewhere and I don’t want to be all sweaty. This is where e-bikes have an advantage over regular bikes.

Bus Routes
A main challenge with taking the bus was that I often needed to make a connection through the Transit Center. This was compounded with the fact that bus headways were often 30 minutes apart or more. Together, this meant that the travel time could be an hour or more by bus instead of a simple 15 minute drive by car. A short errand could take half a day on a bus.

However, if the bus route is convenient, it’s a great way to get to where you need to go. Just use the Transit app to easily see what bus you need to take and buy a bus pass on your phone!

Transitioning to Car-Lite Living and Lessons Learned

Overall, I was able to maintain my independence during those six months thanks to my bike and the bus. After about 6-months, I was cleared to drive again.

These days, I’d say I’m “car-lite.” I get around by bike if I can, but I drive when I need to go somewhere farther away or when the weather is bad and I just don’t feel like biking (that’s OK, too!). In case I have a seizure in the future (a very real possibility), I want to live a lifestyle that’s not dependent on driving everywhere.

[8/29/24 edit: Welp, unfortunately, I did have another seizure last week. Looks like I jinxed myself writing this. In the future, I’ll have to write an update about Car-Free Living Round 2!]

I learned a number of good lessons during this period

1 – The Benefits of Traveling by Bike

First, I realized so many unexpected benefits from riding a bike for transportation, which is why I still ride my bike to get around today. Some key benefits:

  • Being more active and enjoying the health benefits
  • Feeling more connected to the community as I bike through it
  • Improved mental well-being – I always feel better if I get somewhere by bike than by sitting in a car
  • Improved personal finances, since the cost of car ownership now exceeds $10,000 per year
  • For a family, skipping the car drop-off line at school
  • It’s just more fun to get around on a bike

Also, you always get the best parking:

2 – The Importance of Transportation Resilience

A major lesson I learned is how important transportation resilience is. If you’re solely reliant on driving for everything, having a car breakdown, a medical issue leaving you unable to drive, or aging out of driving can be a major life challenge. For this reason alone, I think it’s important, both on a personal level and societal level, to make sure different transportation options are available. Just in case.

3 – The Inadequacy of Rochester’s Transportation System for Non-drivers
24% of Rochester households don’t have access to a car, but Rochester’s transportation system is built around the assumption that everyone has a personal automobile and can drive. This largely ignores the transportation needs of non-drivers; people who also need to get around to live life.

When driving was taken away from me as an option, I realized how difficult our city makes it for non- drivers in our community to get around. The main issues I personally noticed were:

  • Inadequate public transit: too infrequent, lack of connectivity, and lack of amenities like benches and shelters
  • Lack of a safe, connected network of comfortable bike lanes
  • Not enough safe crosswalks and crosswalks spaced too far apart
  • Roads built for moving cars fast at the expense of safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, kids, and other drivers

Signs of Improvement

Despite the challenges for non-drivers, I am excited about the steady progress and improvement I’ve seen in Rochester since 2019.

A (literally) concrete example of this progress is the reconstruction of E. Main between Culver and Goodman, which includes comfortable cycle paths, traffic calming measures, pedestrian islands, and crosswalks. Now, I bike it almost weekly to shop at the Public Market. Yes, bike lanes are good for business!

A few developments I’m most excited about:

Get Involved

Reconnect Rochester has been integral to improving transportation options in Rochester and Monroe County. This work is important so that transportation is less of an obstacle for daily living.

Join Reconnect Rochester in making our city and county more livable by expanding transportation options:

Be part of the change happening in Rochester by getting “multi-modal” yourself and riding a bike,
taking the bus, walking, or rolling for your next trip!


At Reconnect, we’re inspired by the stories of people in our community, like Robert Picciotti, Calvin Eaton and Yamini Karandikar, who are passionate about living a car-lite or car-free lifestyle. 

Let us know if you want to share your mobility story! What’s in it for you? The intrinsic reward of knowing you’ve inspired others, and a free t-shirt from our online shopContact Chaz to submit your story. 

