The City has partnered with C&S Companies to analyze and make recommendations to enhance commuting, circulation, and parking in Downtown Rochester. Among the potential enhancements under consideration is a circulator transit service—a.k.a shuttle buses or streetcars. Listen carefully Rochester…
Posted by: Mike Governale, co-founder of Reconnect Rochester.
Hopefully by now you’ve read Rochester’s Case for a Streetcar Line. If you haven’t, go read it. Go on, I’ll wait.
…Okay great, now here’s an update. Since that article, traffic to RochesterSubway.com has doubled, our Facebook fan club 
has grown from 100 to over 400 (and counting), and my inbox hasn’t had a moments rest. This is all very encouraging and a sure sign that the people of Rochester really want to see their city thrive. The big question is; do the people of Rochester care enough to make an effort? All signs point to yes. So far we’ve got 12 people (including myself) who have risen to the challenge. Together we will lead a city wide movement to Reconnect Rochester.
Last Saturday morning, one day after a northeast blizzard moved thru our area, 5 passionate Rochesterians dug there way out of their homes and met me for lunch at Legend’s Bar & Grill. Against the backdrop of a bus-lined Main Street we introduced ourselves and got right down to swapping ideas about how we could help put Rochester back on track—pun intended…
NY-PA trail blends recreation, conservation
By PATRICK DONLIN – pdonlin@sungazette.com
Jon Schull, Rochester Institute of Technology associate professor of innovation and invention, said he and Allen Kerkeslager met a couple months ago in Philadelphia, where Kerkeslager is a professor at St. Joseph’s University.
“We talked about the synergy between his (Kerkeslager’s) work in the Genesee Wilds Association and my work which I call the ‘Rochester Greenway,’ ” Schull said. “We realized the two sections we had been focusing on were the two end points of this project.”
Schull, one of the founders of the Rochester Cycling Alliance, is excited about the recreation possibilities.
Kerkeslager described different reasons he wants to get involved. He grew up in rural New York, near the proposed trail project, and continues to go home to see family there, driving through Williamsport on the way.
The trail project also is a chance for Kerkeslager, a religions of the ancient world professor, to delve into something he admits isn’t as obscure.
‘A breather … for humanity’
“Much of this (trail project) is a breather to do stuff for humanity,” he said.
It comes with a price.
Kerkeslager said the cost for the 230-mile connection could be $100 million, but he offered an explanation.
To offer it completely with trails, he expects a $50 million expense.
There would be another cost of $50 million for the water conservation measures he recommends.
It’ll take time, too, as Kerkeslager said, “Twenty years, I think that’s a fair estimate to be completely off-road.”
Kerkeslager, who rides a bicycle 10 miles round trip on his daily work commute, said he’s a proponent of the proposed cycling recreation.
Environmental improvements
But, he’s also an advocate for environmental improvements possible through the trail plan.
The project spans the Susquehanna, Genesee and the headwaters of the Allegheny River, all watersheds Kerkeslager intends to protect.
Kerkeslager believes building a riparian buffer along the trail is a cost-saving conservation alternative to building expensive rock wall dams.
Greenway planning preserves forests and conserves nature, according to Rick Biery, regional planning program manager for Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission.
Biery embraces plan development and the possible trail if it’s conducted responsibly.
“From a concept standpoint, these things are great,” Biery said. “It brings an opportunity to tap into a resource hikers and bikers may not get to go through unless we look at the possibilities.”
Through connectivity, the recreational system experience improves, according to Kerkeslager.
He said it will connect the nationally renowned Pine Creek Gorge bicycle trail to the Genesee River’s gorgeous waterfalls.
Jobs will be created, Kerkeslager added, especially in the sectors of tourism, hospitality, recreation and tour guiding.
He intends to bring the plan to the forefront at meetings of the Northcentral Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission in Ridgway.
Facing up to the challenge
Some consider the most challenging interstate link to be completed as a 40-mile proposed trail running northwest from Wellsboro to the New York border.
