RochesterGreenway Blog and Clipping Service

The Lehigh Valley Trail Connection

2011-06-10T15:27:00.000-07:00

The last few days have seen quite a few emails bandied about concerning the strip of land between the University of Rochester and East River Road. This land is of particular interest because it happens to be the most direct connection between the existing Lehigh Valley Trail that runs south to RIT and the Erie Canal Trail, University of Rochester, and the Genesee Riverway Trail.

The map below show a tax map of the land in question that indicates that it is in the Town of Brighton and owned by the University of Rochester. The bridges are permanent easements owned by the state.

There is currently a service road in disrepair that many people on mountain bikes or running use to get from one trail to the next, but that road is not friendly to thin road bike tires as I can personally attest.

Luckily, there is an alternative. On a recent trip back from RIT I attempted to explore a link to a nearby road, and accidentally discovered a fantastic trail about 30 yards west of the service road in the woods that leads to a concrete pedestrian bridge over 390 and the canal. This route could be the perfect alternative to the service road, and the current official Lehigh Valley route via Kendrick Road's sidewalk.

The pictures below tell the story even better than I can describe. I apologize for the non-sensical order.

This is the entrance to the trail facing north near the Erie Canal trail. You can see a vehicle parked in a University of Rochester parking lot in the background.

This is the trail facing south after crossing the pedestrian bridge. The trail is a single dirt track so it is difficult to spot here. It looks like most people who cross this bridge opt to walk or bike along the service road. Possibly because they are unaware of where the trail exits.

The view of the service road bridge from the pedestrian bridge.

The pedestrian bridge facing north.

The trail facing north somewhere in the middle.

The entrance to the trail from the Erie Canal trail facing south.

The entrance to the trail from the Lehigh Valley trail facing south. As you can see, this area of the trail will need some work before it is truly accessible. That mud is about as deep and nasty as it looks and impassable on a road bike. Luckily, this stretch is only about 30-40 yards long, and could easily be repaired.

The rest of the muddy section facing north from the same spot.

The entrance to the trail from the Erie Canal trail facing north.

It is evident that people are already using the pedestrian bridge, and to a lesser extent this alternative trail. With proper signage and a little work, this could easily become an excellent addition the the Lehigh Valley Trail, and serve as a vital intercampus link.

THIS WEDNESDAY: the First Greater Rochester Active Transportation Symposium

2011-04-23T17:41:00.000-07:00

Walk, Bike, Smile, Thrive

Jon Schull

Scott Macrae

Walking and biking is good for your health, good for your state of mind, good for Rochester. And its about to get better.

Less than a year after the newly-formed Rochester Cycling Alliance began advocating for comprehensive bike-friendly planning and development, the City of Rochester has developed and released a Bicycle Master Plan that will encourage better bike lanes, neighborhood greenways, and urban trails, and stimulate similar developments in neighboring municipalities. The Town of Brighton has just received a planning grant from the federally-funded Genesee Transportation Council to develop a plan for bikeable and walkable connections between the University of Rochester, RIT, MCC, and downtown Rochester.

And on April 27, forward thinking planners, leaders, and citizens will come together for the firstGreater Rochester Active Transportation Symposium , to celebrate a rich set of geographical and demographic assets, ripe for integration.

The Greater Rochester Active Transportation Symposium will feature national leaders who will report on how active transportation planning in cities like Madison Wisconsin, and Minneapolis Minnesota has made roads safer, expanded transportation options, and increased community liveability and attractiveness, especially for young people critical for regional vitality and growth.

The April 27 Greater Rochester Active Transportation Symposium will also include over 13 workshops, rides and fun events designed to help citizens and local leaders adapt these lessons to our own city.

Consider the facts. The average Rochester family spends 19% of its income on transportation--about $8,000 a year. Yet over half of our trips are 5 miles in duration or less--perfect for biking. If even a fraction of our car commutes became bike commutes, effective family incomes could increase by thousands of dollars, and most of those dollars (hundreds of millions of dollars!) would circulate in Rochester's economy, rather than Saudi Arabia's. And by the way, mental alertness and fitness would increase along with life expectancies and productivity (cyclists live 2 years longer on average and lose 15% fewer days off work due to illness).

Rochester's leaders and planners are attending the symposium because they are ready, willing, and able to listen and respond to forward-looking cyclists and community builders. But they need to know that the community supports and understands the incredible potential of active transportation planning for Rochesterian cyclists and non-cyclists alike.

So here's what you can do to help make this vision a reality.

· Understand it. Attractive bikeways and walkways create and preserve thriving communities populated by energetic and forward thinking citizens. Energetic and forward thinking citizens create and sustain livable cities with rich transportation options, less obesity and heart disease, lower carbon footprints, less dependence on foreign oil. (Its not rocket science. Its better.)

· Know that realizing this vision need not be expensive. Portland Oregon's entire cycling infrastructure was built for less than the cost of a single mile of urban expressway (and Portland now saves twenty times that much money per year in miles not driven).

· Ask for it. While the health benefits of cycling outweigh the safety risks 20 to 1, those benefits today go to those who are willing to brave roadways that are often scary and unappealing. Ask for better walkways and bikeways.

· Join us at the Greater Rochester Active Transportation Symposium Wednesday, April 27th and help us marry an emerging global vision with emerging local opportunities

· Vote with your feet. Bike more, walk more, smile more. You'll feel better, and you'll help the community thrive.

GRATS map: newest and improvedest!

2011-01-08T09:56:00.000-08:00

With endorsement from Monroe County Legislature!

pdf

Greater Rochester Active Transportation System

2010-07-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

Click on images for a printable PDF.

Spread the word!

Now seeking endorsements and logos from allied organizations.

GRATS Brochure v1

2010-07-08T20:08:00.000-07:00

(click for full size images)

River Meadow Crossing

2010-07-03T21:07:00.000-07:00

Allen Kerkeslager helped me find an even better link to connect the RITtweenway with the Genesee Valley Greenway, and Jay Jackson pointed out that a bike ferry could be a way cool and relatively easy way to get the job done.

Here is the site we are talking about in google maps. On the east side of the crossing, the land is reportedly owned by developers planning to create a pond and preserve in the big open areas, and on the west side some unused NYState owned property seems to be waiting for our new lease on life.

The crossing would connect the "River Meadow Preserve" to an asphalted former water testing facility reportedly owned by New York State. The landing would offer near-perfect access to to the Genessee Valley Greenway either via Scottsville Rd and Brook Rd, or southwest by way of the road that exteds from right across the landing.

. Here is the eastward looking view back to River Meadow Dr.

As for how the crossing would be implemented, one could imagine a bicycle/pedestrian bridge or even a small cable ferry (which could be designed and built by RIT faculty and students!)

· River Meadow Crossing

would create new recreational options for local residents,
would create a short and safe bike-commute to and from RIT and RIT's new Global Village
would create a scenic and efficient 10 mile bike ride to downtown Rochester via RIT, Park Point and the Rochester Greenway.
would make us essential links in the emerging Rochester-Williamsport Greenway
would establish Henrietta, RIT, and Rochester as leaders in the transition to more ecological, economical, and healthy life styles.
would enrich the community.

The "Rochester Bicycle Ecology" is a flagship project of RIT's Center for Student Innovation (which I now direct.)

● We have been promoting the under-appreciated "Rochester Greenway" that connects Henrietta with Downtown Rochester by way of RIT and the Lehigh Valley North Trail.

● We organized last October's Rochester Cycling Summit , helped found the Rochester Cycling Alliance and helped put theRochester-Williamsport Greenway on the agenda for NY and PA planners.

● In less than a year, we've had significant impact, and this summer we are working with the Rochester Cycling Alliance to stimulate and coordinate a "Greater Rochester Active Transportation System".

Greater Rochester Active Transportation System

2010-07-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

Work in progress....

U.S. Bicycle Route System - FAQs - Adventure Cycling Association

2010-07-02T20:49:00.000-07:00

U.S. Bicycle Route System - FAQs - Adventure Cycling Association: "USBRS - Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the U.S. Bicycle Route System?
2. What are the advantages of having a U.S. Bicycle Route?
3. Is there demand?
4. Who is funding this initiative?
5. Are there any existing routes?
6. How are routes decided upon?
7. Who oversees/maintains the U.S. Bicycle Route System?
8. What does designation mean?
9. What stipulations are there for developing U.S. Bicycle Routes?
10. What if the best route or an important connection is not on a road managed by the State Department of Transportation?
11. What is AASHTO?
12. What is the Adventure Cycling Association?

1. What is the U.S. Bicy"

Rails-To-Trails Conservancy features Urban Trails

2010-06-14T16:21:00.000-07:00

Urban Pathways News and Updates

Portland, Ore. - Community Cycling Center Director Alison Gravespresented the Understanding Barriers to Bicycling project at a seminar at Portland State University. As part of the project, the center conducted workshops and focus groups with various communities of color, providing insight on how best to tailor programming.

Minneapolis, Minn. - Streetfilms produced a video highlighting the city's bike-friendly improvements, including trail network construction and trail programming such as the Midtown Greenway Trail Watch.

Greenville, S.C. - In a newspaper article about safety on the Greenville Hospital System Swamp Rabbit Tram Trail, trail planners Ty Houck and Brian Graham point to various anti-crime design techniques they discussed at our gathering in New Orleans.

Washington, D.C. - On the occasion of the ribbon cutting for the newest section of the Metropolitan Branch Trail (pictured), we look back at trail planner Heather Deutsch's presentation on construction challenges.

In addition to news from around the nation, there are new resources and opportunities available to your trail:

Apply for RTCA Assistance by August 1
The National Park Service (NPS) Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program is asking outdoor conservation projects to apply for technical assistance from NPS staff. Many urban pathways have received assistance from RTCA, and your project could be next! Visit the RTCA website to fill out an application or contact an RTCA staff member near you.

New Resource: Trail Maintenance Funding
Discover a new section of RTC's Trail-Building Toolbox dedicated to funding mechanisms for trail maintenance. It highlights four urban trails - in Michigan, New York, Ohio and Texas - that have taken different approaches to funding upkeep. The new resource includes documents that can help your trail.
Stay on top of the latest resources by visiting the Urban Pathways Initiative and using our RSS feed . Is there something we're missing or a question you have for the larger group? Let us know in the forums.

State of the City

2010-06-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

State of the City - 2010

**Trevor Flynn Lecture at MAG: June 17, 7pm:

Re-Envisioning PARK(ing) Day: Idea Generation Workshop at RoCo: Saturday June 26 @ 1pm
Exhibition Runs: August 6 - Sep 19, 2010
Opening Reception: August 6, 6-10pm
Artists' Talk: August 8, 1pm

State of the City is a group exhibition featuring Trevor Flynn, Amy Casey and Spectres of Liberty. State of the City 2010 engages artists, creative professionals and the public in considering and envisioning the history and

PARK(ing) Day - September 17th @ RoCo
Originally created by Rebar, San Francisco art and design collective, PARK(ing) Day is an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens independently but simultaneously temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks. PARK(ing) Day will serve as a departure point for Trevor Flynn's "Re-Envisioning PARK(ing) Day: Idea Generation Workshop" at RoCo (Saturday June 26th @ 1pm). Rochester Contemporary Art Center will again organize several "Parks" in front of our main gallery on September 17th, including the debut of an all new project by in.site Architecture.

PARK(ing) Day website

RochesterGreenway now on Google Maps

2010-06-13T15:41:00.000-07:00

I discovered today that the RochesterGreenway (aka Lehigh Valley North Trail) is now showing up on the Google maps bike layer.

I also scoped out a nice bicycle boulevard route inspired by Richard deSarra's Monroe Bicycle Boulevard Ride. It goes from Cobbs Creek to Hinsdale to Pinnacle to Crossman to Field to Westerloe to Lac de Ville. At which point you can jog to Clinton (traffic alert!) to get to the Canal. I dub this route the Pinnacle -Lac deVille route.

It comes tantalizingly close to Brighton Park, however. and so I've marked an area for future exploration.

Feel free to add to this map!

One more bridge to cross, on foot or bike | 520 - An Environmental Blog | Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

2010-05-10T07:51:00.000-07:00

One more bridge to cross, on foot or bike | 520 - An Environmental Blog | Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Erie Lackawanna railroad bridge!

POSTED BY SORR • APRIL 29, 2010 • 11:14 AM

The city of Rochester is now soliciting proposals for design of a new walking-biking trail on a bridge over the Genesee River near the University of Rochester.

The 1,600-foot-long stretch of trail would use the old Erie-Lackawanna Railroad bridge that crosses the river from the Plymouth-Exchange neighborhood to the university’s River Campus. It would connect with the excellent trails, much used by runners, walkers and riders, already in place on each side of the Genesee.

If I have the count right, the Erie-Lackawanna span would be the city’s seventh bridge over the river reserved for pedestrians and bikers – a most impressive number, in my view, for a city this size.

Footbridge near Brooks Avenue

How many have you sampled? There’s a spectacular high bridge (built atop a sewer pipe actually) at Seneca Park, a walkway atop a dam at the little-known Middle Falls, the Pont du Rennes at High Falls, the Sister Cities span downtown, the existing footbridge at the UR near Brooks Avenue, and a lovely little crossing at Genesee Valley Park south of Elmwood Avenue

Most if not all are connected by trails, I believe. A bike-rider could cross them all in what? An hour? Somebody try it and let me know. Send me pics.

Back to Footbridge 7 at the UR. If all goes well, the city will hold public meetings this fall, design will be done over the winter, construction will start next spring and the repurposed bridge will open in October 2011. The project will cost about $1.2 million, with the city and New York state splitting the tab.

According to this detailed feasibility study done by Environmental Design and Research for the city and the Genesee Transportation Council two years ago, the bridge was built in the early 1900s, though earlier spans stood in that spot back to the 1850s. The rail line carried passenger and freight traffic between Rochester and Avon, Livingston County, with connections to points south. Erie-Lackawanna discontinued use of the line in 1971, a year before the rail company entered bankruptcy. The bridge has been unused since, except by occasional trespassers, and is now owned by the city.

The bridge as it is now (EDR feasibility study image)

When work is done, the bedraggled span will be transformed. It will have a new deck, be partly repainted, made ADA compliant and will sport ”amenities such as railing, lighting, benches, bike racks, and landscaping,” as the request for proposals put it.