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Welcoming Chaz!

Please join us in warmly welcoming Chaz Goodman to the Reconnect Rochester team! As a super-fan, follower and contributor to our work for many years, there’s no better person than Chaz to inspire and engage others to join our cause. As the Marketing & Outreach Manager, he’ll take the reins of our external communications on social media, our website and blog, as well as support the rest of the team with communications needs for our programs, events and advocacy work. You’ll also see Chaz out and about tabling at events, giving presentations to neighborhood and community groups, and otherwise reaching out and connecting people to our work. It’s a big job, but we know Chaz has the professional experience and personal passion to tackle it!

Read below to find out more about what inspired Chaz to join Reconnect Rochester. You can also see his passion on display in the two blog posts he wrote for Reconnect Rochester before joining the team, one about living car-lite in Rochester and another about biking with his kids to get around. Feel free to shoot Chaz a note to say hello and congrats!

Chaz Goodman (he/him/his)

I am beyond excited to join the Reconnect Rochester team as the Marketing & Outreach Manager. I have been a bike commuter for 14 years. My passion for multimodal communities goes way back to being a kid when my brothers and I would walk to the community pool and I wished we had the freedom to walk to school or the Abbotts from our suburban home in Webster. I once spent an entire day riding the bus, interviewing passengers for a human interest story for my journalism class in college. When I discovered that cities like Rochester once had light rail and robust public transit systems, I became deeply interested in reviving alternative transportation options.

I am an enthusiastic supporter of Reconnect Rochester and their work to correct the imbalance of urban planning that prioritizes car speed above all else. The environmental impact alone of reducing car usage is compelling but as I delved deeper into the issues— the costs, safety concerns, racial injustices tied to urban renewal, and the extensive space required for car culture—this cause became somewhat of an obsession for me. By providing our community with transportation choices, everyone, including drivers, stands to gain. I greatly admire Reconnect Rochester’s pragmatic approach to improving our transit options while centering joy in the movement!

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Surprisingly Easy By Bike, Volume 1

By: Jesse Peers

For fun on social media this year, Reconnect Rochester posed the following question: What’s a destination, that at first glance, would seem quite difficult & stressful to bike to, but is actually pretty easy *IF* you use a certain route, probably an unintuitive approach or easily overlooked back way? (Definitely not the way you’d drive there). Responses have been coming in and we’re excited to start showing you some of the answers. Hopefully this will inspire and equip some folks to bike to popular destinations, at least in good weather. Of course, over time, as the City and County’s Active Transportation Plans are implemented, we hope the ways to bike to popular destinations are obvious, intuitive, safe and comfortable for riders of all ages and abilities (no secret backways required!).

Two helpful links before we dive in:

Most of the following maps incorporate the growing Bike Boulevard network. Reading this recent deep dive on the bike boulevards is highly recommended before proceeding.

Our ROC Easy Bike map – the easy ways to bike around the area. Many of the zoomed out maps below couldn’t label every street along the way. You’ll get your answers here.

THE SENECA PARK ZOO

Our wonderful zoo is right beside the Genesee Riverway Trail, El Camino Trail, the beautiful bike/pedestrian bridge connecting Maplewood & Seneca Parks, and delightful neighborhood bikeways in Irondequoit. There is a bike rack at the main entrance. Hopefully someday, the Seneca Trail north of the zoo will lead all the way to Lake Ontario on the east side of the Genesee River.

MONROE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

It’s been a common complaint for years: Monroe Community College, our area’s largest institute of learning, is very uncomfortable to get to by bike. Though bike lanes have been installed on East Henrietta Road from Westfall south to 390, the bridge over 390 can be terrifying. Good news though: The Town of Brighton is developing a Multiversity Plan for an accessible, off-road, and multi-use trail system connecting the campuses of the University of Rochester, MCC, and RIT! In the meantime, there’s an easy, though unintuitive way to approach MCC from the northwest. It incorporates the Lehigh Valley Trail’s north branch, Whipple Park, West Brighton and Corporate Woods.

