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!
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:
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.
“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.
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:
Write an email or call the office.
Targets:
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
Assembly Member Sarah Clark represents the western portion of the roadway: clarks@nyassembly.gov or 585-467-0410
Assembly Member Jennifer Lunsford represents the eastern portion of the roadway: lunsfordj@nyassembly.gov or 585-223-9130
State Senate
Senator Samra Brouk represents the area: brouk@nysenate.gov or 585-223-1800
Senator Jeremy Cooney is the Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee: cooney@nysenate.gov or 585-225-3650
What to ask for:
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.
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.
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:
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
On June 10, Reconnect Rochester and an amazing team of partners came together to transform the intersection of Arnett Boulevard and Warwick Avenue in the 19th Ward. This project was our fourth Complete Streets Makeover, completing our ‘quadfecta’ of a project in every quadrant of the city. Before we dive into how we made the magic happen, let’s remember why this program is central to our work and mission at Reconnect Rochester.
Responding to this growing epidemic was the impetus behind the creation of our Complete Streets Makeover (CSM) program in 2018. Our goal is to bring attention to complete street design as one critical factor in creating streets that are safe for everyone. A “complete street” allows everyone—regardless of age, ability or mode of transportation—safe access on that street. It is a street shared by pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders and motorists.
“Complete Streets are streets for everyone. Complete Streets is an approach to planning, designing, building, operating, and maintaining streets that enables safe access for all people who need to use them, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities.”
Along Arnett Boulevard in Rochester’s southwest quadrant, 12 crashes with pedestrians and cyclists occurred between 2012-2021 that resulted in serious or traumatic injuries.
Experiencing the harm of this road violence is perhaps what motivated members of the Arnett Block Association to nominate the intersection of Arnett & Warwick for a Complete Streets Makeover. The submission was the most extravagant we’ve ever received, complete with a compelling narrative, stated commitments from neighborhood organizations, and a host of images and videos (check one of them out here) providing evidence and testimony from concerned community members who wanted to see change.
In reviewing this nomination and judging the location by a set of established criteria, our Steering Committee was convinced that Arnett and Warwick presented the right mix of community support, evidence of safety concerns, and had great potential for a street redesign. A Complete Streets Makeover at the intersection would create real, transformative change for the community through this project.
This intersection is also at the heart of a community hub featuring the Arnett Branch Library, the family-owned Arnett Cafe and School #16 right around the corner. Because of the proximity to kids, there was an emphasis on improving safety for children and families, the community’s most vulnerable road users.
Gathering Community Input
We kicked off the project with a community workshop in February 2023 at the Arnett Branch Library Community Room. Over 40 community members came out to share their experiences, identify the issues that they have seen along this corridor, and offer their ideas and solutions to improve safety and create a welcoming space.
Common issues identified by the community included: lack of crosswalks across Arnett Boulevard, frequent speeding, and low visibility of cars for pedestrians.
Common solutions identified by the community included: installing crosswalks, curb bumpouts, more signage and installing beautification features and pedestrian infrastructure including benches and planters.
The Stantec Team provided a map and transfer paper so that community members could draw street design elements and solutions.
Following the workshop, the Stantec team got to work creating a rendering that would reflect the community’s input, and bi-weekly meetings with a core group of neighbors commenced to begin planning for the many aspects of the event: the street mural, food, music, a parklet outside of the library, and other placemaking elements. The community identified neighborhood artist Richmond Futch Jr. to lead the design and implementation of the street mural which would become a focal point of the project and a crucial design element to capture the attention of drivers and encourage them to slow down.
Richmond’s initial design of the street mural:
Stantec’s design rendering incorporating Richmond’s design and the community’s input:
You can imagine that at this point during the process, there was a lot of excitement and energy looking forward to the day of the event where we would bring this all to life.
Making the Magic Happen at Arnett & Warwick
After much planning, over 100 people came out to Arnett & Warwick on June 10 to make the magic happen! Attendees were made up of people from the neighborhood, youth organizers and leaders from The Center for Teen Empowerment, children from School No. 16, and a team of community partners*. Together, we worked to make the intersection of Arnett Blvd and Warwick Avenue a more vibrant, safer place for everyone.
Design elements to calm traffic and improve safety included curb bump outs with bollards to slow cars turning onto Warwick or Arnett, and a street mural. Other elements to beautify the space included:
A wishing tree where community members can leave positive messages to uplift others
Flower planters made from repurposed bus stop cubes
A built out parklet that used a parking space in front of the Arnett Branch Library and transformed it into a kid-friendly space with colorful benches, turf, a copycat Simon Says game and hopscotch.
Nothing captures the life of a project better than film. Reconnect Rochester is pleased to share this short film, produced by Floating Home Films, that tells the full story.
But did it make a difference? YES! Data collected before and after the implementation (April and July, respectively) shows a measurable decrease in vehicle speeds along Arnett & Warwick.
After implementation, the 85th percentile speed (the speed that 85% of vehicles travel at or below) declined 9% and the average speed declined 10%. When it comes to speed, each mile-per-hour a driver is traveling makes a difference for pedestrian and cyclist safety, and can be the difference between life and death or a person sustaining life altering injuries.
The City of Rochester has already approved a permanent crosswalk for the intersection as a direct result of this project, so the neighborhood can look forward to that coming soon!
Looking Ahead
Our awesome team is taking one year off in between projects, but we’ll be back in mid-2024 with a public call for submissions, so keep taking note of the intersections and trouble spots you experience in your daily travels that could use a Complete Streets Makeover! Together, we’ll keep advocating to design our streets for people, and we’ll keep making it happen one intersection at a time.
Community Partners
The Complete Streets Makeover of Arnett & Warwick was a collaborative venture with the following community partners:
and,
Richmond Futch, Jr., 19th Ward Neighborhood Artist
Amy Schramm, School 16 Art Teacher
Funding Support
This project is supported with funding provided by ESL Charitable Foundation, The Community Foundation, Genesee Transportation Council, and New York State Department of Health’s Creating Healthy Schools and Communities initiative.
The media plays a critical, leading role in educating and engaging the public. We appreciate the hard, nonstop work required to provide this essential community service.
As you know, our community struggles with violence, and that violence often leads the news. Yet a particular violence crisis is flying under the radar of the local media and the community – road violence. Tremendous harm is being inflicted on our community as a result of the wildly increasing number of pedestrian and bicycle injuries and deaths on our streets, which disproportionately affects our neighbors of color.
It is becoming more dangerous to walk here in our community and across the country. In the U.S., pedestrian fatalities have skyrocketed, increasing by 62% from 2009-2020, and another 13% in 2021 alone. Bicyclist deaths are also at the highest point since 1975. In Monroe County, 5,498 crashes from 2012-2021 involved bicyclists and pedestrians, with 4,466 resulting in injury or death. On average, 10 people die on our local streets every year as a result of these crashes (a majority of them pedestrians).
Recent incidents include the death of Edgar SantaCruz and his dog Rosie, struck by a driver in the crosswalk at North Goodman and Park Avenue; the death of octogenarian Madeleine Schreiber in Brighton, who was backed over by a driver on Oakdale Street; the death of Ernest Martin, a cyclist hit by two drivers on North Street; the death of pedestrian Khadijah Stanley, hit by a driver while on the sidewalk on Hudson Avenue; and the death of Jarod Jones, a teenager killed by a driver in a hit-and-run on Lake Avenue. These are only a few of the many reported and unreported cases of precious lives lost in our community just the last few years.