The bridge as it may be (EDR feasibility study image)

Pretty nifty, eh? It should be a nice addition to the ever-growing network of trails in our region.

Oh, and if you’re not clear where these bridges are, here’s a home-made Google map, with the trails near the planned bridge marked as well. You’ll have to find the rest of the paths yourself. Enjoy!

View Rochester’s Genesee River footbridges in a larger map

Here is the project schedule from the Request for Proposals:

Project Schedule

Start Work June 2010
Site Reconnaissance & Survey June 2010 – July 2010
Draft Alternatives Prepared July 2010 – August 2010
Host Citizen Advisory Meetings August 2010 – October 2010
Finalize Alternatives September 2010 – October 2010
Host Public Meeting(s) August 2010 – October 2010
Preliminary Design of Selected Alternative October 2010 - November 2010
Final Design & Construction Documents December 2010 – January 2011
Bid Process/Issuance of Construction Contracts February 2011 – April 2011
Construction Phase May 2011
Open Bridge October 2011

Lynch Woods Park in Brighton

2010-04-12T12:54:00.000-07:00

The Lehigh Valley North Trail connects RIT, UofR, and Brighton. Lynch Woods Park in Brighton spans the area East of the trail from Crittenden Road (to the North) and Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road (to to the South).

The Town of Brighton is currently planning a variety of trails and boardwalks to increase usability and access.

More info at http://www.townofbrighton.org/index.aspx?NID=457

Recent News on the PA side of the Rochester-Williamsport Greenway and the Headwaters of the Genesee River

2010-04-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

Allen Kerkeslager reports...

The North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission, has drafted plans for integrating Potter County into a state-wide program for developing greenways in all 67 counties in Pennsylvania. Included in their ranking is about 40 miles of rail-trails to connect the famous Pine Creek Trail to trail systems along the Genesee River south to the NY/PA state line. This will bring a fresh infusion of PA state, regional, and local resources to the completion of the Rochester-Williamsport Greenway.

Most notably, regional planning commission officials have identified the number one priority for trail development in Potter County as the completion a new westward extension of the famous Pine Creek Trail to the sources of Pine Creek (west of Galeton, PA). At its western terminus, this new Pine Creek Trail extension will connect with another new rail-trail ("the North Border Trail") that will extend southward from the NY/PA border near Genesee, PA, to the source of the east branch of the Genesee River between Ulysses and Gold, PA.

These two trails will connect near a special site marking the triple divide that embraces the sources of the Genesee River, the Allegheny River, and the Susquehanna River (West Branch and Pine Creek). Together these two trails will link the current trailhead of the Pine Creek Trail at Ansonia, PA, with a rail-trail in NY that follows the Genesee River south from Wellsville, NY, to the NY/PA state line (the WAG Trail, which was recently acquired by NYSDEC).

The North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission will hold a public meeting to collect final comments on its draft of the trail systems in Potter County, PA, in the Gunsberger Building in Coudersport, PA, at 1:00 pm on April 15.

For additional details about developments in the Rochester-Williamsport greenway on the PA side and updates on the Genesee River Wilds Project (www.geneseeriverwilds.org), contact Allen Kerkeslager, Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia, at akerkesl@sju.edu or (610) 660-1121.

Sustainability Mobility Fair - May 8th Free expo

2010-03-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

“Sustainability Mobility Fair - Future Transportation Choices for Short Trips"
Admission is free and open to the public.

When: Saturday, May 8, 2010 from 10:AM - 2 PM
Where: The Center for Student Innovation at RIT, 1 Lomb Memorial Dr Rochester, NY 14623-5698

Attendees will be exposed to what is new and now available on the market and able to experience the latest choices in Electric, Hydrogen, Biodiesel, Natural Gas, Propane, Hybrid, Plug-In, Ethanol, Walking School Buses, and cycling transportation technologies.

All alternative fuel options will be on display. As more commuters become aware of travel choices, we expect to see more of them regularly choosing transportation alternatives because of the benefits. Sponsored by Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and the Center for Environmental Information (CEI).

Rochester-Williamsport Greenway in the Williamsport Sun Gazette

2010-02-21T08:50:00.000-08:00

NY-PA trail blends recreation, conservation
By PATRICK DONLIN - pdonlin@sungazette.com

POSTED: February 21, 2010

Save | Print | Email

When they decided they had a common interest of creating recreational trails, two professors determined it was time to band together with one another and others to blaze a 230-mile path connecting Williamsport and Rochester, N.Y.

Jon Schull, Rochester Institute of Technology associate professor of innovation and invention, said he and Allen Kerkeslager met a couple months ago in Philadelphia, where Kerkeslager is a professor at St. Joseph's University.

"We talked about the synergy between his (Kerkeslager's) work in the Genesee Wilds Association and my work which I call the 'Rochester Greenway,' " Schull said. "We realized the two sections we had been focusing on were the two end points of this project."

Schull, one of the founders of the Rochester Cycling Alliance, is excited about the recreation possibilities.

Kerkeslager described different reasons he wants to get involved. He grew up in rural New York, near the proposed trail project, and continues to go home to see family there, driving through Williamsport on the way.

The trail project also is a chance for Kerkeslager, a religions of the ancient world professor, to delve into something he admits isn't as obscure.

'A breather ... for humanity'

"Much of this (trail project) is a breather to do stuff for humanity," he said.

It comes with a price.

Kerkeslager said the cost for the 230-mile connection could be $100 million, but he offered an explanation.

To offer it completely with trails, he expects a $50 million expense.

There would be another cost of $50 million for the water conservation measures he recommends.

It'll take time, too, as Kerkeslager said, "Twenty years, I think that's a fair estimate to be completely off-road."

Kerkeslager, who rides a bicycle 10 miles round trip on his daily work commute, said he's a proponent of the proposed cycling recreation.

Environmental improvements

But, he's also an advocate for environmental improvements possible through the trail plan.

The project spans the Susquehanna, Genesee and the headwaters of the Allegheny River, all watersheds Kerkeslager intends to protect.

Kerkeslager believes building a riparian buffer along the trail is a cost-saving conservation alternative to building expensive rock wall dams.

Greenway planning preserves forests and conserves nature, according to Rick Biery, regional planning program manager for Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission.

Biery embraces plan development and the possible trail if it's conducted responsibly.

"From a concept standpoint, these things are great," Biery said. "It brings an opportunity to tap into a resource hikers and bikers may not get to go through unless we look at the possibilities."

Through connectivity, the recreational system experience improves, according to Kerkeslager.

He said it will connect the nationally renowned Pine Creek Gorge bicycle trail to the Genesee River's gorgeous waterfalls.

Jobs will be created, Kerkeslager added, especially in the sectors of tourism, hospitality, recreation and tour guiding.

He intends to bring the plan to the forefront at meetings of the Northcentral Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission in Ridgway.

Facing up to the challenge

Some consider the most challenging interstate link to be completed as a 40-mile proposed trail running northwest from Wellsboro to the New York border.

A connection just west of Wellsboro is in the conceptual stage, according to Biery.

"We're working with a consultant to develop a greenways open space outdoors recreation plan. It's an overall concept plan," he said.

Matt Marusiak, project coordinator for the Northcentral Pennsylvania Greenways and Open Space Plan, said land deals still need to be made there to acquire trail property, much of which lack old railroad beds ideal for making recreation trails.

In areas where land can't be bought, Kerkeslager said the trail may have to go along Route 6.

Railroad beds ideal

A recreational trail using a road area isn't uncommon, as Kerkeslager said portions of the Appalachian Trail he's explored are the same way.

Railroad beds like what are used in the local Pine Creek Trail are ideal, but alternatives can be used if necessary.

Kerkeslager said there's often a section here and there where planners have to route a trail along roads where landowners want to keep their property or where an area is undevelopable.

Since July, Biery's been involved in what he described as an outreach process including public meetings, contact with stakeholders, and thousands of resident surveys in the counties of Tioga, Sullivan, Wyoming and Susquehanna.

Biery hopes to reach the next goal by early June, which includes a direct recommendations document he said is drafted for review by the planning partners.

"That's where projects will come from," Biery said of further details to be unveiled.

Project offerings

Bicycle recreation is important but so is waterways enjoyment, organizers say.

Like the canoe and kayak launches already offered along the Genesee and Pine Creek rail trails, Kerkeslager plans on offering more boat launches where possible.

He hopes his entire New York to Pennsylvania circuit can be as beautiful as the Pine Creek trail residents enjoy here, but he realizes some adjustments may be necessary.

A hurdle in New York is not to have a trail, but to have it off-road.

A 20-mile section from Belfast, N.Y., to Wellsville, N.Y., can be offered as soon as this summer if it's presented on an existing country road.

"In the long run, we'd like to get these trails off the roads entirely," Kerkeslager said.

Using a combination of existing roads and trails, he said a route from Williamsport to New York could be offered later this year.

Organizers would merely have to offer maps, a Web site and post some trail sections with markers honoring the trail.

"It could say future home of (the NYPA Greenways)," Kerkeslager said, reminding it's only a working name.

"To open for usage with provisional usage on roads, we can do that as soon as it gets warm," he said.

People already bicycle from Rochester to Williamsport, according to Schull.

"They ride on trails and ride on roads when the trail peters out," he said.

It can be done now, but Lycoming County Visitors Bureau Executive Director Jason Fink doesn't suggest competing with traffic along the Route 14-15 corridors.

'A safer way'

"This would be a safer way to enjoy it," said Fink, himself an avid local bicycle rider. "To ride up to Rochester would be a very exciting thing for a bicyclist."

Because the existing Pine Creek Trail is extensively used, he believes a new trail would be popular around here.

It would be quite an experience to explore a different terrain in the Great Lakes region up north, according to Fink.

The trail is more than just about recreation to Schull, who said, "it becomes a plan for real development and transportation development."

He said bicycling is especially popular among the five cycling clubs in his city.

Schull said there are great places to ride around the Erie Canal, Genesee Riverway Trail, Lake Ontario and Finger Lakes. He said his region already had wonderful trails but they can be improved.

"There are stretches where there's roads that we ride that could be more bikeable," Schull said. "And there's stretches that could be more scenic or more direct."

Extending their outreach

Attracting expanded stakeholders interested in conservation is critical to success, according to Kerkeslager.

"With more interest in the trail, we'll expand the profile," he said. "Get people using it and once they're using it, it promotes more stakeholders to build up funding."

"If there's enough support out there, the right people should be able to find those funds out there," Fink said of needed grants.

Separate but similar projects are happening elsewhere, as Schull said a national network of trails is developing.

"There's an emerging view of greenways all over the country," he said.

The East Coast Greenway project from Cape Cod to Key West, Fla., is being developed along a proposed 3,000-mile trail, which runs down the eastern seaboard, incorporating the Philadelphia area.

In addition to his planning involvement with the Pennsylvania Wilds, Jerry Walls also is a board member of the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership, which he said may benefit from the NYPA plan.

From the headwaters of the West Branch in Cambria County to Williamsport to Sunbury to the Chesapeake Bay, Susquehanna Greenway partners including Walls are planning a 500-mile recreational route that he said could tie into Kerkeslager's plan.

The missing link, aka the "Tweenway Spur"

2010-02-09T20:49:00.001-08:00

We have identified an RGE gas pipeline that runs from a hill on the West Side of RIT's campus (just South of the Red Barn) across East River Rd, across the river, across Scottsville Rd, and through cleared woods to the GVGreenway Trail.

This path has just the trajectory we might want in developing the RIT Tweenway, and the trees are already cleared. (The path is not surfaced.)

View tweenway Spur in a larger map

Here are some panoramas
The view from the hill to the West: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2721/4309845639_f1e422dcce_o.jpg

The view from Scottsville Rd East to RIT: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4309844619_70c0ddf04f_o.jpg

The view at the GVGreenway-Pipeline intersection (380 degrees) : http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2798/4338153998_0616943c66_o.jpg:

Let's call the path that might be made from the pipeline the "Tweenway Spur" (assuming the cross-RIT bike trail is to be called the RIT Tweenway.)

The ideal long-range vision is for a cycle/pedestrian bridge from the hill on the RIT campus to the Tweenway Spur, without their having to touch down on the East River Rd, Scottsville Rd, or the River.

However, even without the Tweenway Bridge, this spur would provide a more intuitive, scenic and safer alternative route to the Ballantyne Bridge (and thence to RIT or Jefferson Road and the Lehigh Valley North Trail).

Towpath Trail idea really floats

2010-01-27T21:55:00.000-08:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/JohnPucher/PortlandOregonSeptOct2007#5117211901939512034Towpath Trail idea really floats

The newest segment of the Towpath Trail in South Akron includes a floating section that runs nearly a third of a mile along Summit Lake's southern shoreline and passes under the Kenmore Boulevard bridge.

http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/ohio_travel/56239382.html

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And then there's these:

Alta Planning & Design - Bicycle, Pedestrian, Greenway & Trail Projects - Project Links & Resources - Research & Study Documents

2010-01-27T21:41:00.000-08:00

Alta Planning & Design - Bicycle, Pedestrian, Greenway & Trail Projects - Project Links & Resources - Research & Study Documents

Featured Projects

Research & Studies

Barriers to Bicycling >

Cycle Tracks >

Bike Sharing >

Bike Blvd Guidebook >

Project Websites

Presentations

Research & Study Documents

Alta is at the forefront of nationally significant bicycle and pedestrian research to advance the fields of transportation, land-use, planning, and design. You can learn more about Alta's research capabilities on ourResearch service page . Below you'll find a number of our published studies for download. Documents unavailable on our website may be available upon request .

Documents for Download

Bicycling Related Documents & Studies

Facilities and Infrastructure Related Documents & Studies

Trail Related Documents & Studies

Rails-With-Trails: Lessons Learned Federal study
Trails in Limited Access Highway Corridors Final Report
This study documented existing conditions and developed methodologies and best practices for the design, implementation and management of Shared Use Paths in Limited Access Highway Corridors. Visit the project website
Trails and Golf Courses: Best Practices on Design and Management (7/05)

Programs and Education Related Documents & Studies

Portland Safe Routes to School 1 Year Report (8/06)

Hale and Harmful: Are the Healthful Effects of Riding a Bike on City Streets Ruined by Inhaled Pollutants?: Scientific American

2010-01-18T06:59:00.000-08:00

Hale and Harmful: Are the Healthful Effects of Riding a Bike on City Streets Ruined by Inhaled Pollutants?: Scientific American:

Interesting article, and another reason why the Rochester Greenway could be a pace-setter!

