Cone Country

The City of Rochester has been busy. Earlier this year, all the water lines in our neighborhood were replaced and upgraded. This summer and fall, crews have been busy working on streets near us. I wanted to get out and document what's being done.

Many of these projects upgrade the walkability and bikeability of our local area. We'll start on the corner of Culver and Monroe. Adding a center island on this relatively fast moving part of Monroe Avenue makes it much safer to cross the street as a pedestrian. It's traffic calming; it makes cars drive slower on this long straightaway.

A missing piece of the mobility puzzle is the green chairs placed at the bus stop on this corner. If you want people to ride the bus, they need a sheltered place to sit and wait. We're still missing that here in Rochester.

Next, just up Culver, the sidewalks were widened on both sides of the street. This makes it much easier for both bikes and walkers to share as we approach the pinch-point which is crossing the highway.

A little further up, in the ABC neighborhoods, Culver Road was milled and repaved in a single day of work. The sidewalks here are being replaced and widened.

Nearby on Park Avenue, a busy pedestrian and shopping district, road crossing (err) humps are installed. These prioritize pedestrian traffic. Walkers don't have to step down to the street, while cars are slowed to go over the humps. Traffic here is already calm, this will make it even better.

My next stop was the visually stunning Asbury First United Methodist Church. This is where we heard the Morehouse Men. They have an entire building devoted to community outreach and services for those in need. This means haircuts, clothing, showers, meals and repairs.

Next, University Avenue, right by our home crossfit box, Crossfit Park Avenue (sic). The road's been redone, but a nice long stretch of asphalt was added to support biking alongside the sidewalk.

My final visit was the corner of Avenue D and Hollenbeck in the north of the city. This street had a community-driven makeover earlier in the summer.

There are a lot of kids around and cars were blasting through this corner. The makeover added art on the street (and bollards too) to slow down cars as they come through this area.

The final piece of the puzzle was a stop at the Public Market for coffee, eggs, and snacks.

It's really encouraging to see these streets being redesigned for everyone's use.