A connection just west of Wellsboro is in the conceptual stage, according to Biery.
“We’re working with a consultant to develop a greenways open space outdoors recreation plan. It’s an overall concept plan,” he said.
Matt Marusiak, project coordinator for the Northcentral Pennsylvania Greenways and Open Space Plan, said land deals still need to be made there to acquire trail property, much of which lack old railroad beds ideal for making recreation trails.
In areas where land can’t be bought, Kerkeslager said the trail may have to go along Route 6.
Railroad beds ideal
A recreational trail using a road area isn’t uncommon, as Kerkeslager said portions of the Appalachian Trail he’s explored are the same way.
Railroad beds like what are used in the local Pine Creek Trail are ideal, but alternatives can be used if necessary.
Kerkeslager said there’s often a section here and there where planners have to route a trail along roads where landowners want to keep their property or where an area is undevelopable.
Since July, Biery’s been involved in what he described as an outreach process including public meetings, contact with stakeholders, and thousands of resident surveys in the counties of Tioga, Sullivan, Wyoming and Susquehanna.
Biery hopes to reach the next goal by early June, which includes a direct recommendations document he said is drafted for review by the planning partners.
“That’s where projects will come from,” Biery said of further details to be unveiled.
Project offerings
Bicycle recreation is important but so is waterways enjoyment, organizers say.
Like the canoe and kayak launches already offe
red along the Genesee and Pine Creek rail trails, Kerkeslager plans on offering more boat launches where possible.
He hopes his entire New York to Pennsylvania circuit can be as beautiful as the Pine Creek trail residents enjoy here, but he realizes some adjustments may be necessary.
A hurdle in New York is not to have a trail, but to have it off-road.
A 20-mile section from Belfast, N.Y., to Wellsville, N.Y., can be offered as soon as this summer if it’s presented on an existing country road.
“In the long run, we’d like to get these trails off the roads entirely,” Kerkeslager said.
Using a combination of existing roads and trails, he said a route from Williamsport to New York could be offered later this year.
Organizers would merely have to offer maps, a Web site and post some trail sections with markers honoring the trail.
“It could say future home of (the NYPA Greenways),” Kerkeslager said, reminding it’s only a working name.
“To open for usage with provisional usage on roads, we can do that as soon as it gets warm,” he said.
People already bicycle from Rochester to Williamsport, according to Schull.
“They ride on trails and ride on roads when the trail peters out,” he said.
It can be done now, but Lycoming County Visitors Bureau Executive Director Jason Fink doesn’t suggest competing with traffic along the Route 14-15 corridors.
‘A safer way’
“This would be a safer way to enjoy it,” said Fink, himself an avid local bicycle rider. “To ride up to Rochester would be a very exciting thing for a bicyclist.”
Because the existing Pine Creek Trail is extensively used, he believes a new trail would be popular around here.
It would be quite an experience to explore a different terrain in the Great Lakes region up north, according to Fink.
The trail is more than just about recreation to Schull, who said, “it becomes a plan for real development and transportation development.”
He said bicycling is especially popular among the five cycling clubs in his city.
Schull said there are great places to ride around the Erie Canal, Genesee Riverway Trail, Lake Ontario and Finger Lakes. He said his region already had wonderful trails but they can be improved.
“There are stretches where there’s roads that we ride that could be more bikeable,” Schull said. “And there’s stretches that could be more scenic or more direct.”
Extending their outreach
Attracting expanded stakeholders interested in conservation is critical to success, according to Kerkeslager.
“With more interest in the trail, we’ll expand the profile,” he said. “Get people using it and once they’re using it, it promotes more stakeholders to build up funding.”
“If there’s enough support out there, the right people should be able to find those funds out there,” Fink said of needed grants.
Separate but similar projects are happening elsewhere, as Schull said a national network of trails is developing.
“There’s an emerging view of greenways all over the country,” he said.