"Ironically, many cities that offer dedicated bike lanes often lay them out right next to busy bus lanes, unintentionally ensuring that bicyclists breathe in as much diesel exhaust as possible. “I ride along one of these high-traffic bus routes,” Housen says, “and…there was between two and five or six times more magnetic fine particulate matter along the bus route than [on less-busy streets].” Housen would like to expand his research so it could be used by urban planners to better design bike and pedestrian routes so as not to intermingle so much diesel transit and pedestrian/bicycle traffic."

Funding Pedestrian and Bicycle Projects

2010-01-15T07:26:00.001-08:00

APBP Webinar: Funding Pedestrian and Bicycle Projects

Posted by: "Stephen Miller" stephen@railstotrails.org stephenmrtc

Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:10 am (PST)

Many of you may be interested in this. It uses the example of a trail
project in Greenville, SC:

Webinar: Funding Pedestrian and Bicycle Projects
<http://www.apbp.org/event/jan-10_webinar##>

1/20/2010

When:

Wednesday, January 20
3:00 to 4:00 p.m. EST

Contact:

Debra Goeks (info@apbp.org info@apbp.org> )

Registration Information

Online registration is available until: 1/20/2010

* Register for this event >
<http://www.apbp.org/events/event_login.asp?id=89076>

Funding Pedestrian and Bicycle Projects

January's webinar takes a comprehensive look at funding sources, both
familiar and nontraditional. First, we examine how Greenville County,
S.C., leveraged the power of one grant to obtain trail funding from many
different nontraditional sources. Learn how the powerful ripple effect
of a partnership between the county and the Greenville Hospital System
led to building widespread community, business, and political support
for the Swamp Rabbit Trail project, which is the flagship greenway of a
county-wide Greenways Master Plan that is currently being developed.

This outstanding example will demonstrate
* techniques to identify and approach funding sources.
* how to parlay one grant into multiple partnerships.
* the impact of creating a business plan and following through.

The Federal Highway Administration's Transportation Enhancement (TE)
Activities and Recreational Trails Program (RTP) provide funds to
develop transportation and recreation infrastructure. Gabe Rousseau and
Christopher Douwes of the FHWA will explain these and other federal
programs and offer suggestions on how to apply for funds. The
presentation will also provide information about the authorization of
the Federal Surface Transportation Program expected in 2010.TE
activities increase transportation choices and access for pedestrians
and bicyclists and enhance the built and natural environment through
scenic and historic highway programs, landscaping, historic
preservation, and environmental mitigation. The RTP provides funds to
states to develop and maintain recreational trails and trail-related
facilities.

Webinar presenters are Ty Houck, Director of Greenways, Natural and
Historic Resources, Greenville County Recreation District; Dr. Gabe
Rousseau, U.S. Department of Transportation and FHWA Bicycle and
Pedestrian Program Manager; and Christopher Douwes, FHWA Trails and
Enhancements Program Manager. APBP board member Tom Dodds, South
Carolina's Bicycle and Pedestrian Engineer, will moderate the webinar
and add his insights on how state coordinators can assist local
jurisdictions in identifying and applying for funding.

APBP has applied for one CM credit from the AICP for this webinar. A
certificate of attendance for those wanting to claim Professional
Development Hours will be available.

Invite colleagues and clients to attend at your location for one very
reasonable price. Cost is $50 per site for APBP members, $75 per site
for non-APBP members. Each site license includes one phone connection
(toll charges apply, or use VoIP), one internet connection, one set of
handouts for unlimited attendees in the same location, and access to the
recording. APBP accepts Visa, MasterCard or AMEX; payment should be made
by noon on January 19. For more information, contact Debra Goeks
(262-228-7025 or deb@apbp.org deb@apbp.org> ).

An on-campus Greenway for RIT

2010-01-09T16:12:00.000-08:00

RIT is already leading a potential bicycle renaissance in Rochester, with significant environmental and economic impacts on the city and the region.

By building an on-campus Greenway--a year round walkway/bikeway across campus-- RIT could improve its campus, improve student life, promote innovation, promote sustainability, and integrate RIT’s industrial-sustainability types with our ecological-sustainability types.

The overall vision is grand. The first step could be simple. Prototype a covered, bikeable/walkable path over, or parallel to, the QuarterMile. (RIT students are already spec’ing out structural and paving options, including heatable floors for ice control).

RIT as interchange for Genesee Valley Greenway, Lehigh Valley North Trail, and, of course, RochesterGreenway

2010-01-09T16:01:00.001-08:00

RIT should build a bike bridge across the river and be a bike bridge joining the Genesee Valley Greenway and the Lehigh Valley North Trail.

As previously noted, Mitch Rosen and I have come to realize that RIT could connect the Genessee Valley Greenway (just south of Jefferson Rd) and the Lehigh Valley North Trail (LVNT) up to UR and the City.

This might be a strategic linkage.

with regard to RIT, see this post (an on campus Greenway would connect RIT's two new extremities Global Village and Park Point)
with regard to the RochesterGreenway (=Lehigh Valley North Trail here) , this would join it to the GVGreenway.
with regard to the potential NYPA Greenways (the 230 mile superset to Williamsport), this would be a big advance
with regard to the Genessee Valley Greenway, our impression is that it peters out just to the north of this point. This would ncrease the Genessee Valley Greenway's utility and value.

Details:

Some googling lead me to believe there is a connecting trail.

So this afternoon, I went cross country skiing to look for the connecting trail.

At around the right place (A), I did find an embankment going West-East across the trail.
There was a stone bridge over the creek on the West side of the trail, but fallen trees (under the snow, at least) no obvious trail to the East.

When I circled back and drove back to Scottsville Rd just south of Greyson Rd, I found what might be the West end of that same cross-trail:
a break in a wooden fence, a marked telephone pole "RGE 111, 228" and a sign pointing to Clearview Farms apartment. (B)

And when I hiked West from the Road, there was a clear view to (what I believe was) the GV Trail.

RIT should build a bike bridge across the river and be a bike bridge joining the Genesee Valley Greenway and the Lehigh Valley North Trail.

RIT could unify the Genesee Valley Greenway and the Rochester Greenway

2010-01-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

Mitch Rosen points out that the Genessee Valley Greenway peters out just west of RIT's Red Barn and suggested that a bike bridge (built by our own Civil Engineering students?) across the River would allow one to bike all the way from Cuba NY to the City without travelling a major road.

We went for a brief drive and it looked great, as does some further scrutiny via Google Earth!

The missing link

The big picture

Wegmans unveils plans for East Avenue store | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

2010-01-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

Now just suppose this became an anchor location for a bike connection along University Avenue and Blossom Road that integrated ArtisanWorks, ArtWalk, the RochesterGreenway....

Wegmans unveils plans for East Avenue store | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy:: Trail of the Month: Walkway Over the Hudson, New York

2010-01-08T07:40:00.000-08:00

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy:: Trail of the Month: Walkway Over the Hudson, New York

Built in 1888, the 1.25-mile Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge launched out across the Hudson River in New York. Considered a technological wonder, the mammoth structure towered 212 feet above the water and became the longest railroad bridge in the world. It connected downtown Poughkeepsie on the east bank and Lloyd on the west, providing an important link for trains carrying Pennsylvania coal to factories in New England. At its peak, the route serviced 3,500 train cars a day.

After a fire severely damaged the tracks in 1974, though, nearby communities debated whether to tear down the railroad relic. The bridge sat idle for nearly 20 years before local advocate Bill Sepe began promoting the idea of restoring the landmark as a pedestrian walkway.

On October 3, huge crowds swelled the bridge to celebrate its grand opening. "It was awesome," says Erik Kulleseid, deputy commissioner for open space protection with New York State Parks. "We had 40 to 50,000 people there. We thought we were going out on a limb projecting the bridge would get 267,000 annual visitors, and we had 300,000 in the first month and a half! It's been extraordinary."

Greenways 101

2010-01-03T13:14:00.000-08:00

Greenways 101 (Pennsylvania is ahead of us!)

Greenways 101

What is a Greenway?

The word "greenway" means different things to different people. Since the 19th century, "greenway" has been used to describe a variety of linear corridors across the land that conserve natural areas and provide people with recreation and transportation opportunities. Often greenways are associated with off-road trails, such as the Appalachian Trail or the Pine Creek Rail-Trail, although not all greenways include trails.

There is a growing national movement to promote greenways, especially since 1987 when the President's Commission on American Outdoors recommended establishing a nationalgreenways network. A greenways network is similar to a roadway network, which connects all kinds of destinations through a linear system. However, a greenways network is designed for recreation, conservation, and smart land use - a network for people, nature, and "livable" communities.

Greenways are often established and managed through partnerships between municipalities, counties, and non-profit organizations.

	Story of PA Greenways
	Frequently Asked Questions
	Benefits of Greenways
	Greenways Glossary
	Clearinghouse Database

John Curran's Vision

2009-12-28T13:19:00.000-08:00

John Curran (last seen here ) is incorporating the RochesterGreenway into his vision for network of Biking, Hiking, and Historical Trails in SW Rochester.

He also suggests that the Pedaling History Museum be located in the same neighborhood (so people could bike to Museum. How cool is that?)

Perhaps there could be a home...in the Susan B. Anthony Preservation District which includes several vastly underutilized 19th century factory buildings. It's located on West Main Street near Nick Tahou's.

I can't think of a more appropriate location locally.

Some of the buildings in this area were part of the former Cunningham Carriage Manufactory which dealt with "spoked wheel" carriages, ambulances, hearses and, later, custom-built luxury automobiles and aircraft. There is an effort underway to restore one of the Cunningham buildings and I believe the owner wants to display some Cunningham memorabilia on-site.

....The bicycle history fits in with the late 19th Century Industrial period that the Preservation District includes and hopes to showcase. Susan B. herself marveled at the freedom that bicycles gave to women.

...There will be quite a bit of improvement to the attractiveness of this District in the years ahead in an effort to draw tourism from the Aqueduct (Broad Street at South Ave) westward to the Susan B. Anthony Preservation District. This route is called the Rochester Heritage Trail and will have interpretive signage installed along the route in the year ahead.

The Susan B. Anthony Preservation District is the destination for a "Genesee Valley Canal Heritage Trail" intended for bicyclists that I'm championing.

Actuatr | Open Your Data To Developers Instantly

2009-12-26T17:14:00.000-08:00

Actuatr | Open Your Data To Developers Instantly

a model of simplicity

Actuatr Tour from Adeel Ahmad on Vimeo.

DFNYC - Democracy For New York City - Toxic Natural Gas Drilling in NY State?

2009-12-22T10:47:00.000-08:00

Why is this relevant?

The Greenway is a positive economic/ecological strategic alternative to Natural Gas extraction.

Lake Ontario and the Genessee River are at the Northern End of a watershed that comes right out the Marcellus Shale zone.

DFNYC - Democracy For New York City - Toxic Natural Gas Drilling in NY State?

Toxic Natural Gas Drilling in NY State?

Written by Bernadette Evangelist

Friday, 09 October 2009

Report from DFNYC member Dan Jacoby:

Across the southern tier of New York, from the Hudson River to Lake Erie – including the New York City watershed – and extending through Pennsylvania, West Virginia and part of Ohio, 7,000 feet underground, is a rock layer called “Marcellus shale.” This rock layer contains enough natural gas in New York alone to meet current U.S. demand for 20 years, and gas drillers want it.

The process drillers use to get the natural gas is called hydraulic fracturing, or “hydrofracing.” They pump huge amounts of water, sand and chemicals into the ground, opening fractures in the rock and pulling the natural gas out. Unfortunately, at best they only reclaim about 70% of the fluid. The rest is left behind – and it gets into the water supply. There is also new information showing that drilling may be putting toxic chemicals into the air.

In other states where hydrofracing has been used in various rock formations, far less of the fluid is used, and the health of local residents is still permanently damaged. Their symptoms are consistent with multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and other diseases.

In addition, natural gas also gets into the water supply. Earlier this year, NBC News did a story about a Colorado couple who could literally light their tap water on fire. On New Year’s Day, in Dimock, PA, a water well exploded from natural gas buildup – that natural gas has been traced to drilling in the Marcellus shale layer there.

New York City’s water supply is one of only five nationwide that doesn’t require a filtration plant. Allowing gas drilling in our watershed will change that, will probably cost upward of $20 billion – and still may not adequately protect our water supply.

Earlier this year, Councilmember James Gennaro introduced Resolution 1850, which calls on the state legislature to ban hydrofracing in the New York City watershed. On September 30, Councilmember Tony Avella introduced Resolution 2191, which calls on the state legislature to ban hydrofracing statewide. Co-sponsors to date are: Charles Barron, Gale Brewer, Letitia James, Melissa Mark-Viverito, Rosie Mendez.

As New York moves closer to beginning hydrofracing, Pennsylvania has put a moratorium on the process, due to the environmental hazards.

Meanwhile, the NY state Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has released a draft report on this issue (http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/58440.html ). It’s long, complex – and often avoids the real problems associated with hydrofracing. ProPublica describes it at: http://www.propublica.org/feature/new-york-state-paves-way-for-gas-drilling-with-release-of-review-930

Action Item

DFNYC members may soon be asked to comment on this issue. Meanwhile, feel free to call your council member in support ofResolution 2191. A 60-day comment period is now open on the DEC report at:http://www.dec.ny.gov/cfmx/extapps/SGEISComments/ . You can also ask for an extension of the comment period: http://www.citizenscampaign.org/action_alerts/alert1009.htm

There are a lot of organizations involved in this issue. We want to provide links that help you find out about this and take action. Here are some of the ones we’ve found, but the fact that we’re providing these links does not mean that we endorse them or their actions. We’re just gathering information. Let us know what you find out as well.

Groups involved in the issue:

1. http://damascuscitizens.org/
2. http://nyh2o.org/index2.html
3. http://catskillmountainkeeper.org/index
4. http://www.riverkeeper.org/
5. http://www.newyorkwater.org/
6. http://www.catskillcitizens.org/news.cfm

Historic Erie Canal Aqueduct and Broad Street Corridor Master Plan

2009-12-21T19:30:00.000-08:00

Historic Erie Canal Aqueduct and Broad Street Corridor Master Plan

Before there was this...