INNOVATIVE FIELD FOR ROCHESTER RED WINGS GAMES

Biking is the best way to get to a Red Wings game! The Pont de Rennes bridge (scheduled to reopen in November) grants bike/ped access directly from the east. There’s plenty of bike racks at both Innovative Field entrances and security is there during games. When the game ends, you’ll be most of the way home before most attendees get out of the congested parking lots nearby. 

*Remember to use the ROC Easy Bike map for more detail on these routes!

RIT & LOVIN’ CUP

At least from the north, RIT and Lovin’ Cup are easy to bike to thanks to the Lehigh Valley Trail’s north branch – a bicycle superhighway along an old railroad bed.

TINSELTOWN & GATES HOME DEPOT

File this in the “This ride isn’t for everybody, but it’s probably way easier than you think” category. From Corn Hill, Cinemark Tinseltown & the Gates Home Depot are only 6.5 miles away by bike. Bike lanes are coming to West Main Street. In the meantime, there are bike boulevards parallel to West Main that take you to the Canal and under 390, which isn’t too bad compared to many other highway underpasses. Hinchey and Pixley get you the rest of the way there. Tinseltown has a well placed bike rack. Furthermore, if you want, you can take Loderdale and Brooklea, which parallel Hinchey and are a breeze to bike along.

That’s all for Volume 1!

Got another destination we can include in the series? Reach out to us at cycling@reconnectrochester.org. Look out next month for Volume 2! Get more details on the ROC Easy Bike map

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Welcoming Henry and Lourdes!

We are so excited to welcome two new staff members to the Reconnect team, Henry Litsky and Lourdes Sharp.

Henry Litsky, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, will work closely with our Director of Policy and Advocacy, Cody Donahue, to coordinate Reconnect Rochester’s growing advocacy activities and community mobilization efforts. This includes tracking legislative policy, maintaining our Monroe County Crash Map and Upcoming Street Projects Map, and educating community leaders to boldly advocate for a transportation system that provides mobility options and resource access for everyone through our Mobility Action Alerts.

Lourdes Sharp, Project Manager, will fill a newly created role at Reconnect Rochester as we continue to grow and expand our programs and events to support our mission for sustainable, equitable and accessible mobility in Monroe County. She will manage current core programs including our Complete Streets Makeover, and a new Downtown Curb Extension Mural project, as well as other administrative and imaginative projects.

There’s a lot happening in the world of mobility and transportation, and we could not be more grateful to have two new staff members on the team to bring their skills and talents to this work.

Read on to learn what inspired Henry and Lourdes to join Reconnect Rochester!

Henry Litsky (he/him/his)

I am thrilled to join Reconnect Rochester’s staff as the new Policy and Advocacy Coordinator. I have always been fascinated by our nation’s transportation system and the opportunity to advocate for more inclusive and robust streets is a dream come true. 

I recently graduated from the University of Rochester after completing an e5 tuition free fifth year focusing on transportation at UR and City of Rochester. I helped to co-found the Students for Equitable Transportation club and frequently attended public meetings and submitted comments on proposed street design changes. Reconnect’s Mobility Action Alerts allowed me to put what I was learning into action to try and make our streets safer.

At Reconnect, I am excited to continue advocating for a robust transportation system that allows everyone access to amenities regardless of your zip code. With the recent city and county Active Transportation Plans, a commitment to vision zero, and a federal DOT supporting initiatives to build safer streets, it is an exciting time to be an advocate. Continuing the work of my colleagues to ensure community voices are heard is an incredibly rewarding experience. I look forward to working with you all!

Lourdes Sharp (she/her/they)

Hello everyone! My name is Lourdes and I am so grateful to join Reconnect Rochester’s growing team as the new Project Manager! The majority of my background is in health-equity and I am happy to explore new ways to address the expanse of population health through Reconnect. 

