Posted by: Daniel Speciale, volunteer at Reconnect Rochester
If you’ve been hunting for a place to sit down while waiting for your bus to arrive, rejoice. The CUBES are back! This year our volunteers have already placed 14 of those colorful little bus stop cube seats and the program is expanding with 5 additional cubes being placed on Joseph Avenue…
Reconnect Rochester envisions a community connected by a robust transportation network that makes it easy for everyone—regardless of physical or economic ability—to get around. To achieve this vision, it is important for us to prioritize our goals, and focus on activities that have the greatest potential to advance those goals in a measurable way. You can help us by answering this quick survey…
The Western New York Bike Festival will take place 4 & 5 June at Dryer Road Park in Victor. At least 10 regional bike organizations — including RCA — will be there, as well as bike shops from the region, with bikes for test rides. The event is for “celebrating, uniting, and growing the cycling community”, and you can learn more on the event website.
Planning to ride the Canalway Trail? Bridge construction will block the trail at West Henrietta Road for most of 2016, so detour routes are in effect. Heading east, you’ll leave the canal at West Henrietta and ride Westfall Road, returning to the canal just before I-390. Heading west, you’ll leave the canal just past I-390 and ride Westfall Road, returning at Kendrick Road. Here’s a map. Don’t forget to leave a few extra minutes for your ride!
![Here's an overview of how public transportation fared in the new State budget. [Story via NYPTA]](http://www.reconnectrochester.org/images/photos/budget.jpg)
[ Story via: NYPTA ]
New York’s 2016-17 state budget contains increases in appropriations for transit operating and capital aid, and also includes a commitment to fund a 5-year capital program for Non-MTA transit systems, the first multiyear capital program in many years. The final budget provides significant increases in transit capital and operating aid over last year’s levels and addresses a number of NYPTA’s priorities…
![A new LEGO bus shelter is being constructed at the corner of Monroe Avenue and French Road in Pittsford. [IMAGE: Reconnect Rochester]](http://www.reconnectrochester.org/images/photos/lego-bus-shelter-progress-01.jpg)
What could take the doldrums out of waiting for your bus? How about waiting from within a giant LEGO® bus shelter? Oh yeah. If you’re traveling from French Road on the #47 bus this spring, you’ll be able to do just that…
Posted by: Daniel Speciale, volunteer with Reconnect Rochester.
The Genesee Transportation Council (GTC) is asking for public input on their Long Range Transportation Plan for the Genesee-Finger Lakes Region 2040 (LRTP 2040). The LRTP identifies the direction for the region’s transportation system and serves as the framework for future investment in highways, bridges, public transportation, bicycle and pedestrian projects over the next 25 years. The LRTP 2040 Public Review Document 
provides an introduction to the LRTP 2040 planning processes, a summary of customer engagement feedback, a financial analysis with revenues and costs, and draft recommendations based on regional needs and customer feedback. Here’s a summary of the document…
Posted by: Brenda Massie, Board Member and Secretary, Reconnect Rochester.
As Gridlock Sam Schwartz told us this past Wednesday, Rochester is a city ‘on the cusp’ and improving its transportation network is critical in keeping the momentum. The Community Design Center’s upcoming ReShaping Rochester lecture titled Mobility: Transportation as a Leveler will likely build on that message. It is exciting to us at Reconnect that these progressive transportation leaders are making their rounds through Rochester to share experiences and (hopefully) spark some action!
Given Rochester’s appalling poverty rate, ensuring access to goods, services, jobs and education through public transportation is especially important. Around 28,000 low-income households in our area have no vehicles. Transportation can be a huge barrier to accessing jobs, education, healthcare and other essential services…
Posted by: Mike Governale, president and co-founder of Reconnect Rochester
On Wednesday, February 24, Reconnect Rochester will bring Samuel Schwartz to Rochester. Sam is the former traffic commissioner for New York City and the man who literally invented the word “Gridlock.”