We have observed that the media can do more to accurately and adequately report on these incidents of road violence. While driver-pedestrian or driver-bicyclist crashes often receive media coverage, the coverage tends to misattribute the causes and consequences of the crashes. Going forward, we encourage you to report on these crashes – and the preventability of them – more thoughtfully.
Below is a compilation of ways the media often misrepresents these incidents, and some suggestions for more balanced reporting.
Blaming the victim and absolving the driver. Media coverage often highlights that the person injured or killed “wasn’t in a crosswalk,” “was wearing dark clothes,” or “was out walking at 3 a.m.” Meanwhile, drivers are often recognized in a positive light with commentary such as “the driver stayed at the scene” and “no charges were filed.”
Blaming the vehicle and absolving the driver. Crashes are often described as pedestrians or cyclists being “hit by a car”, rather than being hit by a driver operating a car. Language matters!
Calling crashes “accidents.” Again, language matters. The word “accident” implies that the crash couldn’t be avoided, and has the effect of normalizing them as unavoidable and acceptable since “accidents happen”.
These crashes often occur because of driver behavior, as well as poor street design that fails to protect those outside a vehicle. In many cases, the driver could have prevented the crash by paying attention, slowing down, and driving responsibly. While driver behavior is relevant to crash causes and consequences, as important are street design, conditions and policies that enable and encourage dangerous driver behavior, namely:
Streets and roads that are too wide, which encourages motorists speeding and distractibility at the expense of pedestrian, cyclist *and* driver/passenger safety. Landscape architect Ian McHarg once said that “if you design a road like a gun barrel, people are going to drive like bullets.”
Poorly designed infrastructure and poor maintenance of existing infrastructure: signal crossings that don’t give pedestrians sufficient time to cross, insufficient street lighting, lack of crosswalks or worn out crosswalk paint are some examples. At Reconnect Rochester, we advocate for complete streets design that accommodates and protects ALL users of the road.
Unsafe speed limits: The citywide and village 30 mph speed limits seem slow and safe to our speed-desensitized experience, but 30 can easily be a lethal speed for a vehicle, and many people regularly drive at 40 mph or more in those zones. Speed kills. The chance of a pedestrian surviving a hit from a 3,000-7,000-pound machine plummets from 95% if hit at 20 mph, to 55% at 30 mph, to 15 percent at 40 mph.
The build-up of snow and ice covering sidewalks and curb cuts, conditions that force pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users into the streets. Compounding this problem: plows that bury or block sidewalks with the snow they throw aside to ensure the streets and driveways are clear for drivers.
To help with greater mindfulness and accuracy about the ways you report on pedestrian-driver and bicycle-driver crashes, we suggest investigating the following questions when preparing your reporting.
Road Design/Conditions:
Was the road where the crash occurred designed to promote vehicle speed with wide open lanes and few markings on the road? Does it have safe, dedicated space for cyclists and pedestrians, and protective design features such as crossings, bike lanes, pedestrian medians, and other complete streets features?
If the crash happened at night, was a lack of street lighting a factor? The majority of vehicle-pedestrian crashes happen at night.
If the crash happened during winter, was the sidewalk clear of snow and ice?
Drivers:
Was the driver driving over the legal speed limit, or did the driver disregard a different traffic control device (e.g. light, stop sign)?
Was the driver distracted or impaired by a cell phone, alcohol or drugs or other distraction? Driver inattention is a leading cause of crashes.
Was the driver properly licensed, and did they have a history of crashes or traffic infractions (i.e. “chronic bad driver”)? We often hear of crash perpetrators who are unlicensed and/or have had their licenses revoked dozens of times, and are still driving.
Vehicles:
Did the vehicle have limited front, side or rear visibility? This is the case with many of the most popular SUVs and pickup trucks. For example, studies have shown that front blind zones on SUVs lead to deadly crashes and especially endanger children.
Was the vehicle poorly maintained to the point where a crash was more likely (lights out, bald tires, bad wipers, etc.)?
We appreciate your time and consideration. Reconnect Rochester is standing by as a resource and willing partner to improve your media outlet’s approach to crash reporting, as well as helping to educate the public and policy makers about the crisis of rising road violence. We would welcome an opportunity to meet with your team if you wish to have further dialogue on this subject.
Best,
Reconnect Rochester
Special thanks to Evan Lowenstein, a passionate advocate for better mobility in the Rochester community, who collaborated with us to write this piece.
As we report out on the third successful Complete Streets Makeover project, let’s remember why we do this.
In the U.S., pedestrian fatalities have skyrocketed, increasing by 59% from 2009-2020. According to the latest “Dangerous By Design” report, between 2009-2020, drivers struck and killed 64,073 pedestrians in this country. Here in Monroe County, from 2012-2021, over 5,000 crashes involved bicyclists and pedestrians, and ten people die on our local streets every year as a result of these crashes.
Responding to this growing epidemic was the impetus behind our Complete Streets Makeover project, created to bring attention to street design as one critical factor in the safe streets equation.
The Selection Process
We began this year’s project back in July 2021 by asking you (the people that walk, bike, and roll along our streets every day) to help identify the intersections and trouble spots where you live, work and play that could be redesigned to make them safer for everyone. The community response was tremendous, and we received a total of 76 nominations for 68 locations in Monroe County.
From these submissions, our Steering Committee selected the intersection of Orange Street & Orchard Street in the JOSANA neighborhood for this year’s project.
The Steering Committee hard at work
The Orange & Orchard location presented the right mix of community support, evidence of safety concerns, and potential for a street redesign that would create real, transformative change for the community through this project. School 17 is located right at this intersection and was a strong advocate for implementing change. Last fall, the Rochester City School District eliminated the Walker-Bus Program that had provided transportation for students living within 1.5 miles of their school, which contributed to the school’s desire to improve safety for its walkers.
Getting Community Input
So what happened next? We connected with representatives of School 17 and the JOSANA neighborhood, and together we planned a community workshop held in February at the school. We invited school families and residents to come share their experiences at this intersection and ideas for how it could be safer. At the workshop, which was facilitated by the Community Design Center of Rochester-CDCR, attendees were first led through the basics of road safety statistics and complete streets. Then, CDCR volunteers helped translate the community’s thoughts and desires into actionable design elements that would improve the intersection.
Community Workshop at School 17 on February 9, 2022
Based on community input from this session, the Stantec team drafted a conceptual drawing of street design improvements. Their rendering focused on elements that could be brought to life in the temporary, on-street installation and then translated into permanent improvements.
Making Magic at Orange & Orchard
After much planning with the JOSANA neighborhood, over 150 people came out to Orange & Orchard on May 14 to make the magic happen! Attendees were made up of people from the neighborhood, school community, and a team of community partners*. Together, we worked to make the intersection of Orange Street & Orchard Street a more vibrant, safer place for everyone.
Design elements to calm traffic and improve safety included enhanced signage, curb extensions, temporary speed cushions, and a street mural designed by local artist Shawn Dunwoody. The temporary design was created by Stantec, which donates pro bono professional engineering services for the project. Other elements to beautify the space, like fence art and flower planters, were done with help of 2nd graders as part of their class project.
Nothing captures the life of a project better than film. Reconnect Rochester is pleased to share this short film, produced by Floating Home Films, that tells the full story.
We hope you enjoyed watching a beautiful display of community! We will continue supporting the neighborhood in their effort to make these temporary street design improvements permanent.