While there are many different definitions of the term “health”, I lean towards a holistic approach that bridges together the structures that influence the spectrum of the human experience and how that impacts our ability to lead healthy lives. Transportation initiatives and mobility justice are incredible routes (bad pun) that can be used to reframe some of these influential structures that impact the quality of our lives. Being able to get around the city safely and with ease is pivotal in allowing some of our most underserved people a means to get to work and have greater financial stability, make it on-time to health-related appointments, and have meaningful social interactions- all which can vastly increase life satisfaction. Together, we can dismantle the historical remnants of things like redlining and division of communities one step at a time and I consider myself lucky to band together with an amazing team to do so!

Born and raised in Rochester, NY, I’m looking forward to connecting with this city and its people  in new and meaningful ways. Whether on the road, in the Reconnect office, or at a community event, I hope to see you soon!

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Biking My Kids Around Town

By: Chaz Goodman

I adore biking. I have always preferred it to driving. I spent most of my adult life car-free or car-lite until my wife and I had kids. Then I started driving all the time to take them to daycare because I didn’t feel safe traveling with my infant on a bicycle. After a few years, they were toddlers and I finally felt comfortable returning to bicycle commuting.

I opted to transport them in a Burley Bee bike trailer so my kids could sit side by side instead of adding seats to my bike and potentially putting too much weight on the bike frame itself. It’s lightweight, user-friendly, and comfortable to use. I did worry about visibility because the trailer is low to the ground so I got two flags to put on the trailer. They are bright orange with high visibility reflective stripes.

I took my kids on a few practice rides and words cannot express the joy I felt sharing the bicycle experience with them. On a sunny day, you don’t need to roll your windows down to enjoy the weather because you’re already outside. We say hi to our neighbors. We hear kids playing. We can observe the flowers and gardens by peoples homes. We are a part of our environment.

The other day I heard my son in the trailer saying, “Happy. Sad. Mad. Mad. Sad. Happy. Sad.” and I realized he was observing the facial expressions of people in their cars. He said sad and mad a lot and it got me thinking about how dehumanizing it is to be stuck in a car. If someone cuts you off, you feel rage. You don’t think about them as a person. You just see the big machines that you both have to operate. You’re angry because you could have easily been hurt. Driving is a very high stakes activity. 

This is especially clear when we see the remnants of car crashes, which are everywhere. Crashes are cleaned up quickly to keep traffic flowing. You don’t really notice the evidence when you drive by but it’s easy to see the bits of broken window and smaller plastic bits when you’re on a bicycle. Being on a bicycle is a constant reminder of how we have normalized road violence with a street design that prioritizes speed above all else. 

With this in mind, I worked out the best route to bike to daycare. Fortunately I could bypass Monroe Avenue (which in Brighton is a high speed, four lane stroad) by cutting through neighborhood streets. From there I went on the sidewalk on Elmwood Avenue. I am thrilled that the town of Brighton added a bike lane to Elmwood Avenue. When I bike on my own, I use it often. I just don’t like it with my little boys in a trailer. Ironically I had spent some time defending this bike lane on NextDoor neighborhood threads. I’m happy we have it, I’m just eager to keep improving bicycle access.

The final part of the journey is the one my wife and I spent the most time discussing and the part of the journey that makes me the most nervous. It is such a small yet very significant part of the journey. Just a couple hundred feet.

It involves crossing South Clinton Avenue at Elmwood. Intersections create a lot of variables. I have had minimal incidents and only two collisions in more than ten years of biking by assuming a driver doesn’t see me until I see eye contact or a signal from them. I have yielded several times despite having the right of way and I’m almost always correct that the driver did not see me. Sometimes they notice at the last second and seem startled or give an “I’m sorry” wave.

I am more annoyed with the road designs than the driver. I would like to see our roads designed with protected bike lanes and traffic calming measures to make it impossible to drive recklessly as opposed to relying on drivers to make the correct choice.

[EDIT: I have since begun avoiding this intersection by using Lac De Ville Blvd and turning on to Rue De Ville before crossing South Clinton. Thanks to Reconnect Rochester’s Easy Bike Map for the tip!]