There was this!

And eventually ....?

Bicycle Commuter Superhighways in Copenhagen

2009-12-14T11:11:00.001-08:00

Bicycle Commuter Superhighways in Copenhagen

The City of Copenhagen is currently planning to expand the existing, extensive network of bike lanes to extend farther out into the suburbs. A network of 13 high-class routes - 'bicycle superhighways' if you will - dedicated to bicycle commuters and aimed at encouraging more to cycle to work.

Bicycle Strategy Could Change our City

2009-12-13T15:34:00.001-08:00

Prepared for the October 24th GreenRide and Bike Summit.
(now with improved audio)

Brooks development too speedy for some | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle:

2009-12-03T18:59:00.000-08:00

Residents seek a clear plan for river corridor

Brian Sharp • Staff writer • December 1, 2009

After more than 20 years spent trying to bring investment to the Rochester's south river corridor, some neighbors now want things to slow down.

...

Historian John Curran gives a tour to Lynnetta Robinson, left, and Katrina Hanson of city property along the Genesee River. (SHAWN DOWD staff photographer)

...

Brooks Landing currently consists of a Staybridge Suites hotel, a retail/office building and a spin-off Boulder Coffee shop, all at Genesee Street and Brooks Avenue.
The next phase, to get under way in spring 2010 and open in summer 2011, proposes a six-story building — with a restaurant plus five floors and 85 beds of student housing — plus a drive-thru ATM and a two-story Chabad house, or Jewish community center.
After all that is completed, developer Ron Christenson is talking about condos.

Christenson envisions spending another $20 million on Brooks Landing, adding to the $20 million already invested.
A short distance up South Plymouth Avenue is the 120-unit Riverview Apartments, which opened in fall 2008. The city is studying how best to clean up the old Vacuum Oil site farther north, a riverfront property at the end of Flint Street. Stretching back from the river is seven privately-owned acres, including an old junkyard, that local businessman Thomas Masaschi bought for $660,000 last year. The land is assessed at $208,000.

City of Rochester | Highland Park-Canalway Trail Project

2009-12-01T17:06:00.000-08:00

City of Rochester | Highland Park-Canalway Trail Project

About the Project

The Highland Park/Canalway Trail Project is a joint venture between the Town of Brighton and the City of Rochester. Fisher Associates and Trowbridge and Wolf Landscape Architects are on hand to assist the City with the project.

The trail is intended to:

Connect Highland Park with the Erie Canalway Trail and the Genesee Riverway Trail,
Provide a safe pedestrian and bicycle route to Highland Park,
Build a cost-effective, context-sensitive, community-valued trail, and
Enhance the regional trail system.

Documents

The Genesee Transportation Council's Regional Trails Initiative Final Report and Action Plan recommended this project as a "Near-Term Priority Project." See table 4 and page 54 of the document.
Check out the 2004 Highland Park-Canalway Trail: Planning and Design Final Report prepared by McCord Landscape Architects and Lu Engineers.
View or download the July 1, 2009 Public Meeting slideshow that shows specific project details, photos, and renderings.

Project Timeline

Project Initiation → January 2009
Develop Alternatives → May-June 2009
Public Meeting → July 1, 2009
Trail Design & Approvals → July-Spring 2010
Bid & Award Project→ Summer 2010
Trail Construction → Fall 2010- Spring 2011

Questions?

Contact City project manager, Jeff Mroczek, at (585) 428-7124 or email him.

'Bullet bike' keeps pace with city traffic | HeraldTribune.com | Sarasota Florida | Southwest Florida's Information Leader

2009-11-30T06:06:00.000-08:00

'Bullet bike' keeps pace with city traffic

Here's part of the article. (The argumentative Comments section is worth reading, but all the controversy would go away if the vehicles were on a dedicated transitway.) Thanks for the tip, Rebecca

The 75-pound, three-wheeled curiosity is known generically as a velomobile, or a bullet bike. Mickevicius fell in love with it several years ago when his son, Ray Jr. of Toronto, began importing them from Europe.

In March, Popular Science described how Ray Jr. is now manufacturing velomobiles in hopes of creating a North American market.

The model his father brought to Sarasota this fall is called a Quest, which the elder Mickevicius labels the "sports model" of the industry.

It can blow away any bicycle on the road and is designed with such aerodynamic economy it deprives tailgaters of drafting opportunities.

With enough room to accommodate a bag of groceries, the Quest offers some obvious practical applications, Mickevicius says.

"I'd say a velomobile is for people who are concerned about the environment, and like to stay fit and have a good time."

But don't look for velomobiles to jam the bike lanes anytime soon. The Quest's $8,000 to $9,000 sticker price guarantees an exclusive clientele.

Its fully loaded Cab-Bike model, marketed not as a racer but as a muscle-powered green alternative to automobiles, has completely enclosed interiors and runs around $12,000.

...

At the Bluevelo factory in Toronto, where just three new hand-crafted vehicles roll out a month, Ray Mickevicius Jr. doesn't anticipate a transportation revolution.

Rediscovering the Rambling River

2009-11-15T13:23:00.000-08:00

From Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
and there's much more!
Discovered via http://www.geneseeriverwilds.org

A river rebirth in Rochester

What flows through Rochester today is a Genesee that challenges the public perception and the observations of Arch Merrill 66 years ago. It is cleaner. It is more visible. And there are plenty of ways to enjoy it.

PHOTO GALLERIES

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Some 60 years after a Democrat and Chronicle reporter Arch Merrill traveled the length of the Genesee River, Jeff Blackwell and Max Schulte hit the road to explore the rambling river and the people connected to it

SPECIAL REPORT

Investigative reporter Steve Orr takes a look at the water quality of the river and how it has changed over the last 20 years.

CONTACT

Max Schulte | Jeff Blackwell

Fwd: Genesee River Wilds Project

2009-11-15T12:09:00.000-08:00

From: Allen Kerkeslager <akerkesl@sju.edu>
Date: Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 11:43 AM
Subject: Genesee River Wilds Project (Please Forward as Appropriate)
To: BDSHARP@democratandchronicle.com, Jon.Schull@rit.edu

Dear Rochester Area Trail Advocates,

I just noticed some recent news on the Rochester Greenway and I am glad to see the progress that your groups are making on this. You may find it helpful to peruse the newsletter of the Genesee River Wilds Project below and look over the attached documents, especially the project's "Program Guide." You may find it especially helpful to read the opening description of the project's main goals and the references to trail systems in the Program Guide's "Infrastructure Inventory." This will make it clear that one of the goals of the Genesee River Wilds Project is to create the links needed to complete a massive recreational trail system reaching all the way from the Susquehanna River at Williamsport, PA, to Lake Ontario in Rochester. As the newsletter below and the contact list in the back of the Program Guide. indicates, many state and regional officials (including some in your area, as mentioned below) are aware of the Genesee River Wilds Project. The Program Guide. (from last April) and the newsletter (from end of last August) are, in fact already outdated because our contact list has grown considerably. For example, the project recently received a $5,000 grant to help pay for planning work being done by an architectural engineer, who is working almost for free with my colleagues and DEC officials in designing nature parks along the Genesee River in Allegany County, NY. Given that these and other features of the Genesee River Wilds Project involve two states and environmental issues that extend to federal interests such as Lake Ontario, you may find it especially helpful to articulate how your work on the Rochester Greenway can be integrated into these larger environmental concerns and the proposed interstate trail system when you submit applications for grants for federal and state funds.

If you are not familiar with the recreational trail system in Pennsylvania's Pine Creek Gorge, then you may want to follow some of the links on the Genesee River Wilds Project's website to see the exciting possibilities that will open up when the entire trail system from Rochester to Williamsport is completed. You may also want to pay special attention to the section of the newsletter below that deals with some of the planning on the Pennsylvania side that is underway for completing the remaining sections in PA (see below, "(6) Developments on the Pennsylvania side"). Completion of all 240 miles of the projected trail system is obviously a long-term goal, but so much has already been done on the Genesee Valley Greenway and the Pine Creek Trail that we actually are already far more than halfway there. Pennsylvania is also, as the note below indicates, moving more quickly than New York. So perhaps it will not be that many years before the Rochester Greenway can boast of being part of one of the longest and most scenic recreational trail systems in the country.

Please feel free to forward this note and the attached documents to people in your area. Our project has advanced rapidly by its appeal to stakeholders interested in not only riverside recreation, but also in conservation and the economic benefits of tourism and related business. Thus this may be of interest to business leaders, environmental scientists and biologists at the University of Rochester who may be involved in research projects related to the improvement of the water quality of the Genesee River or Lake Ontario, non-profit conservation groups in your area, and many others--including hikers, bikers, and kayakers. The more people that can be recruited to join in, the faster this will proceed.

All the best,

Allen Kerkeslager, Ph.D.

Saint Joseph's University

Philadelphia

(former western New Yorker)

akerkesl@sju.edu

www.geneseeriverwilds.org

------------------------------------------------

Project Newsletter

------------------------------------------------

Dear Colleagues in Conservation of the Genesee River and Lake Ontario,

This note and the attached documents offer an update on the Genesee River Wilds Project. Readers interested only in technical details can go directly to the "Program Guide" (in the attachments). This is only one of a number of documents that originally were prepared for use by US House Representative Eric Massa in dialogues with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Governor David Patterson (below). But they deserve wider dissemination. Please feel free to forward this to others who may be encouraged to support the New York State side of the project. Relevant contact information is listed in the attached Program Guide and on the project website at www.geneseeriverwilds.org.

Some recipients of this note are familiar with the Genesee River Wilds Project and have begun promoting a more holistic approach to the Genesee River watershed. Those not familiar with the project may consult the Briefing Paper, the longer Program Guide, and the project website (which does not include the budget and some of the technical data found in the Program Guide). Briefly, the project promotes a comprehensive program of conservation, flood control, recreational development, and economic revitalization along the uppermost (southern) 70 miles of the Genesee River. The focus of the project is conservation. The project emphasizes development of recreational infrastructure because the resulting promise of tourism and business development has proven to be the most effective strategy for winning eager support from local officials and landowners in the impoverished rural communities nearby. The project has implications that that are inter-state and even international in scope because the Genesee River begins in northern Pennsylvania, flows northward all across western New York State before reaching its mouth in Rochester, and is one of the largest rivers feeding into Lake Ontario. The project merits support from organizations concerned with environmental protection, health, education, recreation, economic revitalization, flood control, and improvement of water quality in the Genesee River and Lake Ontario.

Some points of information and recent news:

(1) Series of articles and videos on the Genesee River:

The Genesee River Wilds Project website now includes a link to the recent series of videos, articles, and photographs on the Genesee River done by the major Rochester newspaper (Steve Orr, Max Schulte, and Jeff Blackwell, "Rediscovering the Rambling River," Rochester Democrat and Chronicle); see www.geneseeriverwilds.org. This excellent series covers the entire river watershed from its sources in Potter County, PA, to the riverside park system in Rochester, NY. Be sure to click around enough to read all the articles and watch all the videos to benefit from its full value. For those unfamiliar with the Genesee River, this is a painless but informative introduction to many of the environmental and economic issues related to the river system as a whole.

(2) On the attached documents created for US House Representative Eric Massa (NY 29th District, which includes much of the Genesee River):

In early March, a member of the Genesee River Wilds Project committees met with Congressman Eric Massa and his environmental specialist Nathan Sermonis in Congressman Massa's office in Washington, D.C. This was followed a few weeks later by a fuller meeting between five members of the project committees and Congressman Massa in his office just outside of Rochester in Pittsford, NY. Massa requested that we compile a series of documents that could be forwarded to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and to Governor David Patterson. The most important of these documents are in the attachments (a briefing paper; a budget summary; the Program Guide). The new Program Guide effectively replaces the project's older Comprehensive Program document that was created when the project first began a year ago. The most important additions are the provisional budget, maps, and other technical information.

The new Program Guide and other attached materials should be useful for your own federal congressional representatives, state officials, agency directors, and leaders of non-profit organizations. Although the Program Guide was written for use by officials from New York, it has been designed to address the needs of both the New York side and the Pennsylvania side of the Genesee River so that it can be used in both states and in the context of the inter-state discussions at the federal level in Congress. The budget provided in the Program Guide is merely a provisional one and represents an inflation-adjusted estimate for a multi-year program.

(3) Other developments on the NY side since the project began last year:

Although some of recipients of this note may have been involved with discussions about the Genesee River Wilds Project and patiently supplied information and feedback as early as April of 2008, in the last few weeks the Genesee River Wilds Project has celebrated what may arguably be identified as its first anniversary. The formation of our current committees emerged from large meetings in Belmont, NY, on August 11-13, 2008, with key officials from various New York State agencies, county and municipal legislators from Allegany County, NY, and representatives of various non-profit groups. I am especially grateful to individuals from state agencies who took time from busy schedules to come to that first meeting a year ago, including Russell Biss, New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) Region 9; Scott Cornett, NYSDEC Region 9; Michael Miecznikowski, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (NYSOPRHP) Allegany Region; and Ray Goll, NYSOPRHP Genesee Region. Since that time Don Sweezy and others at the New York State Dept. of Transportation (NYSDOT) Region 6 office in Hornell have been quite supportive. A couple officials from this office graciously made time for a meeting with us in January on short notice. I am especially grateful for the continued work of my colleagues on the project committees in New York, including Bill Hart (president of the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce when the project started, more recently squeezing in time to chair the chamber's project committee while still trying to keep up his jewelry business); Gretchen Gary (Executive Director, Allegany County Soil and Water Conservation District); Eric Grace (Executive Director, Genesee Valley Conservancy). John Foels (Director of Development, Allegany County), continues his support, with the more recent addition last fall of Sherry Grugel (Executive Director, Allegany County Chamber of Commerce, and Tourism Director for Allegany County). The Allegany County legislators have encouraged the project because it provides an avenue for implementing the county's comprehensive plan. Officials far downstream in Rochester recognize that cleaning up the Genesee River in their city requires cleaning up the river in the rural areas upstream, so they have been very supportive of our efforts to develop a coalition that will address the river system as a whole. Here special thanks goes to Charles Knauf, Environmental Health Project Analyst of the Monroe County (NY) Health Department in Rochester and Paul Sawyko of the Rochester area Water Education Collaborative. Other collaborative relationships have been developed with the Friends of the Genesee Valley Greenway and other groups. Steve Winslow and his colleagues in the Army Corps of Engineers at the Genesee River's Mt. Morris Dam kindly hosted a meeting last spring and in other ways have helped to foster such collaboration. Biologists from colleges and universities have been supportive from the very beginning and one of them helped his institution host one of our meetings with local landowners last January. The Genesee River Wilds Project held a canoe-kayak trip on the Genesee River in May that went well, despite multiple dunkings and the devastation wreaked on one of the canoes.