Complete Streets Makeover On-street Installation on May 14, 2022 Photos 1 & 5: Stantec | Photos 2 & 3: Common Ground Health | Photos 4 & 6: Reconnect Rochester
The Impact
But did it make a difference? YES! Data collected before and after the implementation (April and July, respectively) shows a measurable decrease in vehicle speeds along Orchard Street. Let’s get specific.
Since the implementation, the 85th percentile speed (the speed that 85% of vehicles travel at or below) declined 28% and the maximum speed declined 26%. It’s worth noting that the maximum recorded speed in July happened between 1:15am and 1:30am. Other than that outlier, the maximum speed was only 32 mph! Even the average speed dropped 20%, despite there being no school in July. This is particularly notable with the safe assumption that arrival/dismissal congestion suppressed the speed of a great deal of traffic during our April data collection. Finally, the speed data showed only 13 of 1,017 vehicles were traveling over 25 mph.
When it comes to speed, each mile-per-hour a driver is traveling makes a difference for pedestrian and cyclist safety, and can be the difference between life and death or a person sustaining life altering injuries.
Our awesome team is on board to continue our Complete Streets Makeover program in 2023 and beyond! So keep taking note of the intersections and trouble spots you experience in your daily travels that could use a re-design, and keep an eye out for calls for public submissions. Together, we’ll keep advocating to design our streets for people, and we’ll keep making it happen one intersection at a time.
*Community Partners
The Complete Streets Makeover of Orange & Orchard was a collaborative venture with the following community partners:
It’s a sound only heard on the coldest mornings. The thunderous crunch with every step in my massive boots was deafening as I stumbled over the freshly plowed sidewalk snow. Over a foot of newly-fallen snow glistened in the streetlight. I peered through the steam from my latest breath and saw the bus stop in front of me. But as I stumbled closer, I discovered that any chance of relief from the biting breeze was going to be a challenge. The drifting snow, combined with the wall of white stuff created by sidewalk plowing made accessing the bus shelter a difficult proposition, even for a person like myself who is physically capable and adequately protected.
My aforementioned bus stop
Later that day, I watched as an elderly woman stood in the partially-plowed bike lane on East Henrietta Road, where drivers routinely reach 50mph. The woman was waiting for a bus. The sidewalk adjacent to the perfectly cleared roadway was not only unplowed, the road plows had slung an additional foot of dirty snow on top, making the sidewalk adjacent to the bus stop literally impassable, even for the most agile pedestrian. With each car that passed the woman, I winced, knowing that a single distracted driver could mean disaster.
These observations are the norm rather than the exception in snow-stricken cities like Rochester. Nearly 80 inches of snowfall annually, coupled with the tremendous lack of funding for non-automobile mobility, marginalizes and often endangers residents who rely on the bus. For the 25% of Rochester residents who do not have access to a car, for the elderly who may not have adequate support, and for our disabled citizens, heavy snowfall means an inability to access essential resources.
Whose Job Is It Anyway?
It’s important to note that the issue of bus stop snow removal is symbiotic with the issue of sidewalk snow removal. The City of Rochester code 104-11 clearly places the role of sidewalk snow removal on the adjacent property owner. But too often, property owners are unwilling, unable or unaware of their responsibility to maintain the adjoining public right of way. And while infractions are reportable, they are often not addressed in a timely manner. As in most cities, the snow melts before enforcement leads to a positive outcome.
A Rochester resident scales a snow pile
Additionally, the city provides “supplemental” snow removal of 878 miles of city sidewalk when storms deposit more than 4” of snow. While this is a welcomed service that most cities do not provide, a lack of continued sidewalk snow maintenance means that private driveway plowing companies and icy walking conditions caused by the packing of snow by pedestrians, still makes for treacherous or impassable on-foot experiences.
And finally, nowhere in the code is snow removal from bus stops or bus shelters mentioned specifically. In a recent report by WHEC News 10, RTS Spokesperson Tom Brede “asks” that property owners clear a path to the adjacent bus stops as part of their responsibility to clear the sidewalk. But with the ambiguity and subsequent lack of accountability, any regular bus rider will attest that this action is rarely taken.
How Does It Work In Other U.S. Cities?
As much as Rochester residents are frustrated by winter sidewalk conditions, a 2019 article by Streetsblog USA called Rochester the “clear leader” when it comes to sidewalk snow removal, citing the city’s aforementioned efforts to plow nearly all of its sidewalks in the wake of a heavy snowfall. This is not to downplay the fact that far more needs to be done here in the Flower City, it is more to show just how few cities have the funding or the will to accommodate those who rely on sidewalks and access to public transit.
In Minneapolis Minnesota, if a property owner does not clear their adjacent public sidewalk, the city sends them a warning. If the owner does not comply, a city crew is dispatched to do the job themselves, and a bill is sent. If the bill is ignored, the cost is included in the owner’s next property tax bill. City inspections also commence 24 hours after each snowfall, giving legitimacy to the requirement. The fact that the city takes at least some responsibility in the process of reporting violators is a rare but welcomed level of sidewalk snow removal enforcement.
Our Neighbors To The Northeast
Montreal, Canada has long been heralded as the undisputed champion of snow removal. As one of the snowiest large cities in the world, Montreal is faced with the same challenge that many major U.S. cities incur, but the process in removing the snow is just as robust. A large piece of this process is based on the fact that the city actually removes the snow from streets, sidewalks and bike paths in large trucks and transports it to more than two dozen designated locations around the city. This monumental task begins with signage and notices prior to the storm, warning residents not to park their cars and bikes in the streets or sidewalks. Instead, residents are encouraged to use a system of parking lots and garages free of charge. During and after the snow storm, a fleet of 2,200 snow removal vehicles are dispatched to clear the 10,000 kilometers of roads, sidewalks and bike paths. Yes, that’s right, over half a million Montreal residents use their bikes for transportation rather than recreation, likely due in part to the fact that year-round bike commuting is made more practical by the Titanic snow removal efforts that Montreal employs.
Montreal Snow Removal, courtesy of Zvi Leve
When sidewalks and bike paths are cleared, this allows residents of all socioeconomic levels to access transit with greater ease, creating a more inclusive urban environment. While Canada’s tax structure and municipal funding practices are very different from the United States in many ways, it is encouraging to see that effective snow removal is possible, and leads to better access.
Calming The Storm
While Rochester is considered a leader in sidewalk snow removal, there is still room for a great deal of improvement. One of the key starting points is a more robust definition of who is responsible for bus stop snow removal, and a greater communication to property owners regarding this expectation. Like Minneapolis, regular city-wide snow removal inspections coupled with greater enforcement would likely also improve outcomes. Finally, advocacy is always an important factor in creating change. Consider joining organizations like Reconnect Rochester in their efforts to make our streets, sidewalks and public transit systems accessible and equitable. Together, we can make our city a place where mobility for all is accommodated and uplifted.
By Jesse Peers, Cycling Manager at Reconnect Rochester
A Major Upgrade
Perhaps no place in the Rochester area epitomizes post World War II car-oriented development and suburban sprawl like Pittsford Plaza. Though Monroe Avenue is on a bus line, it’s always been a difficult, time-consuming or intimidating destination to get to without a car.
Several years ago I biked on the Auburn Trail to Pittsford Plaza and it was rough! The trail, a former rail corridor, was just too bumpy for most bikes. But with the recent improvements to the Auburn Trail, the plaza, its restaurants, shops, movie theatre, and of course places of employment are now quite accessible by bike! And because the start of the improved portion of the Auburn Trail is right next to one of the City’s Bike Boulevards (this connectivity was intentional), Pittsford Plaza is definitely bikeable from the City now. Once again, here’s Stefan Korfmacher’s stylized version of Rochester’s bike connections, only incorporating trails and bike boulevards.