The East Coast Greenway project from Cape Cod to Key West, Fla., is being developed along a proposed 3,000-mile trail, which runs down the eastern seaboard, incorporating the Philadelphia area.
In addition to his planning involvement with the Pennsylvania Wilds, Jerry Walls also is a board member of the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership, which he said may benefit from the NYPA plan.
From the headwaters of the West Branch in Cambria County to Williamsport to Sunbury to the Chesapeake Bay, Susquehanna Greenway partners including Walls are planning a 500-mile recreational route that he said could tie into Kerkeslager’s plan.
We have identified an RGE gas pipeline that runs from a hill on the West Side of RIT’s campus (just South of the Red Barn) across East River Rd, across the river, across Scottsville Rd, and through cleared woods to the GVGreenway Trail.
This path has just the trajectory we might want in developing the RIT Tweenway, and the trees are already cleared. (The path is not surfaced.)
View tweenway Spur in a larger map
Here are some panoramas
The view from the hill to the West: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2721/4309845639_f1e422dcce_o.jpg
The view from Scottsville Rd East to RIT: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4309844619_70c0ddf04f_o.jpg
The view at the GVGreenway-Pipeline intersection (380 degrees) : http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2798/4338153998_0616943c66_o.jpg:
Let’s call the path that might be made from the pipeline the “Tweenway Spur” (assuming the cross-RIT bike trail is to be called the RIT Tweenway.)
The ideal long-range vision is for a cycle/pedestrian bridge from the hill on the RIT campus to the Tweenway Spur, without their having to touch down on the East River Rd, Scottsville Rd, or the River.
However, even without the Tweenway Bridge, this spur would provide a more intuitive, scenic and safer alternative route to the Ballantyne Bridge (and thence to RIT or Jefferson Road and the Lehigh Valley North Trail).
RIT is already leading a potential bicycle renaissance in Rochester, with significant environmental and economic impacts on the city and the region.
By building an on-campus Greenway–a year round walkway/bikeway across campus– RIT could improve its campus, improve student life, promote innovation, promote sustainability, and integrate RIT’s industrial-sustainability types with our ecological-sustainability types.
The overall vision is grand. The first step could be simple. Prototype a covered, bikeable/walkable path over, or parallel to, the QuarterMile. (RIT students are already spec’ing out structural and paving options, including heatable floors for ice control).
Some googling lead me to believe there is a connecting trail.So this afternoon, I went cross country skiing to look for the connecting trail.At around the right place (A), I did find an embankment going West-East across the trail.There was a stone bridge over the creek on the West side of the trail, but fallen trees (under the snow, at least) no obvious trail to the East.When I circled back and drove back to Scottsville Rd just south of Greyson Rd, I found what might be the West end of that same cross-trail:a break in a wooden fence, a marked telephone pole “RGE 111, 228” and a sign pointing to Clearview Farms apartment. (B)And when I hiked West from the Road, there was a clear view to (what I believe was) the GV Trail.
Mitch Rosen points out that the Genessee Valley Greenway peters out just west of RIT’s Red Barn and suggested that a bike bridge (built by our own Civil Engineering students?) across the River would allow one to bike all the way from Cuba NY to the City without travelling a major road.
Complete Streets is a national movement which seeks to ensure that road construction projects take into account the needs of everyone who uses the roadways – pedestrians, motorists, the handicapped, children… and, naturally, cyclists.
In New York State, a bill currently making it’s way through the legislature would require that planning agencies do just that. It’s a major step in the effort to make sure that transportation planning works for everyone, and a major asset in pressing for better bike facilities.
The bill is sponsored by Rochester’s own Assemblyman David F. Gantt, representative from the 133th district which includes the City of Rochester and Gates. Gantt is also the chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee.
Please take a moment to reach out to your Assemblyperson and Senator, as well as the leaders of the Assembly and Senate Transportation Committees and urge them to support Assembly bill A08587 and Senate bill S5711. Representatives of other local districts are listed below, with contact information.
Also, see the call to action from the New York Bicycle Coalition to support the bill.