This only gives a snapshot of the new interest in the long-neglected upper Genesee River that is beginning to grow on the New York State side. I cannot say enough good about my colleagues on the project committees in New York. Despite the meager financial, technical, and human resources available to them, they continue to hold up under the growing burden of the work on the ground.

(4) Need for technical assistance and other forms of support from better-equipped outside organizations and agencies:

One of the reasons why the upper Genesee River has been neglected for so many decades is that it passes through sparsely populated rural communities that rank among the lowest in per capita income among all of the counties in NY and PA (Allegany County has long been at or near the very bottom in NY). This imposes limits of personnel, finances from public and private donors, technical resources, and political clout when pursuing funds from federal and state agencies. Thus I would appreciate any recipients of this note who are involved with non-profit organizations and with various federal, state, regional, or municipal agencies to consider how they can help to secure grants, donations, and volunteer support for conservation and recreational development along the upper Genesee River as articulated by the Genesee River Wilds Project. Those with expertise, resources, or access to channels better equipped than what we have available in the small fledgling committees associated with the Genesee River Wilds Project are strongly encouraged to contact my colleagues on the New York side of the project. The internet has made it easy for anyone outside the immediate area to help quite independently, such as by consulting county property tax rolls to compile a list of landowners along the river who, with significant financial incentives, could be recruited for conservation efforts along the river. But my colleagues on the project committees in New York have the advantage of being personally acquainted with local landowners, farmers, county officials, and municipal leaders sympathetic to the project (and despite my present distance, I have some contacts with others with whom they are less familiar). They also know many specific targeted locations to which funds from outside organizations could be allocated. Unfortunately, this advantage does not compensate for their need for help from the specialists and richer resources available in larger agencies, major non-profit organizations, potential partners among the officials of distant urban municipalities downstream, and other groups outside the small rural communities around the upper Genesee River.

The Genesee River Wilds Project is a great opportunity for anyone who has long wished to rectify the years of relative neglect of the distant upper sections of the Genesee River and thereby improve the lower Genesee River, the urban riverside landscape of Rochester, and the water quality of Lake Ontario. Organizations such as Trout Unlimited have played key roles in various smaller projects along the upper Genesee River for a number of years. But for the first time, the upper Genesee River has a small group of local people with enough courage and vision to take up the challenge of improving the river and the nearby areas on the much more massive scale that these resources truly deserve. But this small group needs help from outside.

I urge recipients of this note to contact them to foster the kind of collaboration needed to grapple with a project with such a massive scope. Their contact information and that of others less formally involved is listed on the project website and in the attached Program Guide.

(5) Federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (including attached "Interagency Funding Guide"):

For some specific examples of possible funding for the Genesee River Wilds Project, one may consult the project website, which includes a "links" page with a long list of organizations that supply grants that might be relevant to the project. Once again, it would be helpful for an outside agency and other groups with more expertise and human resources than available in our own small group to collaborate with my colleagues in New York to help them secure some of these grants. The most exciting new source for grants is the Federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which is still so new that some readers of this note may not have had time to consider how important this is for the Genesee River. Probably some of readers or representatives of their organization were at the Federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative meeting in Rochester on July 29. As a representative of the Genesee River Wilds Project, I was very grateful for the opportunity to meet some individuals at this meeting face-to-face after many months of conversations with them via e-mail.

Recipients of this note who are not aware of this new federal program (proposed $475 million) should see http://www.epa.gov/glnpo .The EPA officials at the July meeting correctly noted that this is a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something for the Great Lakes, so they and everyone at the meeting repeatedly stated how grateful they were for this new program and the work of the EPA officials in formulating new policies for administering it. Perhaps one of the best features of this new federal initiative is that it rectifies one of the great flaws with the current Great Lakes Legacy Act, which is that it only allows funding to be directed to the targeted "Areas of Concern" along the lakes themselves. This prevented the Great Lakes Legacy Act from addressing problems that are systemic in nature. For example, about 29% of the impairment of the Genesee River is due to agricultural nutrients, many of which are deposited in Lake Ontario and contribute to the lake's problems with eutrophication. In contrast, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative offers a litany of funding opportunities that directly address the needs of the upper Genesee River. EPA officials at the meeting in Rochester affirmed that (a) grants are available for the upper reaches of river systems feeding into Lake Ontario as long as applications can be articulated in terms of the benefits to Lake Ontario; (b) many of these grants do not require matching funds; (c) these grants emphasize wildlife habitat, fishery restoration, land preservation, agricultural nutrient reduction, and other concerns not normally targeted in infrastructure projects; (d) some of these grants can be used for purchase of lands that accomplish suc h goals. This offers an exciting and unprecedented opportunity for correcting the years of neglect of the upper Genesee River, which has been counterproductive conservation efforts directed at the lower Genesee River and Lake Ontario.

Grants from the EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative that might be relevant to the area of the upper Genesee River targeted by the Genesee River Wilds Project are listed in the "Interagency Funding Guide" (dated August 12, 2009), which is in the attachments and in the box labeled "Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Activities" at http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/glri . This guide reveals an abundance of research grants that might attract collaborative efforts from biologists and other specialists with expertise potentially related to the Genesee River and its systemic relationship to Lake Ontario. There are also a number of new grants that could potentially be used to support projects directed at the sections of the Genesee River targeted by the Genesee River Wilds Project. For example, from the "Interagency Funding Guide" one could cite (especially ones with an asterisk [*]): Page 2, Coordinated Implementation on Remedial Action Program; Page 3, Pollution Prevention and Toxics Reduction in the Great Lakes; Page 3, Toxicant TMDL Development; Page 6, Development of Ecosystem Services; Page 6, Emergency Watershed Protection Program *(especially appropriate for upper Genesee River); Page 6, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, non-point source pollution; Page 6, Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program; Page 6, Great Lakes Basin Program for Soil Erosion and Sediment Control; Page 7, Watersheds Best Management Practices; Page 8, Great Lakes Habitat Restoration Program; Page 9, Great Lakes Basin Candidate Fish Habitat Partnership *(especially appropriate for upper Genesee River because it emphasizes restoring "tributary" fish habitat and removing related impediments, no match required); Page 9, Great Lakes Basin Endangered Species Recovery *(despite improvement in status of bald eagle, this still might be relevant to the identifiable bald eagles' nest north of Belmont and related habitat at other points along upper Genesee River); Page 9, Great Lakes Watershed Habitat and Species Restoration Initiative *(especially appropriate for the upper Genesee River because it explicitly addresses "stream banks," includes "brook trout," and is relevant to other species in this area, such as the bald eagles that make their home along Genesee River); Page 10, North American Wetlands Conservation Act; Page 10, Ecosystem Approach to Infrastructure and Restoration Work *(ideally suited for Genesee River Wilds Project's interest in developing nature parks with boating access points at bridges because it emphasizes eco-system approach to transportation infrastructure); Page 10, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, habitat and wildlife protection and restoration *(especially appropriate for upper Genesee River); Page 11, Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program *(especially appropriate for upper Genesee River). Other potentially relevant items include Page 1, Toxic Substances in Brownfield Sites (e.g., Sinclair Oil Refinery in Wellsville, NY); Page 11, Sustain Our Great Lakes.

This new federal funding source offers a unique opportunity to clean up Lake Ontario by developing a strategy for the entire Genesee River as a whole. This would include the need to address the long-neglected upper Genesee River, not just the areas around its mouth that have received so much more attention in the Great Lakes Legacy Act and in other conservation efforts. But this will not be accomplished if securing funds depends on the limited staffing, technical expertise, and political clout available to my colleagues in the sparsely populated hillsides and small rural villages along the upper Genesee River. The Genesee River Wilds Project needs the expertise, technical skills, and resources of better-equipped outside agencies and large non-profit organizations proactively brought to bear by leaders in these groups who can see how protecting the upper Genesee River fits into the bigger conservation picture. Recent news suggests that New York is indeed thinking more collaboratively and comprehensively, but I urge that these discussions include a much bolder effort to improve the upper Genesee River than in previous generations.

(6) Developments on the Pennsylvania side:

Given that only about ten miles of any given one of the source streams of the Genesee River are in Pennsylvania, it is somewhat ironic that in some ways PA has been more proactive in adopting many of the goals of the Genesee River Wilds Project. Partly this is because PA takes a much more centralized approach to conservation that is less dependent on local initiative. Thus already in the spring of 2008, discussions of the project had been shuttled from regional officers in the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (PA DCNR) to its Harrisburg headquarters. This allowed plans for the inter-state multi-use trail that is part of the Genesee River Wilds Project to be incorporated into PA's statewide-plan for developing recreational greenway trails in all 67 counties in the state. Planning commission officials in Williamsport, PA, and its county (Lycoming County) also expressed support for the Genesee River Wilds Project at an early stage because the plans for a multi-use inter-state trail system would result in an economically productive trail reaching from Rochester, NY, to Williamsport, PA. But support for the Genesee River Wilds Project in PA is not limited to the state or broader regional level. State conservation agency officials in PA were able to recruit local support in rural communities because conservation projects in PA are consistently and seamlessly combined with development of recreational infrastructure and other features that aggressively promote tourism and economic development in such communities. This is admittedly easier to do in PA than in NY because the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (PA DCNR) strategically combines in one agency the missions of conservation and recreation, which New York State relegates to two separate agencies (NYSDEC and NYSOPRHP). Thus eager support for connecting the Pine Creek Trail system in PA to the Genesee River Wilds Project trail system and related trails in NY quickly emerged among some of the community leaders in rural Potter County, PA, which nurtures the sources of the Genesee River. Individuals in this county needed little convincing about the economic potential of the Genesee River Wilds Project because over the last few decades they have witnessed the stunning success of the nearby Pine Creek Trail in dramatically transforming the economy of neighboring rural counties in PA (most notably PA's Tioga County, where the advantages of combining conservation and recreation are visibly demonstrated by the burgeoning economy of the small town of Wellsboro). As a result, one of my colleagues in NY (Sherry Grugel) was invited to a Pine Creek Watershed planning session in Potter County, PA, and benefitted from the suggestions of friends in PA who are interested in the Genesee River Wilds Project. Developments in PA have reached a stage in which I am confident that the project's goals for the PA side will be completed, even if the current problems with the state budget slow progress down a bit.

(7) One final note on why development of recreational infrastructure is just important to the Genesee River Wilds Project as conservation:

As already mentioned and as is clear from our budget, the Genesee River Wilds Project emphasizes the development of recreational infrastructure that can be used for promotion of tourism. This strategy for recruiting local allies for river conservation in rural communities emerged from direct negotiations with local people in these communities. Emphasis on recreational business development and tourism associated with the project's proposed forested conservation buffer along the Genesee River helped us to alleviate local concerns that creating this buffer might result in loss of revenues from property taxes and agriculture. Even many of the farmers who own land along the Genesee River have joined in supporting us because of their own families' needs for more economic opportunities. These developments in NY and the greater speed with which the project's goals have been adopted in PA illustrate why we continue to insist on our rather pragmatic approach to conservation. More idealistic approaches emphasizing "pure" conservation without accompanying recreational development of protected lands are ultimately counterproductive because they do not recruit as many local allies in the rural communities that guard most of our country's natural resources.

I trust that the information in this note and its attachments is helpful. Some of recipients of this note have expressed support for the Genesee River Wilds Project, but any who would like to have their names and organizational contact information listed on the "Contacts" page of our website should let me know. This will make collaboration easier.

All the best in your own work in protecting the Genesee River and Lake Ontario.

Allen Kerkeslager, Ph.D.

Saint Joseph's University

Philadelphia

akerkesl@sju.edu

Preferred paper mailing address (home address):

833 Fairfax Road

Drexel Hill, PA 19026

Office: 610-660-1121

Railroad bridge could become trail walkway

2009-11-14T08:51:00.000-08:00

November 14, 2009

Railroad bridge could become trail walkway

Brian Sharp
Staff writer

From 200 feet above the Genesee River gorge, the abandoned railroad bridge offers spectacular views and some uncertain footing.

The 700-foot span, just north of Smith Street, came to the city as part of a $1 million-plus land deal in 2005. he land, nearly 20 acres of abandoned rail line, stretches from Charlotte to High Falls, and a significant portion will be converted to a recreational trail next year. The 130-year-old bridge was something of an extra — and also an unknown.

If it turns out to be the "workhorse" city officials hope, however, then it could be a stunning addition to the city trail system one day, on par with the Pont du Rennes pedestrian bridge at High Falls.

"You are pretty high up. It's a scary situation," said Tom Hack, senior structural engineer for the city. "(But) it does have a bit of coolness to it — it really does."

Work began this week inspecting the bridge, a $135,000 project with the city paying engineers from Bergmann Associates, aided by Skala Inc. technicians, to go over the side of the bridge on ropes, to climb and check the support structure. The on-site work will continue into next week, with a feasibility study — outlining options from demolition to rehabilitation — due to the city by mid-2010.

"It's really a process of discovery for us," said Mike Cooper, project manager with Bergmann. "We really don't have a lot of background information."

Much of what is known about the bridge came from railroad history buffs on the Internet. The bridge last was used in the mid-1980s and decommissioned in the mid-1990s. Inspectors have found reinforcement steel, and some problems with the stone masonry of the east abutment. Up top, the steel rails have been removed, allowing some of the ties to warp and shift, "which is an uneasy feeling" when crossing on foot, Cooper said.

This is one of two unused railroad river bridges the city hopes to reuse. The other is south of Ford Street and links the Plymouth-Exchange neighborhood to the University of Rochester campus.

"There's certainly a number out there that are probably still lying around, unused," said Cooper, whose firm just completed work last month on the former Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge over the Hudson River.

Early indications are that Rochester's bridge is sound, Cooper said.