Our Journey
On a warm, sunny weekend in October, I convinced our kids, ages 14 and 11, to ride out to Pittsford Plaza with me. Of course I resorted to bribery; they knew some surprise at journey’s end would make it worth their while. Hint, hint, it rhymes with “Joe’s.”
To begin, we biked from our home in North Winton Village to the ABC Streets neighborhood near Park Avenue. The City’s oldest Bike Boulevard is along Harvard Street and connects this neighborhood to Cobbs Hill via the bike/pedestrian bridge over 490. Bicycling along Rochester’s Bike Boulevards is a fun, relaxing experience. The traffic is sparse and slow due to the traffic bumps and the falling leaves on this day made it even better. Plus, regular signage helps cyclists find their way.
The pedestrian-bike bridge over 490 is so much fun! When you get to the other side, you can turn right to go to Cobbs Hill Park, Lake Riley, the dog park, and ball fields. The Rochester Chess Center is here, too, on Norris Drive. We went left on Hillside Avenue, which is another Bike Boulevard on a slow, comfortable, residential street. The boulevard continues past Winton and curves south, ending at Highland Avenue. This is where some brief on-street traffic negotiating is unavoidable. We had to take a left on Highland and bike just past 590. Even though there’s no bike infrastructure on Highland, the shoulder is plenty wide and comfortable and there wasn’t much traffic. When you’re on the other side of 590, the Auburn Trail begins just after Village Lane. The distance between the end of the comfortable Bike Boulevard and the Auburn Trail? 0.1 mile! Piece of cake.
More About the Trail
The Auburn Trail is a treasure! You bike past beautiful gardens, Council Rock Primary School, The Harley School, and the future site of Whole Foods. (TIP: As with all gravel riding, you’ll have an easier time and more stability by shifting into a lower gear on your bike so you can pedal faster.) The crossings at Elmwood, Allens Creek Road, and Clover were a breeze and motorists came to a stop every time to let us cross. A couple of the crossings feature Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs) to make crossing easier.
End of the Line (for us)
We ended our trip at Moe’s Southwest Grill, where we grabbed lunch. Our entire trip from North Winton Village to Moe’s was less than 6 miles, about 35 minutes of fun, comfortable cycling. (If you’re starting from the Colby Street bike/ped bridge in the ABC Streets neighborhood, the trip would be just 3.6 miles, about 20 minutes by bike). The property didn’t have a bike rack so we just locked up to some signage; not ideal but it works.
Less than ideal bike parking at Moe’s
After some burritos and queso, we biked across the street, through one of the Monroe Ave intersections with a traffic light, to Pittsford Plaza and Barnes and Noble. B&N has bike racks right next to the front door. With a lot of eyes on the street and foot traffic, it’s a very safe place to lock up your bike.
Bike racks at Barnes & Noble
Thanks Rochester, Brighton, and Pittsford for making this bike trip so delightful!
Additional Notes:
Thank your Brighton and Pittsford leaders for this collaborative effort on the Auburn Trail.
Pittsford Plaza and its environs could certainly use more bike racks. Now that this popular destination is bikeable, it’s worth getting in touch with Wilmorite and politely requesting that more racks be installed throughout the plaza.
One of the few bike racks in Pittsford Plaza, at Trader Joe’s
Though we stopped at Moe’s and Barnes & Noble, the Auburn Trail does continue all the way to 96 and the Pittsford Farms Dairy! The trail ceases to be crushed gravel and becomes a narrow dirt trail. But it’s absolutely bikeable if the ground isn’t soggy. No special bike required. For riders seeking a longer recreational ride, try: the Auburn Trail out to Pittsford > the Erie Canal Trail west to Genesee Valley Park > the Genesee Riverway Trail north up to downtown; it makes a wonderful triangle.
In 2022, we’ll feature more blogs like this – hoppable trips by bike. We hope it inspires you to leave your car at home for some trips and that you gain an appreciation for our budding bike network and trail system.
Filling in the northern section of Rochester’s Inner Loop presents a rare opportunity to re-knit the fabric of a neighborhood that was unjustly damaged by the era of highway construction. And if we do it right, a newly designed landscape will bring new economic opportunity, better connectivity and accessibility, and improved quality of life for the people who live there.
As the planning process for Inner Loop North heats up, now is the time for all of us to be most active, engaged and vocal about what we want to see. We encourage you to attend one of the public meetings coming up on Dec 2, 6 & 7 (details here) to ask questions and give input on the latest designs.
For our part, Reconnect Rochester has been serving on the project Community Advisory Council for several years, weighing in at every opportunity to urge planners to create a connected community with streets and spaces designed for people (not just cars). A few months ago, we submitted written input to City officials and the project design team outlining our thoughts.
One thing we encouraged was for the City of Rochester to be open to creative ideas that come from the community. One big idea that’s been put forth is theHigh Falls Greenway, a concept developed by Jon Schull and Ben Rubin that has been endorsed by Greentopia, Hinge Neighbors & R Community Bikes. Their concept contains some stellar thinking and seriously creative ideas.
Here are Jon and Ben to tell you all about it…
Jon Schull
Ben Rubin
We need green, direct, car-free connections east-west across the river and north-south across the Inner Loop North. These connections can intersect and converge in a Greenway that overlooks the falls and provides functional and recreational active transport corridors that connect the downtown Riverway with High Falls, Frontier Field, and the Louise Slaughter Amtrak Station.
The Crossroads
Rochester faces a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redefine our city. Two massive urban development initiatives are underway; the ROC the Riverway projects traveling from south to north, and the east-west Inner Loop North project. Both converge at High Falls, where today an “overbuilt and underused” highway forms a pedestrian impasse obscuring one of the nation’s greatest urban waterfalls. As city planners and architects work to weave the Genesee Riverfront into “a direct trail connection to High Falls along the river,” we propose a greenway that would repurpose several lanes of the Inner Loop to fulfill the city’s aspirations. The High Falls Greenway could be the heart of an active transportation and recreational network spanning the state, advancing social equity, economic opportunities, and ecological wellness for generations.
“The successful transformation of the Inner Loop North will create new active and passive green spaces that promote multi-modal connectivity and accessibility, while also fostering opportunities for economic and community development.” – Inner Loop North Transformation Study, 2020
The city officials leading these efforts are forward-thinking advocates of active transportation, sympathetic to the principle that there should be car-free north-south and east-west corridors for pedestrians, bicyclists, tourists, wheelchairs users, and others who depend upon accessibility. A new administration, armed with funding and an ambitious 500 page Comprehensive Plan that maps Rochester’s aspirations for the next 15 years, can now turn big ideas into realities. But this can only happen with support from an informed and engaged public (that’s you!).
Rochester Raceway: A Retrospective
The City of Rochester, founded between a series of Seneca villages, began with a short canal called Brown’s Race. Built in 1815, the “raceway” channeled the Genesee to power flour mills at High Falls and became the epicenter of “America’s first Boom town.” Rochester’s population grew exponentially for a century, turning historical Haudenosaunee trails into roads for pedestrians and carriages, and adapted in the 1880s for bicycles. By 1900, Monroe County boasted the most extensive network of bicycle “sidepaths” anywhere in the nation with the same population it has today. Industrial giants, innovators and social activists like George Eastman, Glen Curtiss, and Susan B. Anthony all used these paths for their daily commute, along with 40,000 others.