Still, it has been a transformative experience for me as a parent. My boys love the bike trailer. The first day I dropped my 3 year old off at his classroom a few kids wanted to know why he had a helmet. He proudly told them he got there in a bike trailer. The kids started excitedly talking about their bicycles and their helmets that they have at home. 

I rode him in the rain the next day. The Burley trailer has a great rain cover so he doesn’t get a drop of water on him. I have a good raincoat and I change my pants at work so it’s no big deal for me either. My brother who lives in the Netherlands says the parents there like to say, “Are you made of sugar? Why are you scared of a little water?”

Other parents at the daycare frequently comment on the trailer when we roll in. Some of them say “that loks nice!” or “I wish we could do that!” I’ve even shared bike trailer suggestions and safe route recommendations with other determined parents.

That’s what is so incredible about bicycle activism. I can talk about it for hours (and have!) but it doesn’t often resonate the same way as just witnessing the joy of little kids experiencing their community, or starting your day with an active outdoor experience rather than sitting in an expensive, noisy, isolated metal box. As I’ve seen from the last few months of biking my kids to daycare, the interest is there but most people just don’t think about it.

I firmly believe we should do anything we can to encourage parents to bike their kids to get around. It would even make things more pleasant for drivers since every bicycle is another car off the road thereby reducing traffic.

If we keep developing a comprehensive bicycle network we could reduce road deaths, create a more trusting and open community, reduce our environmental damage and even give parents a break from driving their kids everywhere when they get older and start activities and clubs. Imagine a bicycle network where 8 and 9 year olds could safely bike to and from school without adults. It’s possible and these communities exist. That could be us too. If we want it.


At Reconnect, we’re inspired by the stories of people in our community, like Chaz Goodman, Robert Picciotti and Yamini Karandikar, who are passionate about living a car-lite or car-free lifestyle. 

Let us know if you want to share your mobility story! What’s in it for you? The intrinsic reward of knowing you’ve inspired others, and a free t-shirt from our online shopContact Jahasia to submit your story. 

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Mind the Gap, Season Three!

Well the peak biking season is upon us! That means it’s time for our annual Mind the Gap campaign! The Rochester area has seen an investment in bike infrastructure over the last dozen years, but often these investments are piecemeal and disconnected, thus of limited use to the average person on a bike.

Unite the scattered bike lanes.

This voting campaign is all about Reconnect Rochester’s push to connect investments. So we’re once again asking you, our audience: What obvious gaps in our bike network, if filled, would have the largest connectivity value for the greatest number of (current and would-be) riders?

The winning vote-getter in 2022 was Elmwood Avenue, which recently had bike lanes installed – the first for Monroe County DOT! Last year’s winner was Empire Boulevard around the head of Irondequoit Bay. We’re having ongoing conversations with NYSDOT about that stretch of road which needs vast improvement. The gap that receives the most votes this year will be declared the winner! Reconnect Rochester will give this segment special attention in our advocacy efforts. We’ll approach the municipality and the operator of the road (be it City, County or State) with our community support evidence in hand to help make the case that this is a crucial gap to fill.

Without further ado, we present to you the nominees for the 2024 Mind the Gap award:

1. SOUTH CLINTON AVENUE OVER THE ERIE CANAL

Okay voters: we hear you! Brighton residents want to be able to bike from the Brickyard Trail and Buckland Park to Meridian Centre Park and the Erie Canal, but 590 stands in the way. Some dream of a bike/ped bridge over 590 (wouldn’t that be cool!), but this voting campaign is about short stretches and low-hanging fruit. Biking along Winton under 590 is way too uncomfortable for most bike riders. South Clinton, however, is more doable. How about protected bike lanes from Senator Keating Blvd to the parking lot beside the Canal? That’s only 4/10 of a mile.

Jurisdiction: Monroe County DOT

2. LEE ROAD CONNECTING ERIE CANAL TRAIL TO 390 TRAIL

Rochester’s west side is bereft of comfortable biking connections. It’s crucial that the 390 Trail and Erie Canal Trail be connected. A great start was made in 2022 with the new 390 Trail extension and Eastman Trail. Unfortunately, a NYSDOT project to construct a trail along Lee Rd from Ridgeway Ave to Trolley Blvd fell through. In the not too distant future, hopefully County DOT can give Lee Road a road diet and protect cyclists from that intimidating semi truck traffic. This stretch is 1.4 miles.