Once the city knows the stability of the bridge, how much weight it will support, and other fundamentals, officials would need to decide whether to move ahead and seek funding. Factoring in planning and design, the project likely remains at least three or four years off, and could cost as much as $2 million or $3 million, Hack said.

The bridge would be another link in the Genesee Riverway Trail, and connect into the planned El Camino-Butterhole-Seneca Park Trail. Construction on the El Camino trail should begin next summer, running along the old rail line between Seneca Park and St. Paul Street, and crossing Ridge Road West on another old railroad bridge.

That work is being paid for with a $2 million federal grant and $150,000 from Eastman Kodak Co. Also next year, the city should receive $70,000 in state money to design a Genesee Riverway Trail connection on the west side of the river from Smith Street to Brown and Mill streets in High Falls. The city will spend $20,000 on a temporary trail connection next year.

All this fits into a larger $1 million connection running all the way from Lower Falls to downtown on the west side of the river. Separately, the city plans to put up signs next year for on-street trail routes downtown.

"Now, we don't think that is perfect, but at least it will connect up from Court Street to the Riverway Trail at St. Paul," said JoAnn Beck, the city's senior landscape architect.

There also are plans for the city to develop a bicycle master plan, mapping connections to neighborhoods.

BDSHARP@DemocratandChronicle.com

NYSDOT rumble strip proposal. Use extreme caution!

2009-11-14T07:27:00.000-08:00

The New York State department of transportation is proposing a policy that could doom one or our region's most promising growth opportunities: bicycling for recreation, transportation, and tourism.

NYSDOT Proposing Widespread Use of Rumble Strips on Secondary Highways, Posing New Hazards to Bicyclists

Contact NYSDOT and Your Legislators—Urge NYSDOT Not to Jeopardize the Safety of Its Roadway Users!

CURRENT NYSDOT POLICY: Do not install rumble strips on secondary roads except in rare instances

PROPOSED NYSDOT POLICY: Installation of rumble strips will be the preferred practice in the design of all secondary roads with a few exceptions
Rumble strips are a well-documented hazard to bicyclists. Accepted practice nationwide dictates that rumble strips be used only sparingly on roads permitting cycling

NYSDOT is proposing an Engineering Instruction (EI), titled “Secondary Highway Audible Roadway Delineators – Guidance and Policy,” which is at variance with the practices recommended by the Federal Highway Administration, The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and other standards setting agencies. Such national agencies generally recommend if rumble strips to be used on two-lane roads if there is a documented run-off-the road accident problem—and then, used only as a last resort due to the hazards they may create for other roadway users, including bicyclists.
Contact NYSDOT and your legislators to urge NYSDOT to not issue the proposed policy. Ask them to work with groups, such as the New York Bicycling Coalition, organizers of bicycling tours and events, and local cycling clubs to construct a less hostile policy that better balances the needs of motorist and bicyclist safety.

BACKGROUND: Rumble strips, as illustrated, are audible roadway delineators or indentations in the shoulder pavement that make sound when a car runs over them at high speeds. While an important safety tool used to prevent run-offs on high-speed Interstates and other limited access highways, they are a well-documented hazard to individuals on bicycles and should be used only sparingly on roads permitting cycling. NYSDOT is proposing to replace current stated policy -- not have rumble strips on secondary roads except in rare instances -- with a new one declaring "installation of shoulder rumble strips to be the preferred practice in the design of all secondary highways" with a few exceptions.
In short, the proposal would have NYSDOT install rumble strips (with certain exceptions) on secondary roadways throughout New York State, compromising bicyclists’ safety and the quality of riding surfaces on thousands of miles otherwise scenic roadways. National practice is to have rumble strips nowhere with some exceptions on secondary roadways. By taking the opposite tack, NYSDOT's policy promiscuously promotes rumble strips, going far beyond what is seen as efficient deployment. Aside from the policy's cost implications, it is unwise. It means rumble strips in urban areas, creating or adding to the din. It means rumble strips on roads with speeds too low to generate sound. Rumble strips also mean higher maintenance costs for the taxpayer. And, of course, they pose a danger to cyclists by causing spills, erratic avoidance maneuvers, or causing them to avoid the shoulder and ride mingled in automobile traffic.

A check of other states with such secondary highway policies shows they require an accident analysis be done before such rumble strip use; the proposed NYSDOT policy does not. Other states specify where rumble strips are used, have at least 5 feet of paved shoulder between them and any guardrail; the proposed NYSDOT policy does not. Other states say not to even consider rumble strips unless there are high speeds and high traffic volumes: while the proposed NYSDOT policy does have speed and volume thresholds, they are considerably lower than those of any other state. There are dozens of other such examples in this EI where the proposed policy varies from generally accepted practice.

Action Alert from NYBC (Continued)

Contact NYSDOT and your legislators to urge NYSDOT to not issue the proposed policy TODAY. Call, write, or email (or utilize all 3 methods of communication) your Assembly Member, State Senator and the Commissioner of Transportation.
WHO REPRESENTS ME?
Prefer to mail?

Simply send a postcard (28¢ each at your nearest US Post Office) to your legislators and the Commissioner. For an investment of 84¢, you have the ability to improve bicycling throughout New York State, including in your village, town or city. Or, if easier, just stuff a copy of this notice in an envelope (adding personal comments if you wish) and mail (44¢ postage) it off to the Commissioner and elected representatives..

WHO REPRESENTS ME?

Who's my Assemblyperson?
Click here to search by Zip Code http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/

Who's my NYS Senator?
Click here to search by Zip Code http://www.nysenate.gov/senators

At the above sites, clicking on the highlighted names will bring you directly to the legislator’s official website where you may make comments.

How to contact NYSDOT:
Website: Click here to email NYSDOT https://www.nysdot.gov/about-nysdot/contact

Or write: Commissioner Stanley Gee
NYS Department of Transportation
50 Wolf Rd.
Albany, NY 12232

About the New York Bicycling Coalition

The New York Bicycling Coalition is dedicated to preserving New York State’s wide and smoothly paved shoulder network as an important asset for use by the State’s residents (bicyclists and pedestrians) as well as visiting cyclists. Since 1992, the New York Bicycling Coalition (NYBC) has served as the only statewide, not-for-profit organization of its kind advocating various “Share the Road” education and safety initiatives on behalf of both cyclists and motorists, while working to assure highway, street, and transit facilities are amenable to bicyclists and pedestrians. Support Our Efforts to Increase Bicycling and Pedestrian Safety and Access Today by joining online: http://www.nybc.net/donate

Panorama by Patterson

2009-11-12T16:23:00.001-08:00

Panorama by Patterson

Posted using ShareThis

Rochester Bicycle Ecology and Opportunity

2009-11-11T15:50:00.000-08:00

Here's the movie we prepared for the Oct 24 GreenRide and Bike Summit.

The sound is rough, there's too much of my talking head, but it seems to tell a story worth telling.

Widescreen larger than life viewings available on demand (pretty much) at RIT's Center for Student Innovation.

Andrew Dollard and the RCA address City council

2009-11-11T15:39:00.000-08:00

Andrew Dollard writes,

Greeting fellow pedallers,

Here's an update on recent goings-on with the Rochester Cycling Alliance:

Last night (Monday) the RCA made its public debut at a meeting of the Rochester City Council, where Chris, Jon, and I (Andy) all spoke in support of better facilities for cycling. We also spoke with Alinda Drury, the coordinator of Mayor Duffy's Green Team, who will be an important ally. Also - there appears to be a fair amount of interest in my remarks at the meeting, so I've attached them to this email. [And I append them below--Jon]

In addition, we've learned that the City of Rochester is developing a Bicycle Master Plan to be completed by February 2011. The City has issued a request for proposals from planning and engineering firms, and will begin the process of evaluating the proposals at the end of this month. Along the way there will be many opportunities for public input. It will be a great way to have cyclists' voices heard in the city planning process, and the RCA will be there. More information is available on the city's website at http://ci.rochester.ny.us/article.aspx?id=8589940474

Good evening. My name is Andrew Dollard. Im a resident of the City of Rochester and Im here tonight as a member of the Rochester Cycling Alliance, which Chris spoke about earlier.

We started the RCA because were passionate about cycling and we believe that bicycles are the ideal form of urban transportation. We see in cycling an alternative to noisy, congested roadways and polluted air, to urban sprawl and dependence on oil. Riding a bike is beneficial to the body and the spirit, and it allows a person to experience the city in a way thats not possible in a car.

But when we ride through Rochester, we see a lot of unmet potential in our cycling infrastructure. Rochester is blessed with many things which could create a great cycling city: natural corridors along the Erie Canal and the Genesee River; an energetic, talented pool of young people at our colleges and universities; and an active community of cycling organizations and businesses.
But not all of the pieces are in place. Our river trails are disconnected and in parts not suitable for cycling. Theres currently no adequate cycling route from RIT and the U of R to the downtown area. Theres a lack of bicycle lanes and bicycle parking facilities in the city. And as far as we can tell, the cycling community is under-represented in the city planning process.
We see opportunity here. Bicycle infrastructure is far less expensive than automobile infrastructure, and far more rewarding in terms of public health and quality of living. Moreover, cycling is an opportunity to help create a real renaissance in our community.
Every year thousands of students come to Rochester to attend our educational institutions, but most will leave when their studies are done. Building a truly bike-friendly city will make Rochester an even more attractive place for people to start their families and their careers.

Weve spent millions of dollars over the years on projects to revitalize this city the High Falls district, the fast ferry, Renaissance Square and theyve gotten us nowhere. But with cycling we have a chance to reimagine city living and remind people of the innovation and energy that Rochester has. And we dont have to break the bank to do it.

Weve already begun to reach out to the citys engineering department to work with them on the development of a bicycle master plan and the improvement of our cycling infrastructure. Were here tonight to encourage the city council to continue to support these efforts and to consider the potential of a bicycle-friendly policy to help revitalize and reenergize the city of Rochester.
Many of the pieces are already in place; all thats needed is action in a few key areas. It wont cost much, and the potential dividends are enormous.

Thank you for your time.

A Wonderful Day to Save the World

2009-11-09T22:31:00.000-08:00

Great report in the RIT Reporter by RIT student and

CSI Innovation Fellow Michael Conti!

10.30.2009 » News

Published October 29, 2009

A Wonderful Day to Save the World	2 1
Students and community leaders participate in 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action.
by Michael Conti


Steve Pfost

Over 60 cyclists rode the distance from the downtown library to the Innovation Center at RIT on Saturday, October 24. Students and local community members rallied by the cry of “Climate Change Action Now!” Punctuating the day’s events was a Bicycling Summit, proposing a series of changes that could radically expand alternative transportation in the community. It was a day of worldwide protest brought to Rochester by concerned efforts at RIT. Thousands of people from over 175 countries participated in coinciding events, as part of Bill McKibben (writer of “Deep Economy”) and 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action.

But what did this flurry of activity accomplish? According to scientific researchers and world leaders, our atmospheric concentration of CO² is already at 390 parts per million and climbing; a critical amount that is causing the polar ice caps to melt at an alarming rate and changing global weather patterns. The earth is heating up, and it will take more than a few rag tag protestors to fix things, right?

Not so fast. The day’s activities had a distinctly different tone. Instead of lonely cries by environmentalists and empty promises by leaders, both administration and student activists stood side by side on this issue. Not only did RIT President William Destler and his wife Rebecca Johnson bike the 14-mile round trip, but a contingent of cycling enthusiasts from Rochester Community Bikes, Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua and the Rochester area also joined the RIT group. Environmentalists’ positions are now transforming from the fringe to center stage as more political leaders endorse the need to do something about the impending droughts, rising sea levels and mass extinctions promised by global warming.


Steve Pfost

The bicycle trip began slowly, with a group of 20 departing from the Sentinel amid gloomy skies. The 40 or so who met the group at the Public Library gave the event some fresh legs, and their return home was a good-natured afternoon excursion. As the afternoon light shone through the golden and orange autumn leaves, the large group began to diverge into smaller packs mixed with students and older participants. “Having the wind in your hair, the sun at your back, that motorcycle stereotype… well, it’s all true,” said Nathan Schiffer, a fifth year Computer Science major. The event was intended to get more people out of their cars, which he said, “isolates people.” Biking is an activity that directly involves the rider with the environment. This simple action also brought together a large community of interests at the Innovation Center.

A community of concerned students is what many people who have gravitated to the Innovation Center are looking to form. Kyle Shay, a fourth year Computer Science and Environmental Studies major, joined his classmates and teachers in the morning, planting trees in the wetlands near the RIT Observatory to offset carbon emissions. “If people see us planting trees and riding bikes today, maybe they’ll look at the news or online and see the over 4,000 events that are happening around the world. Maybe they’ll see that action needs to be taken immediately,” said Shay. The group intends to grow 350 trees and have planted 100 this fall.

According to Christy Tyler, a professor of Environmental Science, “We need to increase the amount of trees we plant, but that isn’t enough to offset all of the extra carbon dioxide. We need to produce less to begin with.” Tyler estimates that 350 fully-grown trees of this type will offset the same amount of carbon produced by three cars in one year. This kind of change, though symbolic, is certainly slow to set in.

“These kind of movements take time,” said Elisabetta D’Amanda, an Italian professor in RIT’s foreign language department. As a participant in the “slow foods” movement, which was born out of Italian counter-culture, D’Amanda has been pushing for more environmentally conscious changes to RIT’s Dining Services. Slow foods (a play on fast food) are those that are locally harvested, healthy and sustainably grown. Her contribution to the event was a $3.50 meal of rice and lentils, served to a tired and eager assembly of bikers. D’Amanda stated, “I would like to start a slow food movement on campus … but this kind of thing needs to be student organized. If the students don’t push for it, it won’t happen.”


Steve Pfost

Products of passionate student-professor collaborations are the proposals of RIT professor Jon Schull at RIT’s first-ever Bicycling Summit. The Rochester Greenway was subject of much discussion at the Innovation Center. Approximately 5 miles of pathway already exist in a straight line between the Lehigh Valley Trail and the center of downtown; Schull’s idea is to create an all-weather covered road that would link the paths. This would provide year-round access to a much used conduit in the community. Garnering attention from numerous public officials, the Greenway is now being examined by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority as part of a feasibility study.

The need to bring people of all ages out of their cars and into the environment is actively expressed now more than ever. As the grassroots movement builds, teachers are looking towards student leaders to transform their Rochester home into a local model of sustainability that can be adapted and applied to cities and neighborhoods across the country.