But with the explosive adoption of automobiles, a new kind of race began, with roads prioritized for cars. Pedestrians were derided as “jaywalkers,” and bicycling (still the most energy-efficient form of locomotion in the known universe) became a second class form of transportation.
In the 1950s construction began on the Inner Loop, designed to facilitate high speed automobile and truck traffic at the expense of other forms of transportation. For a decade entire districts were progressively leveled to the detriment of newly-settled black families during the final years of the “Great Migration“. Rochester’s new automotive “moat” was largely impassable for pedestrians. Residences and walk-in businesses just yards beyond the Inner Loop margins were suddenly walled off from their neighbors. Intentionally or not, city neighborhoods were divided into two separate and unequal districts. As illustrated by the map below, the Inner Loop continues to segregate the city’s least-valued and most-valued real estate.
By the time the Inner Loop was completed, Rochester was a national model for shopping malls and suburban picture-perfect Americana while at the center of race riots in one of the country’s greatest concentrations of poverty. At the height of the nostalgic Instamatic years, our industry was paving over contaminated brownfields and our politics were downplaying racial discrimination.
Nevertheless, through social, economic, and environmental challenges, Rochester became home to adaptive and resistant communities: activists and immigrants, schools and hospitals, world-renowned musicians and deaf culture. Today, Rochester is defined by the storms it has weathered and by the diversity that has gathered along the riverbanks. Our long-constricted downtown is reintegrating into the larger Genesee River Valley, returning to the natural forces that powered the city growth.
High Falls Greenway
ROC the Riverway includes more than a dozen ongoing projects to improve access to the downtown riverway above and below High Falls. Inner Loop North, the next phase in our downtown highway remediation project, intersects the riverway and aims to restore the original street grid. Together, the projects are budgeted for ¾ of a billion dollars. They are interconnected and integral to the reintegration of Rochester; a critical junction in a critical moment.
The city’s engineers have been examining Brown’s race as a potential portal to High Falls. They assured us that some kind of pedestrian through-path could be possible with the planned changes to bridge elevation. Also possible is a dedicated car-free greenway, which clearly aligns with the mission of the city. Our initial presentation offered active transportation considerations compatible with all of the city’s published plans. We are not architects or engineers, but as engaged citizens we did consider 490 connections, scenic overlooks, street integration, and a variety of extensions between West Main and East Main. Urban greenways have benefits beyond providing an alternative to automotive traffic – they can be socially transformative.
Establishing a fluid intersection between the river and the road would build community. Historically disconnected neighborhoods along the river would have front row seats to what would be our greatest tourist attraction, a revived High Falls district. Families from out of town could take the train to our new station and rent bikes to catch a game at Frontier Field, a contest at ROC City Skatepark, or a graduation at U of R or RIT. Residents could ride the greenway for regular commutes to school, jobs across town, or for shopping at the public market. Convention Center visitors, Constellation employees, and local students could stroll up the center of the city, sampling sights, sounds and fresh air from the falls. And for neighborhoods like the Hinge district, open access to equitable resources like bike and scooter stations would go a long way to reintegrating our city and engaging marginalized youth.
An integrated Riverway and Greenway converging at High Falls would provide spectacular returns on investment. During our meetings with city advocates, we learned that sections of the newly reclaimed Inner Loop territory are currently earmarked for high density, high value housing. But that is not the only way to increase value. New York City’s investment in the High Line, which turned the stagnant meatpacking and Chelsea districts into attractive residential, business, and entertainment zones, has recouped 900% in tax revenues alone while maintaining dedicated greenspace for active transit. From Chicago to Atlanta, it is widely documented that greenways pay.
And then there are the benefits to ecology and health. A city optimized for human powered transportation becomes cleaner, more efficient, and more livable for humans and our ecological co-inhabitants. Rochester’s river, waterfalls, gorges, and park paths blend with our existing network of tree-lined streets, bike boulevards, and statewide trails. With so many existing natural resources defining the city, we all benefit more by planning with the natural systems we rely upon.
The city is collecting feedback from residents to correct some of the past mis-steps and to create lasting opportunities and livelihoods for future generations. City Hall won’t be carrying all of the responsibility alone. Families and schools, businesses and organizations, entire neighborhoods can stand together and remain vigilant to ensure that the city’s laudable vision and well-defined aspirations are preserved.
Rochester’s past, present, and future converge at High Falls. A greenway that fully integrates the east and west sides of the river would transform the way the world sees Rochester and the way we see ourselves.
If you support a downtown greenway, spread the word. Get your neighborhood association to join those that have already endorsed the proposal. Post on social media. Join our facebook group. Talk to your representatives. And stay tuned.
In July, 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.
The community response was tremendous, and we thank all those who took the time to submit nominations! We received a total of 76 nominations for 68 locations in Monroe County.
Click here to view the nomination locations in Google Maps
The Steering Committee had a tough task to choose from so many quality submissions and deserving locations! A set of established judging criteria helped guide us through the selection process. Here we are, hard at work examining each and every submission:
So What’s the Good Word?
In the end, we selected the following locations as this year’s winners:
COMPLETE STREETS MAKEOVER WINNER: Orange Street & Orchard Street in the JOSANA neighborhood
CITY DESIGN RENDERING WINNER: Arnett Boulevard between Genesee Street & Warwick Avenue in the 19th Ward neighborhood
SUBURBAN DESIGN RENDERING WINNER: Monroe Avenue between Highland Avenue & 12 Corners in the Town of Brighton
Orange & Orchard in the JOSANA Neighborhood will be the focus of our on-street installation
The Orange & Orchard location presented the right mix of community support, evidence of safety concerns, and potential for a street re-design that would create real, transformative change for the community through our project. We are eager to get to work with the families at School 17, Charles House Neighbors in Action, the Americorp Vista team, and JOSANA neighbors on a project to transform the intersection and create a safer space for the community.
The Steering Committee also selected two Design Rendering Winners. These locations might not be suitable for the on-street makeover project (because of their size or other feasibility issues), but we want to highlight them as places where the community would like to see improvements made.
What Happens Now? Let’s start with our Complete Streets Makeover Winner.
The Complete Streets Makeover will kick off with a community input session in January (facilitated by the Community Design Center) to hear from the residents of the JOSANA neighborhood about their experiences and ideas. No one understands what it’s like to use our streets better than those who walk, bike, roll, and ride along them everyday.
2019’s community input session in the El Camino neighborhood.
Based on feedback from this session, the complete streets design team at Stantec will draft conceptual design improvements of an improved streetscape. The design will be brought to life through a temporary on-street installation in May. We will rely on people power from the neighborhood community, and equipment from the Healthi Kids traffic calming library to lay down the temporary design on the street. Stay tuned for project updates as we go along!
What About the Design Rendering Winners?
The design team at Stantec will provide each of our Design Rendering Winners with a conceptual drawing of street design improvements. 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.
Arnett Blvd between Genesee St & Warwick Ave
Monroe Ave between Highland Ave & 12 Corners Plaza
Guest blog by Rachel Barnhart, who represents District 21 on the Monroe County Legislature and has been a longtime advocate for safer streets.
A driver struck and killed a woman walking on Lake Ave on September 17. She was at least the 90th pedestrian or cyclist injured or killed on Lake Ave in the mile-long stretch between Driving Park Ave and Lyell Ave over the last decade. That’s an average of nine people hurt every year in a distance we can walk in less than 20 minutes.
It’s time to make Lake Ave safe for everyone, particularly the people who live there.