Jurisdiction: Monroe County DOT

3. BUFFALO ROAD BETWEEN HOWARD & TRABOLD

Biking westbound out of the City isn’t easy. The average rider won’t be comfortable biking on Brooks or Chili Ave with their current configurations. The good news however is that once you bike past the Canal & 390, there are some residential streets that get you further west in a low-stress manner. Buffalo Road at least has bike lanes & wide shoulders until you approach Howard. The biggest wall then becomes 490. There’s no other way around it: Buffalo Road needs to be made bike-friendly going under 490. How about protected bike lanes along the half-mile stretch from Wegman Road to Davy Drive? Easy residential cycling then gets you to TSE, the Gates Library and the Amazon Fulfillment Center.

Jurisdiction: NYSDOT

4. CROSSING 104 INTO IRONDEQUOIT

The easiest way to cross Route 104 by bike is via the El Camino Trail. But another low-stress route is needed to the east between Rochester and Irondequoit. Goodman and Culver are not friendly for cyclists. We see two options: Monroe County DOT makes the 104 underpass on Culver more bike-friendly, or the Town of Irondequoit explores this great trail idea put forth by Jack Rinaldo a couple years ago. Such a trail would only need to be half a mile long (!) and it would be transformative.

Jurisdiction: Monroe Co. DOT / Town of Irondequoit

5. TRAIL ALTERNATIVE TO 441

As area cyclists know, biking on 441 is not comfortable at all. Riding a bike from the City to Penfield and southward to East Rochester is quite the challenge. Penfield Road east of 490 isn’t awful. At least there are shoulders to ride in. When those shoulders disappear after Poplar Drive, there’s a sidewalk/market parking lot/sidewalk again on the north side that will get you very close to Panorama Plaza. Behind Panorama Plaza, there is a trail network that gets you all the way to Perinton’s Spring Lake Park. But alas, adults aren’t allowed to ride their bikes on Penfield Trails. Remedying this gap would require the town to update its code. Pedestrians and cyclists can coexist on those trails right?

Jurisdiction: Town of Penfield

6. DRIVING PARK AVENUE BRIDGE

The City is starting a study to find the best way to fill the gap in the Genesee Riverway Trail north of downtown. As it is now, St. Paul Street bike lanes take riders north to Brewer Street, where the trail resumes over Middle Falls. (The Avenue A bike boulevard gets you here from the east as well). Those who don’t want to descend into the gorge only to climb back up to Driving Park Ave can avoid the hills & stay on flat terrain by taking Carthage Drive and biking on the Driving Park Avenue Bridge for a tiny bit. There are bike lanes on the bridge but motorist speeds are very fast and it’s quite an intimidating experience. How about protected bike lanes on this bridge, or a two-way protected cycletrack on the south side that takes you to the crosswalk and newly installed RFFB?

Jurisdiction: City of Rochester

7. HYLAN DRIVE TO MARKETPLACE DRIVE

Parts of Henrietta (residential streets) are somewhat bikeable but 390 severs Henrietta in two. The north branch of the Lehigh Valley Trail is also severed in two. Perhaps someday Bailey Road, West Henrietta Road and Calkins will be made bike-friendly in order to really complete the trail’s north branch. But an easier lift would be giving Hylan Drive a road diet and really taking care to protect cyclists going over 390. Once a northbound cyclist gets to Marketplace Drive, they can veer off west or east for lower-stress biking. Where the trail ends at Calkins to Marketplace Drive is only 7/10 of a mile.