To learn more about the Rochester Greenway and other sustainable projects at RIT, visit the Innovation Center on Thursdays at 12 p.m. or go to
http://rochestergreenway.org.

The last few days

2009-11-09T21:17:00.000-08:00

Sunday afternoon I joined John Curran's walking tour of the area between Brooks Landing and the Ford Street Bridge. There's more to it than I knew!

A beautiful day and new acquaintances, in addition to seeing and learning about

the 107 mile Genessee Valley Canal (which terminated right in Rochester),
Camp Fitz-John Porter
the Vacuum Oil factory (oil drums piled five stories high and a football field wide!)
the abolitionist / underground railroad connection
the parallel paths that makes this my preferred riverway route for the Greenway
Mr. Curran himself, who I look forward to working with in the future

Then, on Sunday evening I met some of our Rochester Cycling Allies for the first time (http://RochesterCyclingAlliance.blogspot.com). A passionate and convivial group! I learned

that there is a budget proposal cooking that would allocate $25K for bicycle improvements this year, and 10 times that much next year
that the group was going to visit this evening's City Council meeting to express support (see below)
that we have common interests and much to learn from each other
that my colleague Jason Hammell saw how bike advocacy took hold in Albany
that there are still more bike stakeholder/advocates to make contact with

So this evening I joined the group at City Hall.

Chris Machanoff made some good short remarks and then ceded a few minutes to me.
I pointed out that Rochester was "this close" to becoming a world capital of bicycling.
And then Andrew hit it out of the park.
And then, afterwards, Alinda Drury ( Sr. Staff Assistant, Office of the Mayor, and coordinator of the Mayor's Green Team) introduced herself and told us about several more initiatives including a triathlon to be organized by Yellow Jacket. She also offered to convey my letter to the Mayor.
And the crew and I went to Dinosaur barbecue.

Productive, interesting, fun, inspirational, and promising.

Lost Values LFLECT

2009-11-05T20:06:00.000-08:00

Lost Values LFLECT

PLEX Walking Tour of Brooks Landing to Ford Street Runabout. Sunday!

2009-11-03T07:54:00.000-08:00

"PLEX (Plymouth-Exchange Neighborhood Association) will be holding four successive walking tours on Sundays in November to build awareness of the historical attributes along the west riverbank from Brooks Landing to the Ford Street roundabout (flyer attached).

Gather at Boulder Coffee at noon and then depart at 12:15 pm sharp."

The first tour lasted approximately 2 hours. I'm in!

Erie-Lackawanna Railroad Bridge

2009-11-03T07:00:00.001-08:00

The Erie-Lackawanna Bridge is going to be refurbished for bicycle and pedestrian traffic!

This is very big news, especially since the Southwest Common Council has already embraced the notion that a year round RochesterGreenway should go up the west side of the River (and re-invigorate a part of town much in need of it).

Erie-Lackawanna Railroad Bridge

via Rochester Cycling Alliance by Rochester Cycling Alliance on 10/19/09

David Skinner, a friend of mine who has urged the city and the University of Rochester to open the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad Bridge to foot and bicycle traffic, passed along some good news on Friday. Tom Hack, a Project Engineer with the city, wrote to him:

"I have good news about the ELRR Bridge "Rails to Trails" Project. We have secured $1.2M from a 50-50 matching State Program. The State kicks in $600,000 and the City matches this with $600,000. We just received the agreement from the State, have signed it and it's back on the Governor's desk. The good thing with this is that it's considered "old" money and should be sheltered from recent budget cuts. Our schedule at this point, barring anything crazy out of Albany, is as follows:

Solicit a Design Consultant................. Jan - Feb 2010
Undertake site reconnaissance and survey.....Feb -April 2010
Begin preparation of alternatives .......... April - May 2010
Host Citizens Advisory Meetings ............ May -June 2010
Layout alternatives ........................ June-July 2010
Host public meetings ....................... August 2010
Finalize concepts .......................... Sept 2010
Finalize design ............................ Sept - Jan 2010
Issue Construction Contracts ............... Jan 2011
Construction phase...........................April 2011
Open Bridge................................. Sept 2011

We've received a lot of community support along with the U of R's direct support. This has helped a lot in allowing the funds to flow and the project to move forward."

The bridge hasn't seen any railroad traffic since the 1970s. Once opened to pedestrian and cyclist traffic, it will provide another link between the East and West-side river trails. The Genesee Transportation Council has a detailed report on the project at:

http://www.gtcmpo.org/Docs/PlansStudies/ErieLackawannaRRBridgeTrailStudy.pdf

-- Gary Young

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to Rochester Cycling Alliance

“Rochester’s 350.org Coverage”

2009-10-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

Judging from the media response around the world, the 350.org event has been a hit: October 24 Press Release | 350.org “350.org To Stage Largest Day of Environmental Action in History | 5,242 Simultaneous Events on Climate in 181 Countries.”

“Citizens, scientists and world leaders in 181 countries will take to nearby streets, mountains, parks, and reefs today to demand strong action on climate change, in what will be the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history. 5,242 rallies and creative demonstrations will take place, all of them centered on the number 350, to draw attention to 350 parts per million (ppm), which an overwhelming number of scientists now insist is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”

However, judging from our local media response to the several 350.org events, not much happened: a Rousing Dud. (Disclaimer: Because I did not rush out and buy up all the paper versions of our local media, or frantically tune into all the TV and radio stations either, ((because they are insufferably myopic and merely pander to their corporate sponsors)), I am basing this observation on what our local media has posted on the Internet today—October 25, 2009.)

Maybe I posted this article too soon and the media just hasn’t gotten up to snuff yet on how this world-wide event played out in Rochester. Maybe, they’re all scurrying around in their backrooms, honing 350.org coverage so it will be a real sizzler when it comes out. Maybe.

But, I’m not on any of the local media’s editorial staff. So, what do I know? Maybe, getting world-wide attention focused on the planet warming up just is too far out of the comfort and profit zones of our local media. That must be the case because there are lots of sports, criminal activity, political carping, and lots of sports coverage on our local media. Really, a lot of sports. Sports are in, imminent environmental collapse is out.

Only as an observer (another disclaimer: I was a participant) did I see over sixty bicyclists ride from downtown Rochester to the RIT campus. Then, I witnessed for myself a great rally with the RIT president and his college in full support of the sea change needed on the matter of Climate Change and a full day’s programming to show that our community gets it on 350ppm. I witnessed lots of people taking photos and videos and uploading them to 350.org. To be fair, our local media wasn’t completely hopeless. I see one media with one article on one 350.org event for our area: RIT Marks International Day of Climate Action “It may not always be the right weather for a bike ride around here, but as they say wait 5 minutes and it'll change. The rain Saturday morning didn't stop a group of environmentally conscious riders from hitting the trail. The purpose: to mark the International Day of Climate Action.” (October 25, 09) http://rochester.ynn.com/

Yet, all in all it’s very troubling. One of 350.org’s purposes (the other was to get our politicians’ attention focused on the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009) was to make enough noise to make everyone take notice of the danger point we have passed for a sustainable environment. That is, to both circumvent the dysfunctional media and get in the face of a corporate-manipulated press that is disinclined to speak about the fact that the planet’s atmosphere is warming up due to humanity’s activities.

Our planet is warming up due to our way of life. This is as clear as those annoying pop-ups on every mainstream media’s web page, as clear as the ubiquitous sports scores that flash across those flat screen TV’s, and as eye-catching as the endless violence that inundates local media stories: Those charged with informing us with the information we need to live sustainable are not doing their job.

If you did attend one of the area’s 350.org events, and you still welcome a challenge, why not contact your local media and ask them why they didn’t cover Rochester’s participation in this world-wide event?

Oct 24 GreenRide and Bike Summit

2009-10-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

We did it!

New friends, new plans, news coverage....

YNN Coverage of GreenRide / BikeSummit

GreenRide BikeSummit preview on Channel 8

Photos!

Made with Slideshow Embed Tool

Click here to view Notes full screen

Oct 24 Greenway Greenride to the Rochester Bicycle Summit at RIT

2009-10-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

I'm writing to alert you to an event that should be of interest to bicyclists and environmentalists throughout the Greater Rochester area.

Saturday, October 24th will mark 350.org's International Day of Climate Action and the end of a week of climate action teach-ins at RIT. The culminating event in Rochester will be a mass bike ride along the proposed Rochester Greenway. The Rochester Greenway goes south from Downtown along the river, past the University of Rochester, through the Genessee Valley Park, and on down the Lehigh Valley North Trail to RIT. The draft GreenRide poster sketches the route.

Once at RIT, the Rochester Bike Summit will be held in the new Center for Student Innovation. Its goal: to discuss a number of exciting bicycle and alternative transportation initiatives, and to make connections between the bicycle community, city planners, and environmentalists. We might also consider the need for a "common cause" organization that could help these initiatives become realities. For more information, see the draft Rochester Bicycle Ecology Poster (attached), and look for details coming soon toRochesterGreenway.org. Your input and projects would be most welcome additions!

Among the attractions planned for the Rochester Cycle Summit

volunteer-manned stations for free bicycle maintenance
exhibits on pedal power and bicycles as energy-conservation solutions
posters and exhibits describing numerous bike initiatives
an ultra-wide screen short describing the potential for making Rochester a world class center for recreational and functional transport
free rides on electric bikes and recumbents
· your bike shop, project, or proposal!

We'd like your help shaping the event and recruiting participants. The attached materials are still evolving, but time is short. Please pass this message on to others who would be interested, and let me know, how you or your organization would like to be involved.

Jon Schull schull@digitalgoods.com cell: 585-738-6696

Associate Professor Rochester Institute of Technology

http://innovation.rit.edu

Active transportation programs eligible for $650 million available through new public health grants

2009-10-01T18:31:00.000-07:00

RTC TrailBlog » Active transportation programs eligible for $650 million available through new public health grants

Via Safe Routes to School National Partnership:

On September 17, 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a new program: Communities Putting Prevention to Work.Thirty to forty communities will receive a total of $373 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus) dollars through this competitive grant program to support interventions that reduce obesity (through improved physical activity and nutrition) and/or reduce tobacco use. Communities can apply for either focus area or both. This landmark opportunity is aimed at mobilizing community resources toward broad-based policy, systems, organizational and environmental changes. The application places an emphasis on communities demonstrating effective coalitions, and notes that special consideration should be given to the inclusion of populations disproportionately affected by chronic diseases.

On September 29, 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the release of $120 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds for prevention and wellness programs for U.S. states and territories, building on the recent announcement of the $373 million funding opportunity for communities and tribes around the country. In all, the comprehensive Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative will make $650 million available for public health efforts to address obesity, increase physical activity, improve nutrition, and decrease smoking.

Lead Applicants: Local and State Health Departments

Deadlines:

Letter of Intent Deadline: October 30, 2009
Application Deadline: December 1, 2009

...

The Opportunity for Bike/Ped and Health Officials: Communities Putting Prevention to Work provides an important opportunity for bicycle and pedestrian professionals, enthusiasts, and advocates, as well as health officials, to act quickly to get your city or state to:

Apply for the funding;
Educate the health department about the range of bike/ped interventions that can be included in their application and action plan; and
Include your organization as a partner in the effort.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has worked with our partners at America Bikes and the Safe Routes to School National Partnership to prepare a list of sample bike/ped activities that fit within the five categories of evidence-based interventions that are required as part of this CDC application. We encourage you to review these sample activities and assess which would work well in your community. Funds are available to make these projects a reality—so it is in your interest to work with your health department to develop the bike/ped aspects of the CDC application for obesity prevention, and to demonstrate how your organization can be a resource to them.

Act Now to Contact Your Health Department and City Officials: Now is the time to contact your health department and city officials to encourage them to apply, and to share your ideas on bike/ped interventions. Don’t wait – health departments are making decisions now about whether to apply, and what to propose in their grant applications.

Populations

HowStuffWorks "Working Models"

2009-09-22T04:43:00.000-07:00

The Hyanide"

When the driver turns the steering handle to the left, the front part of the tread angles to the left. Pushing back the left foot control will simultaneously turn the back segment of the tread as well, giving the Hyanide a very sharp turning radius. Meanwhile, the tread is constantly driving in the direction of the turn, so it always maintains maximum traction.

2008 HowStuffWorks
A motorcycle, an ATV and a snowmobile each have very distinct functions. But what if you could combine them in one vehicle? Enter the Hyanide.

The driver implements the hand-and-foot steering system with two handles for his hands and two special footrests that accommodate custom-made shoes. A passenger can ride directly behind the driver, just like on a motorcycle.

Innovative ideas for the wheel of life

2009-09-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

Innovative ideas for the wheel of life

Planning for October 24th. Three-Fifty Day

2009-09-17T17:31:00.000-07:00

Here's what we know.

On October 24th, RIT is going to host the 350 Climate Action Festival, a series of events related to "the most important number on earth: 350" (parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere).

One of the events will be a mass bike ride along the path of the future RochesterGreenway with bikers converging from downtown, U of R, MCC, and other places else, to arrive at the Sentinel at noon.

Another event will be a Rochester Bike Summit, in the Center for Student Innovation, at 2:00pm. The goal:

to discuss a number of emerging and potential regional initiatives that could make Rochester New York a world center of Biking and Transportation innovation,

the Rochester Greenway (of course)
the prospect that we might develop a fleet of ultralight electric vehicles to ride (along with bikes) on the Greenway
the proposed annual 6-day Tour de New York
the City's development of a Master Bicycling Plan
plans for proposed and under-construction bike paths
the possibility that the world's leading museum of bicycle history might be brought to Rochester (or, alternatively, be lost to Western New York)
the development of an online interactive bicycle map
bringing the Bicycle Film Festival to Rochester

to identify and discuss shared interests and opportunities that overlap these various initiatives and their supporters

making biking safer
interconnecting the region's extraordinary network of biking trails
making Rochester a world capital of biking and sustainable transportation innovation

How you can help. Email Jon.Schull @ RIT.edu

Let us know if you are willing to help plan and organize.
Let us know if you are planning to ride.
Get others to do the same

GreenwaytoHighFalls

2009-09-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

GreenwaytoHighFalls

There is a most excellent way to ride from the Greenway to High Falls, over the Clinton Street elevated bikeway (who knew?), to Main and South, and up to the West Side of High Falls, with some interesting urban sights along the way.