Assembly
Joseph A. Errigo, 130th district: Henrietta, Pittsford, Mendon, Victor, East & West Bloomfield (and beyond).
Susan John, 131st district: parts of Rochester, Chili, Wheatland, Riga, Rush.
Joseph D. Morelle, 132nd district: Irondequoit, Brighton.
Bill Reilich, 134th district: Greece, Ogden, Sweden.
David Koon, 135th Assembly district: Webster, Penfield, Perinton.
Senate
James Alesi, 55th Senate District: Irondequoit, Perinton, Pittsford, Penfield, Mendon, Henrietta, Rush, Wheatland, Chili, Riga.
Joseph Robach, 56th Senate District: parts of Rochester, Greece, Parma, Brighton.
George Maziarz, 62nd district: Gates, Ogden, and west to Buffalo.
Martin Dilan, 17th district. Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.
Complete Streets is a national movement which seeks to ensure that road construction projects take into account the needs of everyone who uses the roadways – pedestrians, motorists, the handicapped, children… and, naturally, cyclists.
In New York State, a bill currently making it’s way through the legislature would require that planning agencies do just that. It’s a major step in the effort to make sure that transportation planning works for everyone, and a major asset in pressing for better bike facilities.
The bill is sponsored by Rochester’s own Assemblyman David F. Gantt, representative from the 133th district which includes the City of Rochester and Gates. Gantt is also the chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee.
Please take a moment to reach out to your Assemblyperson and Senator, as well as the leaders of the Assembly and Senate Transportation Committees and urge them to support Assembly bill A08587 and Senate bill S5711. Representatives of other local districts are listed below, with contact information.
Also, see the call to action from the New York Bicycle Coalition to support the bill.
Assembly
Joseph A. Errigo, 130th district: Henrietta, Pittsford, Mendon, Victor, East & West Bloomfield (and beyond).
Susan John, 131st district: parts of Rochester, Chili, Wheatland, Riga, Rush.
Joseph D. Morelle, 132nd district: Irondequoit, Brighton.
Bill Reilich, 134th district: Greece, Ogden, Sweden.
David Koon, 135th Assembly district: Webster, Penfield, Perinton.
Senate
James Alesi, 55th Senate District: Irondequoit, Perinton, Pittsford, Penfield, Mendon, Henrietta, Rush, Wheatland, Chili, Riga.
Joseph Robach, 56th Senate District: parts of Rochester, Greece, Parma, Brighton.
George Maziarz, 62nd district: Gates, Ogden, and west to Buffalo.
Martin Dilan, 17th district. Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.
From Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
and there’s much more!
Discovered via http://www.geneseeriverwilds.org
I just noticed some recent news on the Rochester Greenway and I am glad to see the progress that your groups are making on this. You may find it helpful to peruse the newsletter of the Genesee River Wilds Project below and look over the attached documents, especially the project’s “Program Guide.” You may find it especially helpful to read the opening description of the project’s main goals and the references to trail systems in the Program Guide’s “Infrastructure Inventory.” This will make it clear that one of the goals of the Genesee River Wilds Project is to create the links needed to complete a massive recreational trail system reaching all the way from the Susquehanna River at Williamsport, PA, to Lake Ontario in Rochester. As the newsletter below and the contact list in the back of the Program Guide. indicates, many state and regional officials (including some in your area, as mentioned below) are aware of the Genesee River Wilds Project. The Program Guide. (from last April) and the newsletter (from end of last August) are, in fact already outdated because our contact list has grown considerably. For example, the project recently received a $5,000 grant to help pay for planning work being done by an architectural engineer, who is working almost for free with my colleagues and DEC officials in designing nature parks along the Genesee River in Allegany County, NY. Given that these and other features of the Genesee River Wilds Project involve two states and environmental issues that extend to federal interests such as Lake Ontario, you may find it especially helpful to articulate how your work on the Rochester Greenway can be integrated into these larger environmental concerns and the proposed interstate trail system when you submit applications for grants for federal and state funds.