About half of the people who live in the two census tracts on the west side of Lake Ave between Driving Park and Lyell live in poverty. More than one-third of the households do not own cars. They are using other means of transportation — walking, cycling and public transit. Yet Lake Ave is not built for the use of the people who call the surrounding blocks home.
Lake Ave is built for speed. The road has 11-foot-wide lanes, 3-foot shoulders, recessed bus stops and turning lanes. These are all design elements conducive to high speeds. The speed limit on Lake Ave is 35 mph, a speed at which pedestrians have a 45 percent chance of being killed when struck. Speed data indicates that between Emerson St and Lexington Ave, half of drivers are going above 36 mph, and one in seven drivers is going above 42 mph. Driving on Lake Ave can be stressful, with tailgating, aggressive lane changes, and, yes, speeding.
A portion of Lake Ave, featuring six lanes.
When examining crash data over the last decade, it’s evident Lake Ave does not have enough traffic lights and they are not timed properly. There are not enough crosswalks, as you have to walk nearly a half-mile in one location between Driving Park and Lyell before encountering a designated place to cross. Lake Ave also takes pedestrians time to cross — it’s six lanes in some spots! In many locations, drivers can turn right on red and they can make left turns everywhere, further endangering pedestrians.
Imagine being a pedestrian or cyclist in this environment, especially on a cold, snowy or rainy day. You just want to cross the street to get to your bus stop, the grocery store, your job, or your friend’s house. But Lake Ave is not built for you.
Despite the carnage, there is predictably no outcry to make Lake Ave safer for all who use the road. Lake Ave’s crash history sadly shows the correlation between poor street safety, race and poverty. Our culture is oriented toward the needs of drivers, no matter the collateral damage. We have an intense bias reflected in news stories that regularly use the passive voice to describe crashes. A pedestrian is “hit by a car,” not the person driving the car. We blame pedestrians for not following the rules of the road, even though drivers on Lake Ave routinely disregard traffic laws, such as the speed limit.
We can make Lake Ave work for everyone by redesigning the road. Unfortunately, drivers will fight for their ability to speed through neighborhoods, like when public opposition killed a road diet planned for a northern section of Lake Ave in 2014. There are still ideas on the table, such as Reconnect Rochester’s concept to make the Phelps Ave intersection safer.
A design rendering by Stantec for the intersection of Lake Ave & Phelps Ave, which came out of Reconnect’s 2018 Complete Streets Makeover program.
City leaders kicked off a Pace Car program on Lake Ave in 2016, which encouraged drivers to be more mindful of pedestrians and cyclists. That effort faded, but should be revived as part of a more comprehensive Vision Zero plan, which focuses on road design, enforcement and education to reduce crashes.
Lake Ave is not built for everyone, but it could be one day, if we value the safety and quality of life of everyone who uses this corridor.
“Dude, get out of the road,” you yell in an enraged state fueled by someone’s blatant disregard for the fact that you woke up late and are traveling 10mph over the speed limit only to encounter a man “jaywalking” across the road in front of you. Your displaced anger bubbles over as you find yourself inconvenienced for a whole 9 seconds.
We’ve all been there… getting behind a car that’s traveling 10mph under the speed limit, trying to pass a cyclist with no shoulder, or yelling at a pedestrian who crosses the road outside of a crosswalk with no regard for your time.
Let’s step back in time to 1906. Jaywalking, or the illegal crossing of a street in a non-designated crosswalk, was 20 years from being a thing. The automobile was just beginning to assert itself as a semi-regular addition to city streets that accommodated a multi-modal construct. Can’t imagine what this looks like? Let’s look at this amazing digitally remastered video of a 1906 San Francisco street car ride.
The most important thing to note in this video is how diverse the street traffic is. Horse and buggy, trolley, automobile, bicycle, pedestrian… they all move at approximately the same speed. The well-to-do owner of the car travels at a speed that is similar to the pedestrian and cyclist. While the driver may be able to enjoy an independent, stress-free commute, he or she is subject to the street congestion caused by many different forms of mobility. And while this low-speed chaos would likely be psychologically catastrophic to the car commuter today, it presents some incredibly meaningful lessons with regard to our streets and their effect on society.
Multiple Modes of Mobility
Trolleys, carriages, bikes, cars and pedestrians… count the number of different forms of mobility in this video. The streets were truly for everyone, regardless of speed, size or socioeconomic status.
Similar Speed
Equitable transportation is rooted in the idea that anyone can access jobs and resources equally, regardless of their socioeconomic status. In this piece of video, pedestrians, mass transit and cars move at a similar speed. The difference in velocity between the most exclusive form of transportation and the most humble form of transportation is negligible. Today, the average 15 minute commute by car is likely to be over an hour by bus. The prioritization of the automobile has completely eradicated equitable access to jobs and resources.
Density and Community
Slower, more equitable mobility leads to greater, more efficient urban density. Suburban sprawl has created an inequitable construct based on “pay-to-play” access of upwardly mobile resources. When multi-modal transportation is encouraged, more efficient and equitable communities are possible.
In the video above, the fastest form of transportation, the cars, are moving about 2-3 times the speed of pedestrians. Sure, that difference might be a great deal more on an open road, but the top speed of between 30 and 50 miles per hour for the average Ford… not to mention you needed oil every 250 miles, and the fact that highways were just a glimmer in the hopeful eye of an urban enemy. A humorous note, just two years earlier, a driver was given the first speeding ticket in Dayton Ohio for going 12mph in a 5mph zone.
At such low speeds, the prospect of “sprawl” was horribly impractical. As a result, cities remained unquestionable centers of equity, efficiency and productivity. Because cars were just a slightly faster mode of transportation in a sea of other mobility options, 15-20 mile car commutes were simply not possible.
But cars became faster. Car and oil companies became the dominant lobbyists in the United States. Highways were built to allow for greater sprawl, all subsidizing people’s desire to create exclusive communities outside their city centers.
In Conclusion
I shared this video with a number of friends. The comments back marveled at the clothing, the trolleys, the horses, the man sweeping horse droppings, and the maddening chaos of multi-modal traffic. But when I look at videos like this, I see what cities were like when mobility was far more equitable. Sure, our cities were dirty, crowded, smelly and sometimes scary. Sanitary amenities, cleaner energy and a host of other legal and environmental issues were still hurdles for cities 1906.
But the power of the city as the social, economic and equitable hub of humanity was far greater than it is in the U.S. today. Architecture hasn’t changed all that much, save the skyscraper. Street layout is pretty much the same. The big difference is the fact that the formally diverse streets featuring slow traffic have been replaced with exclusive automobile access, allowing those who own cars to speed to their destinations while those who must rely on public transit are subject to maddeningly underfunded networks, long wait times and inefficient commutes.
The video above shows what streets were meant to be. They were havens for diverse mobility instead of space that is solely dedicated to speed and exclusivity. Our cities have paid the price for this massive mistake, and as a result, equity and upward mobility continue to lag compared to much of the rest of the industrialized world.
Copenhagen is famous for having the world’s best bike infrastructure and highest rates of bike transportation. (OK Amsterdam, you’re not bad, either.) Transit nerds love to extol the engineering details, celebrate the signage, and explain the traffic patterns in excruciating detail. While I admit getting excited by those nerd-outs — I’m an engineering professor and a lifelong cyclist, after all — the real point is the beautiful lifestyle enabled when communities “Copenhagenize.” So here’s a snapshot, one typical day of the lifestyle, as lived by my family and me during our sabbatical year away from Rochester.