By riding on the over-wide under-used sidewalks, you are never in traffic. These over-wide under-used sidewalks could easily be turned into dedicated bike lanes, with dedicated pedestrian walkways on the other side of each street.

These photos were taken with my iphone and a great little app for making panoramas, called Stitch).

The Recumbent Blog � Blog Archive � World’s Longest Bicycle Tunnel Opens…

2009-09-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

The Recumbent Blog Blog Archive

World’s Longest Bicycle Tunnel Opens…:

WORLD’S LONGEST BICYCLE TUNNEL OPENS…

These folks take bike transportation seriously… very seriously! Seriously enough to spend $3.7 million dollars to convert a railway tunnel for cyclists, add security cameras, install a public address system…

As Copenhagenize.com adds:

“Amazing that a city of this size is willing to invest in such remarkable bicycle projects when larger cities elsewhere have trouble painting bicycle lanes. Spain has hardly enjoyed status as a bicycle-friendly country in the past”

Details and photos at Copenhagenize.com →

Possible designs | mini-farthing

2009-09-02T19:55:00.000-07:00

Possible designs | mini-farthing

Mini-farthing highways

Suspended, covered mini-farthing highways in cities could allow people to move around quickly and independently in comfort. Much cheaper than subways and light enough to be suspended over existing roads and infrastructure. Easy to carry mini-farthing up or down stairs to get on and off. This may be a solution to the last mile for sustainable cities that want their citizens to have freedom to have freedom to move about in a safe, fast and environmentally friendly way.

Turning Point Park 157-15

2009-08-29T16:49:00.001-07:00

Turning Point Park 157-15
Originally uploaded by whittikerowens

One more picture

Turning Point Park

2009-08-29T16:45:00.001-07:00

Turning Point Park
Originally uploaded by -dangler

Does everyone know about this?

We took an extraordinary ride on an exquisite bike trail at the Northern End of the Rochester Riverway Trail (Charlotte, north of the Greenway) on the West Side of the River.

How did this gem of a trail and boardwalk come to be built? And why isn't it celebrated? It is a world-class marriage of natural beauty and low impact civil engineering.

Who did this?

More pictures
* here http://www.pbase.com/joldfield/image/79518178
* here http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=rochester%20turning%20point%20park&w=all
and still more by using the embedded google earth tour at http://RochesterGreenway.org

Behold the Bike!

2009-08-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

Few inventions have the efficiency, health benefits, affordability, urban design potential, safety features and environmental friendliness of the modern bike. It’s not your grandmother’s bicycle; it’s a revolutionary component in our future transportation portfolio. There have been bikes. There will be bikes.

Bikes started as glorified hobby horses (the walking machine), then got pedals (the velocipede or boneshaker), then rose up and sped up (the high wheel bicycle), then began settling down for speed and safety (the hard-tired safety), and now they are fast, sleek and efficient. It was a long (and sometime dangerous) haul; and, if you are quick about it, you can see the entire history of bicycles at the Pedaling History Bicycle Museum in Orchard Park, NY before it closes. (If enough visitors go, maybe it won’t close.) [http://www.pedalinghistory.com/]

Now, in many modern urban communities the bicycle is more than an old contraption made new and glorified by bike clubs and enthusiasts. Bicycles are not simply hangers-on, like horse-riding or Model T driving on Sunday. Bicycles are becoming an integral part of planned transportation systems throughout the country. Note how cities like Portland, Oregon and Boulder, Colorado are retrofitting their vehicle-dominated streets into bike boulevards (BTA: Bicycle Boulevards Campaign) where commuters and even kids off to school can get to their destinations year-round and safely.

Year-round and safely? In New York State? In the rain, the snow, heavy traffic, though the mud, across busy bridges, to grandmother’s house and still be presentable?

Become a believer. When more people bike more drivers accept them on our streets—which, of course, they have every right to be. In official studies: under 6.5 miles, the public prefers bicycling over mass transit. Bicycling produces zero greenhouse gas emissions, has relatively inexpensive repair bills, and because of the soaring cost of road and bridge maintenance our regional planners consider bicycles a serious component of our future transportation.

If we make our streets more bike accessible, protect bicyclists from fast-moving traffic, create innovative all-weather bike corridors, [http://rochestergreenway.org/]and provide convenient and comprehensive bike parking, the public will bike. Already, many cities have found a way to bicycle-friendly their streets, not because it is trendy, but because there is no faster, more efficient, environmentally and urban-friendlier way to get around than the bike. [http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/communities/]

Too expensive, too radical, too dangerous, too slow, and just too much darn trouble? As opposed to what? Billions of dollars on maintaining our existing vehicular dominated streets? An obese society that spends zillions of bucks for insurance, parking, fuel, repairs, and the vehicles’ price (the ‘Clunkers for Cash’ program is drying up)?

The real impediment to creating a Rochester, New York that moves around in massive numbers on bicycles and renews our sense of community from our too expensive isolation tanks is Attitude. Everything else is there, the technology, the know-how, and the vivid examples of bike/transportation modes across the spectrum of world cities. Behold a healthier lifestyle.

Frank J. Regan [RochesterEnvironment.com]

Montreal Exports Its Bike-Sharing Program - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

2009-08-18T17:33:00.000-07:00

Montreal Exports Its Bike-Sharing Program

AUGUST 13, 2009, 7:31 AM

Montreal Exports Its Bike-Sharing Program

By IAN AUSTEN

Ian Austen/The New York Times The bike-sharing system pioneered in Montreal will soon be used in Boston and London.

From the beginning, Montreal officials had ambitions for the new Bixi bicycle-sharing system that went beyond the borders of that Canadian city. On Wednesday, Gérald Tremblay, the Montreal’s mayor, announced that the Bixi system will be implemented in Boston and London.

It is not clear at this point if the roll-out in Boston — where local officials are mounting a push for more bike lanes as well — will be on the same scale as Montreal’s system, with hundreds of parking stations and thousands of bicycles. (An alternative model would be SmartBike D.C. in Washington, which uses a different docking technology and has only has 10 stations.)

Boston’s Metropolitan Area Planning Council confirmed that it has selected Bixi to put in place a bike-sharing program. But Amanda Linehan, a spokeswoman for the council, said that Boston and other municipalities must now negotiate contracts for the service.

In a statement, the Public Bike System Company, Montreal’s marketing operation for Bixi, indicated that the Boston system will initially offer 2,500 bikes at 290 stations in downtown Boston.

In England, Bixi’s partner, the Serco Group, said that it has a six-year contract to install 400 docking stations holding about 10,000 bicycles in central London.

Until now, the only other Bixi system was a modest, four-station demonstration project in Ottawa, which is about two hours by car from Montreal.

In selling Bixi, Montreal has emphasized that its solar-powered, WiFi-enabled docking stations are self-contained, eliminating the need for construction or utility work. The design also enables operators to remove the stations for winter, and to relocate them easily in accordance with demand.

CBSM/forums/index.lasso

2009-08-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

Fostering Sustainable Behavior

http://www.cbsm.com/forums/index.lasso?cat=Biking

Installing Bike Parking at Schools and the Impact on Student Behavior

June, 08 2009 at 10:52 AM posted by 7 comments »

We are looking for fact sheets or information to share with schools and others about the impact of bike racks that may be motivational. Such as if you install bike rack/# of bike parking spaces, you will reduce…

Category: Tools:

Looking for University Bicycle Stations
March, 19 2009 at 06:12 PM posted by Archie Phillips 1 comment »
I am seeking information on Bicycle Centers that have been designed as part of green buildings on University campuses. We would like to know: What was the impetus for the Bike Center? How was the…
Category: Tools:

Web Campaigns Promoting Bicycle Commuting
January, 21 2009 at 07:22 AM posted by jmarkelj 5 comments »
Hello everybody, I 've just started working on a web-based campaign aiming to promote cycling to work or school (instead of driving). If you are aware any good examples of such campaigns, I would be…
Category: Tools:

Bicycle Fleets - Carbon-Free Transport Options for Organisations

December, 08 2008 at 06:57 PM posted by ldalehallett 2 comments »

Dear All, I am investigating the introduction of a bicycle fleet into our organisation, as an alternative to using cars and taxis. This would offer an important opportunity for staff to actively reduce…

Category: Tools:

Ponoko Blog

2009-08-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

Ponoko Blog:

Ponoko to Distribute Making to Laser Cutters Worldwide!

July 2nd, 2009 at 7:36 am
This sounds to be an excellent project especially as this would expand your successful business model to support access to affordable 3D fabricating for many of us creatives.
Shain Says:
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:39 pm
I think this is a brilliant Idea! Makers of the world uniting. Let everyone tap into the resources once only accessible to the elite. Manufacturing for the masses.
I can’t wait!
Ponoko and the Fabrication Network Says:
July 15th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
[...] me this is pretty huge news (Fabbaloo found it for me): Ponoko is creating a fabber network. This to me is an absolute thrill.� This will monetize fabricator ownership.� This will [...]"

Rochester Bicycle Ecology

2009-08-11T22:05:00.001-07:00

I've created a conceptual map of the Rochester Bicycle Ecology in order to explore the idea that we need a Rochester Bicycle Alliance.

(You can view the map as a full-sized PDF file for full screen viewing by clicking here)

The map is loaded with hyperlinks and background on local organizations and initiatives, thus if you mouse around, you'll read things like...

"Rochester could be home to a number of potentially transformative bike-related initiatives. Even a few of them, implemented and marketed strategically, could turn the region into a world capital of cycling. Individually they are long-shots.

The Rochester Cyclng Alliance could help unify a healthy but non-organizd community and create a constituency for innovative land use, energy independence, transportation policy, healthy living, and urban renewal.

The RCA's first venture could be to bring the Bicycle Film Festival to town (and use it to build a constituency for other initiatives on this map).

I think I'm convinced. How about you?

Add comments or more information, and I'll update the map!

Bicycle Film Festival. Why not here?

2009-08-06T20:54:00.001-07:00

http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com/

Biking Rochester

2009-08-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

Let the Huffington Post know about biking in Rochester. If the RochesterGreenway were a reality, I think we'd be number one in this poll. Check it out.

-The Top 10 U.S. Cities For Biking Americans overwhelmingly continue to drive alone to work. With more than nine out of 10 workers favoring driving. But these 10 cities are definitely taking the initiative to change that. Here are the top 10 U.S. cities for bicycling commuters. And remember to send us a photograph of your favorite biking city. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/05/the-top-10-us-cities-for_n_252092.html

RochesterGreenway Blog and Clipping Service

The Lehigh Valley Trail Connection

THIS WEDNESDAY: the First Greater Rochester Active Transportation Symposium

GRATS map: newest and improvedest!

Greater Rochester Active Transportation System

GRATS Brochure v1

River Meadow Crossing

Greater Rochester Active Transportation System

U.S. Bicycle Route System - FAQs - Adventure Cycling Association

Rails-To-Trails Conservancy features Urban Trails

State of the City

**Trevor Flynn Lecture at MAG: June 17, 7pm:

RochesterGreenway now on Google Maps

One more bridge to cross, on foot or bike | 520 - An Environmental Blog | Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Erie Lackawanna railroad bridge!

POSTED BY SORR • APRIL 29, 2010 • 11:14 AM

The city of Rochester is now soliciting proposals for design of a new walking-biking trail on a bridge over the Genesee River near the University of Rochester.

Lynch Woods Park in Brighton

Recent News on the PA side of the Rochester-Williamsport Greenway and the Headwaters of the Genesee River

Sustainability Mobility Fair - May 8th Free expo

Rochester-Williamsport Greenway in the Williamsport Sun Gazette

The missing link, aka the "Tweenway Spur"

Towpath Trail idea really floats

Alta Planning & Design - Bicycle, Pedestrian, Greenway & Trail Projects - Project Links & Resources - Research & Study Documents

Research & Study Documents

Documents for Download

Hale and Harmful: Are the Healthful Effects of Riding a Bike on City Streets Ruined by Inhaled Pollutants?: Scientific American

Funding Pedestrian and Bicycle Projects

Posted by: "Stephen Miller" stephen@railstotrails.org stephenmrtc

Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:10 am (PST)

An on-campus Greenway for RIT

RIT as interchange for Genesee Valley Greenway, Lehigh Valley North Trail, and, of course, RochesterGreenway

RIT could unify the Genesee Valley Greenway and the Rochester Greenway

Wegmans unveils plans for East Avenue store | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

THE STORE

FILE DOWNLOADS

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy:: Trail of the Month: Walkway Over the Hudson, New York

Greenways 101

Greenways 101

What is a Greenway?

John Curran's Vision

Actuatr | Open Your Data To Developers Instantly

DFNYC - Democracy For New York City - Toxic Natural Gas Drilling in NY State?

Historic Erie Canal Aqueduct and Broad Street Corridor Master Plan

Bicycle Commuter Superhighways in Copenhagen

Bicycle Strategy Could Change our City

Brooks development too speedy for some | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle:

City of Rochester | Highland Park-Canalway Trail Project

About the Project

Documents

Project Timeline

Questions?

'Bullet bike' keeps pace with city traffic | HeraldTribune.com | Sarasota Florida | Southwest Florida's Information Leader

Rediscovering the Rambling River

PHOTO GALLERIES

ABOUT THE PROJECT

SPECIAL REPORT

CONTACT

Fwd: Genesee River Wilds Project

Railroad bridge could become trail walkway

NYSDOT rumble strip proposal. Use extreme caution!

Panorama by Patterson

Rochester Bicycle Ecology and Opportunity

Andrew Dollard and the RCA address City council

A Wonderful Day to Save the World

The last few days

Lost Values LFLECT

PLEX Walking Tour of Brooks Landing to Ford Street Runabout. Sunday!

Erie-Lackawanna Railroad Bridge

Things you can do from here:

“Rochester’s 350.org Coverage”

Oct 24 GreenRide and Bike Summit

Photos!

Oct 24 Greenway Greenride to the Rochester Bicycle Summit at RIT

Active transportation programs eligible for $650 million available through new public health grants

HowStuffWorks "Working Models"

Innovative ideas for the wheel of life

Planning for October 24th. Three-Fifty Day

GreenwaytoHighFalls

The Recumbent Blog � Blog Archive � World’s Longest Bicycle Tunnel Opens…