If you are not familiar with the recreational trail system in Pennsylvania’s Pine Creek Gorge, then you may want to follow some of the links on the Genesee River Wilds Project’s website to see the exciting possibilities that will open up when the entire trail system from Rochester to Williamsport is completed. You may also want to pay special attention to the section of the newsletter below that deals with some of the planning on the Pennsylvania side that is underway for completing the remaining sections in PA (see below, “(6) Developments on the Pennsylvania side”). Completion of all 240 miles of the projected trail system is obviously a long-term goal, but so much has already been done on the Genesee Valley Greenway and the Pine Creek Trail that we actually are already far more than halfway there. Pennsylvania is also, as the note below indicates, moving more quickly than New York. So perhaps it will not be that many years before the Rochester Greenway can boast of being part of one of the longest and most scenic recreational trail systems in the country.
Please feel free to forward this note and the attached documents to people in your area. Our project has advanced rapidly by its appeal to stakeholders interested in not only riverside recreation, but also in conservation and the economic benefits of tourism and related business. Thus this may be of interest to business leaders, environmental scientists and biologists at the University of Rochester who may be involved in research projects related to the improvement of the water quality of the Genesee River or Lake Ontario, non-profit conservation groups in your area, and many others–including hikers, bikers, and kayakers. The more people that can be recruited to join in, the faster this will proceed.
David Skinner, a friend of mine who has urged the city and the University of Rochester to open the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad Bridge to foot and bicycle traffic, passed along some good news on Friday. Tom Hack, a Project Engineer with the city, wrote to him:
The bridge hasn’t seen any railroad traffic since the 1970s. Once opened to pedestrian and cyclist traffic, it will provide another link between the East and West-side river trails. The Genesee Transportation Council has a detailed report on the project at:
http://www.gtcmpo.org/Docs/PlansStudies/ErieLackawannaRRBridgeTrailStudy.pdf
— Gary Young
David Skinner, a friend of mine who has urged the city and the University of Rochester to open the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad Bridge to foot and bicycle traffic, passed along some good news on Friday. Tom Hack, a Project Engineer with the city, wrote to him:
The bridge hasn’t seen any railroad traffic since the 1970s. Once opened to pedestrian and cyclist traffic, it will provide another link between the East and West-side river trails. The Genesee Transportation Council has a detailed report on the project at:
http://www.gtcmpo.org/Docs/PlansStudies/ErieLackawannaRRBridgeTrailStudy.pdf
— Gary Young
Few inventions have the efficiency, health benefits, affordability, urban design potential, safety features and environmental friendliness of the modern bike. It’s not your grandmother’s bicycle; it’s a revolutionary component in our future transportation portfolio. There have been bikes. There will be bikes.
Bikes started as glorified hobby horses (the walking machine), then got pedals (the velocipede or boneshaker), then rose up and sped up (the high wheel bicycle), then began settling down for speed and safety (the hard-tired safety), and now they are fast, sleek and efficient. It was a long (and sometime dangerous) haul; and, if you are quick about it, you can see the entire history of bicycles at the Pedaling History Bicycle Museum in Orchard Park, NY before it closes. (If enough visitors go, maybe it won’t close.) [http://www.pedalinghistory.com/]
Now, in many modern urban communities the bicycle is more than an old contraption made new and glorified by bike clubs and enthusiasts. Bicycles are not simply hangers-on, like horse-riding or Model T driving on Sunday. Bicycles are becoming an integral part of planned transportation systems throughout the country. Note how cities like Portland, Oregon and Boulder, Colorado are retrofitting their vehicle-dominated streets into bike boulevards (BTA: Bicycle Boulevards Campaign) where commuters and even kids off to school can get to their destinations year-round and safely.
Year-round and safely? In New York State? In the rain, the snow, heavy traffic, though the mud, across busy bridges, to grandmother’s house and still be presentable?