The bike lane on busy Lyngbyvej is wide and separated from motor traffic. At rush hour, all the lanes fill, but cycling is safe and pleasant anyway.
After a Danish breakfast of pastries, yogurt, and coffee, I hop on my bike for the morning commute. Neighborhood roads bring me to Lyngbyvej (pronounced “loong boo vye”), busy at rush hour with more car traffic than almost any road in central Copenhagen. Still, it’s a pleasant place to cycle, because its wide bike lanes are separated from the cars by curbs, and because automotive traffic is held to reasonable speeds by stoplight timing and posted limits. At rush hour, Copenhagen’s roads carry more bikes than cars, so I feel like part of the crowd. Some cyclists ride slower, and some ride faster, passing on the left, often after ringing their bells to avoid surprises. (Impatient commuters sometimes ring excessively.) As I head south, motorists turning right wait at the intersection for a gap in the long line of cyclists passing in their own lane.
From experience I know that the stoplight at Tagensvej (pronounced “tah gens vye”) is slow, so seeing its pedestrian signal turn green up ahead, I pedal harder. A green bike signal comes next, then a green signal for motorists. I sail through as the bike signal turns yellow. Arriving at work in under 10 minutes after a 1.5-mile ride, I’m invigorated and just starting to warm up. Bike parking is ample, with spots in the open by the nearby entrance, covered spots further away, and beyond them, an underground bike-only parking deck for bad weather and expensive bikes. Most folks ride commuter bikes, akin to what Americans might call hybrids, neither flashy nor expensive, just practical. I pull into a covered spot.
Cyclists and pedestrians in Copenhagen can be confident that their safe routes won’t dead-end, even when construction in booming Nordhavn gets in the way.
Meanwhile my younger daughter, age 12, sets out for school, also biking. She soon turns left from Lyngbyvej, using the usual jug-handle method: ride across the intersecting street, stop until the signals change, then ride left across Lyngbyvej and on toward school. That keeps her in the bike lanes all the time, so she doesn’t have to change lanes and cut across motor traffic. Like the Danes, she gives a hand signal beforehand. A few blocks later, road signs direct her through a slight detour. Construction is blocking the usual bike lane, so the motor-vehicle lanes have been narrowed to make room for bikes and pedestrians, protected by a steel barrier. Construction is no excuse to block important bike and pedestrian thoroughfares.
Copenahgen may have the world’s highest rates of bike transportation, but it doesn’t have the world’s best weather. Today it’s drizzling, so my daughter is wearing a shell jacket, boots, and her new waterproof pants. Danes like to say there is no bad weather, only bad clothing. Sure enough, rain hardly changes the number of cyclists on the road, and today the nearby cyclists wear clothing varying from Gore-Tex to full-body ponchos to soggy blue jeans. Most of their bikes have fenders, and lights are required by law–winter nights in Denmark are long.
My daughters turn left here on their way to school. Cars, bikes, and pedestrians all have separate lanes and separate traffic signals. Cyclists can lean on the railing above the curb, and the timer (circle of white lights) tells when their signal will change. Also: Danes dress well, regardless of whether they are pedaling!
Having stuff to carry doesn’t keep people from cycling, either. I take my laptop and lunch to work in waterproof saddle bags. My daughter carries a backpack, like many of the riders around her. Nearly all their bikes have racks on the back, often bearing loads held with bungee cords. Mail, football equipment, take-out, Ikea furniture, and all manner of things get carted around on sturdy flatbed cargo bikes, sometimes with electrical assistance to make pedaling easier. Danish parents commonly carry their kids to school in cargo bikes with boxed compartments on the front. Older kids sit on tag-along bikes attached to mom’s or dad’s. Most have learned to ride solo by age 3 or 4, and are getting to school on their own bikes by age 6 or 7.
My older daughter, age 13, isn’t a morning person and leaves later, finishing her 2.2-mile commute and parking her bike just in time for class. After school, the clouds persist but the rain has quit, so she decides to bike with classmates to Stroget, one of the largest pedestrian-only market streets in Europe, to window-shop and buy some candy to share. As her dinnertime curfew approaches, she considers the headwinds and decides not to bike all the way home, instead catching the S-train, which allows bikes anytime. Metro trains also allow bikes, though not at rush hour, and only with an extra ticket. But she might be tempted to take the Metro anyway once the new Orientkaj stop opens–it’s next-door to her school.
The nearby Vibenshus Runddel metro station, which my daughters and I pass on our morning commutes.
While the rest of us are away, my wife shops for some hygge (cozy) furnishings at the neighborhood secondhand shop, then picks up groceries for dinner, including fresh-baked bread. She could bike both places, but decides to walk for exercise, and anyway the grocery store is only three blocks from our apartment. After working at home awhile, she rides the S-train to Klampenborg to jog in the woods. In summer, she might instead bike to the Nordhavn harbor for a swim, or cycle 25 miles to Helsingør, then ride the train home. Neither she nor I need to plan our day around driving our kids from place to place, since they can capably bike and navigate public transportation on their own.
Home together at the end of the day, the four of us light candles, start a fire in the wood stove, and sit down to dinner. My younger daughter is ravenous after biking home from football (pronounced “soccer”) practice. My older daughter is proud that her new fitness tracker logged 14,000 steps since the morning. We have lived another day of our full and busy lives, traveling to work and school and many other places without driving a car or wishing for one. Our daily travels have required nearly no fossil fuel and put nearly no carbon into the atmosphere. Outdoor exercise lifts our moods and keeps us fit. Alternative transportation gives the kids freedom to move about independently, making extra time for us parents. And in the summertime, when the days are long and the skies are clear, Copenhagen transportation is even more lovely.
Stroget, the pedestrian street where my older daughter goes with her friends. Cargo bikes like the one parked here can carry a couple of small kids or a lot of groceries.
Crucially, you don’t have to live in Copenhagen to enjoy this lifestyle. Ride RTS. Rent a Pace bike. Stroll to your neighborhood cafe. Bike to work and to the Public Market. Though Rochester’s bike infrastructure doesn’t match Copenhagen — nobody’s does — you can bike to many destinations without using big, ugly roads clogged with motorists. Pedal on the Canal Path, on the River Trail, on the cycle tracks along Union Street or Elmwood Avenue, on the network of Bike Boulevards, or simply on quiet streets that parallel the big thoroughfares. Teach your kids to bike, show them safe and effective routes, let them walk, and teach them to use public transportation. Tell community leaders about the importance of building alternative transportation infrastructure. And support organizations like Reconnect Rochester that are enlarging this lifestyle in Rochester.
As we look back on 2019, we’re amazed at what we’ve been able to accomplish together this year. The highlights below are just a snapshot of all the good work we’ve been able to do, thanks to the financial support of Reconnect members, the passionate volunteers that make our programs and initiatives run, and so many others that engaged in our work in countless ways. Thanks to each and every one of you.
Sponsored a Cornell University Design Connect project to help the Brighton community create a vision for Monroe Ave., with an improved street design and streetscape that is more vibrant and safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Hosted a packed Rochester Street Films screening of The Trolley that sparked community conversation about modern streetcars making a comeback in American life, and the history and future of streetcars in Rochester.
Gave transit riders a respectable place to sit at our 30+ seasonal bus stop cubes placed around the city. We also worked with a local fiberglass manufacturer to create a permanent cube design as a year-round solution, and have plans to get the first 15 cubes on the ground in spring 2020!