Jurisdiction: Monroe County DOT

8. EAST AVENUE WEGMANS

Biking to the East Avenue Wegmans and locking up your bike next to the front doors is often way more convenient than driving there and searching for a parking space. But Wegmans could certainly be more approachable by bike in each direction. From the southwest, cyclists can ride along the comfortable Norris Drive or Harvard Street bike boulevards to Colby. There are new bike lanes on East Ave but unfortunately they don’t get you all the way to Wegmans. Surely something can be done too to connect the Harvard/Colby bike boulevard to the bike boulevard across from Artisan Works on Marion Street. That bike boulevard parallels Winton and goes up to Tryon Park. Many voters complain of how uncomfortable Winton is going over 490. This whole can of worms area needs attention.

Jurisdiction: NYS DOT (East Avenue) and City of Rochester (Winton and Blossom)

9. THE JOSANA TRAIL

A critical connection the City intends to make someday is between the Colvin Street bike boulevard and the soccer stadium, where the Plymouth bike boulevard continues north all the way to Kodak Park. This is especially important as this area sees a lot of cyclist-motorist collisions. The intended connection is via the abandoned railroad tracks and would be called the JOSANA Trail. Things always get complicated when acquiring CSX right-of-way is involved, but if this gap wins the contest, perhaps it’ll give the City a sense of urgency in acquiring right of way and finding the funding to implement the planning work that’s already done. This segment of the trail is only a half mile.

Jurisdiction: City of Rochester

10. BETTER CONNECTION BETWEEN THE 390 AND LAKE ONTARIO TRAILS

Thanks to the new Eastman Trail and 390 Trail extension, Greece residents can bike along the 390 Trail almost to Mt Read Blvd, though the 390 Trail is in need of some serious maintenance. The 390 Trail goes all the way north to Janes Road, where some traffic negotiating is required. One has to take a left turn onto Island Cottage Road to where the Lake Ontario Trail starts. This little bit of shoulder riding is only half a mile between the two trails. The shoulders are quite wide but some all ages and abilities bike accommodations would be fantastic along that half-mile stretch.

Jurisdiction: Monroe County DOT

So, what do you think?

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20 Minutes by Bike Blog Series: Chili

By: Joe Osgood

The Rochester area is famous for its 20-minute commute. For driving that is. Reconnect Rochester is excited to ask a different question in this blog series: Where can you get within 20 minutes on a bike?

Presenting the seventh in a series of custom “bike shed maps.” For this next installment, we chose where Chili Avenue, Paul Road and Chili-Coldwater Road come together in Chili and are showing how far out in every direction you can get on a bike at a casual but steady pace of 10 miles per hour. This means that if you live anywhere in this green area, you can get to that intersection & its stores/workplaces within 20ish minutes on a bike. Thanks again to Brendan Ryan for his help putting this map together for us.

To get us familiar with this green territory in Chili, here’s Joe Osgood sharing his personal travel-by-bike experiences.

In 2022, I started “returning to the office” after a period of working remotely during the pandemic. I already lived a reasonable bike ride from work, so I decided to try bike commuting regularly. I soon found myself investing in some quality panniers – Ortlieb panniers are worth the price – for both work-commuting and getting groceries. 
As time has passed, I’ve evolved from a fair-weather commuter, to a rain-rider, to eventually getting studded bike tires for the winter – which I highly recommend! At this point, I’ve been living “car-lite” – tending to lean towards biking as my transportation choice unless there is some reason not to (such as time/distance or dangerous conditions). There are quite a few destinations around Chili I can reach in about a 20 minute bike ride, and I’m able to find routes that have minimal car traffic. I’ll share some of those routes below.


Chili Center

The Chili Wegmans is here, as well as Aldi and Target, and lots more. If you’re approaching from the east or northeast, the best way to approach Wegmans is to sneak in the Paul Rd entrance. It’s less busy than the Chili-Paul intersection, and you get closer to the bike rack between the pharmacy entrance and the main entrance (by the bottle return).

If you’re approaching from the west, you can take the sidewalk next to the car entrance down into the Target lot. These metal bars by the entrance to Target are probably meant for herding shopping carts inside, but they also make a great object to lock your bike to. Bike “parking spots” are often more convenient than car parking spots!