Become a believer. When more people bike more drivers accept them on our streets—which, of course, they have every right to be. In official studies: under 6.5 miles, the public prefers bicycling over mass transit. Bicycling produces zero greenhouse gas emissions, has relatively inexpensive repair bills, and because of the soaring cost of road and bridge maintenance our regional planners consider bicycles a serious component of our future transportation.
If we make our streets more bike accessible, protect bicyclists from fast-moving traffic, create innovative all-weather bike corridors, [http://rochestergreenway.org/]and provide convenient and comprehensive bike parking, the public will bike. Already, many cities have found a way to bicycle-friendly their streets, not because it is trendy, but because there is no faster, more efficient, environmentally and urban-friendlier way to get around than the bike. [http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/communities/]
Too expensive, too radical, too dangerous, too slow, and just too much darn trouble? As opposed to what? Billions of dollars on maintaining our existing vehicular dominated streets? An obese society that spends zillions of bucks for insurance, parking, fuel, repairs, and the vehicles’ price (the ‘Clunkers for Cash’ program is drying up)?
The real impediment to creating a Rochester, New York that moves around in massive numbers on bicycles and renews our sense of community from our too expensive isolation tanks is Attitude. Everything else is there, the technology, the know-how, and the vivid examples of bike/transportation modes across the spectrum of world cities. Behold a healthier lifestyle.
Frank J. Regan [RochesterEnvironment.com]
People are talking. Excitement builds. The Rochester Greenway is entering a new phase: a steering group (maybe, the “The Rochester Greenway Steering Group”) who will be focusing on moving the project from conceptual stage to something more concrete—or macadam, or plastic, or a new composite altogether. At this point, interested groups are offering their time to see this unique concept get funding through grants, get endorsements from various groups, and provide presentations of this all-weather, carbon-free transportation system.
“I just want to point out to you that this isn’t just about biking. This is truly about a grander purpose happening here. I would just urge you to think about what you want to do. I think it’s important to consider options for the future.”
“There is an opportunity for capitalizing on new materials and ideas and how this will relate to communities. We want to have a plan for some type of sustainable plan in the longer term sense. I think that we should also get students from other regions interested from other campuses. There are many things, which could be woven into the goals. There
is great potential here.”
“This could be a steering group for a future Charrette meeting. There is a reality about a certain threshold for numbers of people working together. I think you bring up
a good point that we should all be in contact with each-other. We should also think about people in the working group. I think it’s very important that there would be a shared vision going in multiple directions. I think we should think of ourselves as being a Greenway Steering group.”
People are talking.
More to come:
Town of Brighton Proposed Multi-Use Trail Public Meeting
Tom Low, Town of Brighton Commissioner of Public Works
585.784.5225, thomas.low@townofbrighton.org.
Brighton, NY, July 3, 2009 – The Town of Brighton will hold a Public Meeting to review the concept of a multi-use trail connecting Town Hall and the Erie Canal. The meeting will be held on July 27th from 7pm-9pm at the Brighton Town Hall, 2300 Elmwood Ave. The I-590 Bicycle / Pedestrian Bypass Trail Feasibility Study is nearing completion, and the Town wishes to gather additional feedback on the preferred trail alignment identified in the Draft Report.
In its 2000 Comprehensive Plan, the Town identified a concept for a trail connecting the Town Hall Complex on Elmwood Avenue to the Erie Canal at Meridian Centre Park. This Feasibility Study explores the viability of the whole corridor of the I-590 Bicycle / Pedestrian Bypass trail, with consideration given to location alternatives, design recommendations, funding sources, and phasing strategies.
The Preferred Trail Alignment map, along with the full Draft Report, is available on the Town’s website; http://www.townofbrighton.org/CivicAlerts.aspx.
Bikes needed
R Community Bikes, a grassroots organization that collects and repairs used bikes to distribute free of charge to adults and children in need, will be collecting bicycles on Sat, Sept 19, at Penfield Fitness and Racket Club, 667 Panorama Trail West, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Information: www.rcommunitybikes.net