Gridlock Sam is one of the leading transportation experts in the United States today. He is currently a columnist at the New York Daily News. And his firm, Sam Schwartz Engineering, has recently produced a plan for the redesign of East Main Street here in Rochester…
Posted by: Mike Governale, president and co-founder of Reconnect Rochester
Volunteers from Reconnect Rochester and Flower City AmeriCorps are teaming up to clear snow from bus stops and crosswalks in various Rochester neighborhoods this winter. We’re calling it The Great Rochester Snow Down and we could use your help on Saturday 1/23…
This fall the City of Rochester established the first of its planned bike boulevards, routes along city streets that connect cyclists to destinations in many neighborhoods while avoiding busy intersections and heavy automobile traffic. This boulevard starts at Monroe Ave. & Canterbury Rd., heading east on Canterbury and Harvard St. It crosses the throughway via the pedestrian bridge at School 1, then follows Hillside Ave. across Winton Rd. and south to Highland Ave. Traffic signals at Culver Rd. and Monroe Ave. have been upgraded to sense bikes. Check it out for yourself! A few photos are below.
Posted by: Mike Governale, president and co-founder of Reconnect Rochester
Record cold temperatures and mountains of snow last year made many of our sidewalks and bus stops inaccessible for weeks at a time. This year, before winter tightens its icy grip, Reconnect Rochester would like to invite you to help us defend our streets by taking part in The Great Rochester Snow Down .
Every other Saturday from January 9 – March 6, volunteers from Reconnect Rochester and Flower City AmeriCorps will gather together along one major avenue in our area to clear snow from bus stops and crosswalks…
If you weren’t in the audience this past Thursday evening at the first-ever Rochester Street Films, well, you missed one heck of a good time. Maybe you got stuck in traffic and had to turn back. We get it, life happens. While we can’t recreate the energetic live panel discussions, we can at least share a portion of the event with you here…
Posted by: Daniel Speciale, volunteer at Reconnect Rochester
You may recall reading some time ago that Reconnect Rochester had come up with a temporary solution to the lack of seating at Rochester’s bus stops. Here’s an update…
In a recent survey by Monroe County, young adults around Rochester listed bike lanes and walkable communities among the factors keeping them in the area. Moving forward, they asked for more bike lanes and a bike share program, pointing to easier non-automotive transit as a key enabler for living downtown. Those opinions are consistent with the findings of cities across the nation: bike infrastructure brings young professionals and jobs that can revitalize urban cores.
Through short film clips and community discussion moderated by Rachel Barnhart (WROC-TV) we will explore “the future of transportation” in and around Rochester—in particular, walking, biking, & public transit.
We’ll see how cities around the world are implementing smart transportation design and policies to create better places to live, work and play. And we’ll also hear from local experts and everyday Rochesterians about the current and future state of transportation in Monroe County…
![How would the RTS coverage map look if we considered the actual frequency of bus service. [IMAGE: Regional Transit Service]](http://www.reconnectrochester.org/images/photos/rochester-transit-map-full.gif)
Posted by: Mike Governale, president and co-founder of Reconnect Rochester
The map above shows Rochester’s public transit network. Looks impressive with all of its lines stretching out across Monroe County. From Webster to Chili; Greece to Penfield; there’s a bus or two to get you there. On the other hand, if our transit network were really as good as it looks on this map, why are less than 2% of all trips in Rochester made using public transit?
Hmmm… Maybe because parking is cheaper than air here in Rochester?
Well, yes. But also, this map might be overstating the effective reach of RTS. Remember, a transit system is only good if it’s there when you need it…
Posted by: Mike Governale, president and co-founder of Reconnect Rochester
Since ground broke on Rochester’s new intermodal station last October, people have been asking us, “What’s happening with the new station? …When’s it going to be finished?!”
The grounds surrounding Rochester’s current Amtrak station have been swarming with construction activity since the springtime. But with any project of this size and significance, progress may at times appear agonizingly slow. The bottom line is: work is progressing and rail passengers should be using the new station by September 2017.
You can find all of this information on the NYSDOT website but so you don’t have to go digging, here’s an overview of what’s been happening…
Whatever is happening in Montreal, Rochester has great (and growing) bike infrastructure, too. Here Erik Frisch, a city Transportation Specialist and guru of alternative transportation, describes bike boxes, which allow for safer left turns at busy intersections around town.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/ZrkCgL7TIzY[/youtube]