…And this doesn’t count the untold number of advocacy actions we take day in and day out to advocate for the things we all care about, like a robust public transportation system, streets that are safe for everyone, and a community that’s built to be multi-modal.
Guest blog by Arian Horbovetz. Arian is the creator of The Urban Phoenix, a blog focused on conversations around the elements that create healthy cities, neighborhoods and communities today. Arian covers walkability, public transit, financial solvency, bike infrastructure, smart development, public space, public pride and ownership of our futures. While he discusses issues of public policy, legislation, statistics and money, The UP specializes in addressing public perceptions and how they affect the way we see our cities.
Not long ago, a professor at Brockport Central School teacher was struck and killed by a pickup truck about 25 minutes from my hometown of Rochester, NY. The driver was ticketed for “failing to safely pass a bicycle…” a far too familiar slap on the wrist for a deadly crime of negligence.
This is the latest in a rash of similar pedestrian and bike related deaths in my area over the last several months, a tragic but predictably dismissed epidemic that is simply accepted as “the cost of doing business” in American car culture.
This afternoon, I was riding my bike home from work when a speeding pickup truck flew by my just a foot and a half or so away. The driver was trying to make the light up ahead while avoiding the oncoming car in the opposite lane.
As is often the case, the driver missed the green light, stopping before the intersection. I rolled up behind him, calling to his open driver side window, “hope that was worth it!” I received an aggressive hand gesture in response.
This was far from the first time this has happened… I can’t count the number of times a driver has made an aggressive pass on me at an unsafe distance and speed, only to sit at a light or next several lights with me alongside just a few seconds later. But this time, I had a thought that I never did before. I’ve heard so many cyclists and urbanists talk about how many drivers see cyclists as “less than human.” Indeed, I’ve written articles talking about the lack of respect for cyclists because of the inability for drivers to see bikes as viable forms of transportation. Instead, drivers see cyclists in the road as a recreational nuisance impeding their commute, nothing more.
Today, I realized it’s even worse than that. In order for drivers to see cyclists as sub-human, they have to acknowledge humanity in the surrounding environment in the first place. Even to see someone as less than you is to see them and be aware of their existence. I truly now believe, based on everything I’ve seen in driving behavior, that most drivers don’t see the cars, bikes and other vehicles around them as being piloted by living things at all. I believe the average driver sees other motorists and cyclists simply as video-game-like obstacles that need to be overcome in order to advance in a game of speed and power. In other words, there is something about the automobile that disconnects drivers from the reality that anyone else on the road or in the surrounding environment is worthy of their respect as human beings with spouses, families, jobs and dependents. It’s not that drivers see cyclists and pedestrians as less-than-human, it’s that aggressive motorists will stop but nothing to reach their destination in timely fashion, seeing all others as sand traps and water hazards, cones and barrels, or any other inanimate barrier to success and “freedom.” It is a level of self-absorption rooted in a century of individualistically auto-centered American behavior so ingrained that it blinds the power-infused driver to the presence of potential human impact.
This might seem like an extreme assumption, and perhaps it is. But I can think of no other explanation for the incredible disregard for the physical safety of pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers that motorists routinely display. In our eyes behind the wheel, people become objects, cyclists become hazards and other drivers become enemies.
We can’t solve the problem of pedestrian, cyclist and auto fatalities unless we get to the root of the mindset that enables their frequency. Next time you pass a cyclist, think of her family. Next time you enter a crosswalk without looking both ways, think of the young man trying to get to work or to class. Next time you move aggressively around another car, think of the children that might be strapped in the back seat. Think of the lives these people live, the people who love them and depend on them instead of the 10-30 seconds that putting them in danger may save you. We’re all in this together out there, so let’s start driving like it! Or better yet, take the bus, get on a bike or walk to where you need to go whenever possible!
We can all do our part to make our community safer by paying more attention behind the wheel.
Check out the Drive 2B Better campaign website to learn how. Watch some super cool ad videos. Test your knowledge of the rules of the road. Take a pledge and commit to doing your part.
The community response was tremendous, and we thank all those who took the time to submit nominations! We received a total of 159 nominations for 31 locations in Monroe County.
The Steering Committee had a tough task to choose from so many quality submissions and deserving locations! A set of established judging criteria helped guide us through the selection process. Here we are, hard at work examining each and every submission:
So What’s the Good Word?
In the end, we selected the following locations for this year’s project:
N. Clinton Ave. in the El Camino neighborhood – WINNER
S. Clinton, S. Goodman & Henrietta St. – FINALIST
Monroe Ave. & Sutherland St. (Village of Pittsford) – FINALIST
The block of N. Clinton Ave. between Hoeltzer St. & Sullivan St. will be the project focus area
The North Clinton Ave. location presented the right mix of community support, evidence of safety concerns, and potential for a street re-design that would create real, transformative change for the community through our project. A Complete Streets Makeover will also be perfectly timed to dovetail with plans already underway for this corridor.
The Complete Streets Makeover will kick off with a community input session in June (facilitated by the Community Design Center) to hear from the residents of the El Camino neighborhood about their experiences and ideas. No one understands what it’s like to use our streets better than those who walk, bike, roll and ride along them everyday.
Last year’s community input session in the Beechwood neighborhood.
Based on feedback from this session, the complete streets design team at Stantec will draft conceptual design improvements of an improved streetscape. The design will be brought to life through a temporary on-street installation in September. We will rely on people power from the neighborhood community, and equipment from the Healthi Kids traffic calming library to lay down the temporary design on the street. Stay tuned for project updates as we go along!
What About the Finalists?
Our finalists won’t walk away empty-handed! The design team at Stantec will provide each of them with a conceptual drawing of street design improvements. 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
S. Clinton, S. Goodman & Henrietta St.Monroe Ave. & Sutherland St. (Village of Pittsford)
In this final installment of our Complete Streets Blog Series, guest author David Riley will highlight a sampling of intersections and trouble spots that were nominated for theComplete Streets Makeover project, and share his ideas for how they might be made safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
Back in May, we launched our Complete Streets Makeover project by asking the general public to help identify theintersections and trouble-spots where you live, work and play that could be redesigned to make them safer for everyone. We received over 90 nominations, and after a careful process to examine each and every submission, we selected the following locations:
Story by: David Riley
A Rochester resident and a former journalist, David is completing a master’s degree in urban planning at the University at Buffalo…
For tens of thousands of Monroe County residents, a sidewalk isn’t just a convenience. It’s a vital connection to the world.
Nearly 12,000 people here walk to their jobs, U.S. Census data shows. Another 13,000 walk to and from bus stops in order to take public transportation to work, including as many as 1 in 3 workers in some city neighborhoods. Many people also rely on sidewalks to get to and from school, medical appointments or grocery stores, much less to go for a jog or walk the dog.
So for many people, it isn’t simply an annoyance if part of a sidewalk turns into a snowdrift during the winter. It’s a disruption that forces people going about daily routines to wade through snow or take a dangerous chance and walk in the street. For people with disabilities, a snowy sidewalk can make a usually simple outing impossible.
Yet keeping sidewalks clear is not always a priority for municipalities in the Northeast and Midwest. The City of Rochester does more than many other Snow Belt cities. While property owners here are responsible for clearing adjacent sidewalks of snow and ice, the city also provides supplemental sidewalk plowing anytime it snows at least 4 inches. The program has drawn some interest in recent years from Buffalo and Syracuse, neither of which generally plow sidewalks beyond public buildings. A handful of local suburbs also provide some municipal sidewalk plowing, including Greece and Irondequoit. Read more