Or, skip the bike rack altogether and get yourself a folding bike you can take inside with you. I got a Tern Link D8 from Bert’s Bikes a few months ago and it has served me well so far. My Ortlieb panniers work fine with the rear rack. I recently installed the Tern Transit Rack so I can wheel it around while folded – a worthwhile investment.


Rochester Tech Park

The Rochester Tech Park used to be busy back in the day, but now it has very little car traffic and is actually great for biking – inside the Tech Park, that is. Unfortunately, the Tech Park is surrounded by “stroads”: Buffalo, Manitou, Elmgrove, and Rt 531. Rt 531 is a highway that forms a geographical barrier comparable to a river – Elmgrove and Manitou being the only nearby bridges crossing it. 

The best way to get into the Tech Park by bike is to cross the busy “stroads” at a traffic light, particularly the one at Coldwater Rd. While Coldwater Rd has a moderate amount of traffic, it also has a decent-sized shoulder for most of its length.

To get to Coldwater Rd from Chili Center, most cars take Chili Center Coldwater Rd. While this is the shortest way, it’s also the busiest. 

A much better option is to take the Paul Rd exit from Wegmans and immediately turn onto Grenell Dr. Go down Chili Ave briefly before turning into the St Pius X church parking lot, which connects to Chestnut Ridge Rd. Then take Fenton Rd to Westside Dr and finally onto Coldwater. It does make the trip 4 miles instead of 3.5, but it’s well worth it to be on quieter roads.


Buffalo Road Tops

The Buffalo Rd plazas on the other side of 490 have businesses like Tops, Home Depot, and Tinseltown. 

Buffalo Rd here is an archetypical “stroad” – high traffic volume moving at dangerously high speeds. The least-stressful way to approach these plazas is via Pixley Rd. While Pixley Rd has a fair amount of traffic, it only has 3 lanes of car traffic instead of 6. It also has a wide shoulder for biking.

To get to Pixley, you could take Chili Ave. An alternative is to go through the parking lot of St Pius X church, as described above, and use Fenton to get to Westside Dr. Westside Dr has less car traffic than Chili Ave. Going the Westside Dr route adds an extra half mile to the trip (4.3 miles vs 3.9 miles).


Chili Walmart

The obvious way to get to Walmart from Chili Center is to take Chili Ave. As mentioned above, Chili Ave is okay for biking – at least between Grenell Dr and the intersection with Westside Dr. You could choose to take Fenton Rd and Westside Dr here, but that will add an extra half mile to the trip (4 miles vs 3.6). 

Whichever way you go, you will eventually have to take Chili Ave east of the Westside Dr intersection. East of this intersection, Chili Ave becomes a much busier “stroad”. The sidewalks are the best option when biking this stretch of Chili Ave.

At some point, you will want to get to the sidewalk on the north side of the road. There is a sidewalk branching off this one that goes to Westgate Park, and you can take that sidewalk to avoid some busy intersections. Safely cross Howard Rd at a light, and you’ll arrive at Walmart. 

Note: Last I checked, Walmart’s bike rack was rusted out and not trustworthy. Ensure you lock your bike to a secure object. I usually use the fence by the garden center.


City of Rochester

While outside of the 20-minute range, I will occasionally do longer rides into the city or across town. Usually such a route involves getting to the Erie Canal trail. Here’s two lower-stress routes to get there.

One option would be Chili Ave to Pixley to Hinchey. This route avoids the more stressful stretch of Chili Ave between Westside Dr and the Canal. Use caution on the last ¼ of a mile of this route when you are back on Chili Ave, as there are multiple slip lanes and busy intersections to cross. Once you get on the Canal trail, you can easily head east towards Genesee Valley Park and take a bike trail from there.

Another option is to take Paul Rd to the airport and then pick up the bike trail that parallels Scottsville Rd. Between Chili Center and the airport, Paul Rd is fairly quiet. It’s a little busier around the southern tip of the airport. The crosswalk at Paul Rd and Scottsville Rd was recently improved for better pedestrian safety. And the bike trail along Scottsville Rd is very pleasant to ride, between the river and trees (and the fire safety training grounds!).