From WXXI news.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made near a theater a few steps down from Fuego Coffee, facing Washington Square Park in Rochester.

A crew of around a dozen people are painting parts of the street.

Those passing by are wondering if this is just public art, a temporary installation, but it is something else entirely.

This project is part of a street safety effort, designed to get cars to slow down and make it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists and everyone else.

Here's the idea.

You can create bike lanes, but if they look like the street that the cars drive on, then cars are going to drive on and park in the bike lanes.

What if you painted the street sections that are designed for safety, for bicycles, for pedestrian crossings?

What if you gave car drivers a visual signal that they're not supposed to be on that part of the road?

These street murals come alongside street safety equipment, and with time, we're getting data on whether it's working.

The team at Reconnect Rochester has completed their busiest summer yet of street safety projects, including six installations for their complete streets, makeovers for installations for what they call downtown smart streets.

For years, they've talked about traffic deaths in a way that emphasizes how preventable most injuries and deaths are.

And we're going to talk about what our guests are doing and spending their time trying to make real change in the neighborhoods they live in.

And for listeners, yeah, we're going to be talking about some different neighborhoods and different places that maybe you travel, but this is really a story for everybody's neighborhood.

Maybe you feel like cars are too fast on your street.

Maybe you feel like it's hard for kids to play outside.

So it's really a universal conversation on safety.

And I want to welcome our guests here.

Chaz Goodman is marketing manager at Reconnect Rochester.

Chaz, thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me.

Next to Chaz, Nick Speed is a resident project champion for complete street makeovers in the 19th Ward.

Welcome.

Thanks for being here.

You across the table.

Let me welcome Lourdes Sharp, program manager at Reconnect Rochester.

Thanks for being here.

Great to be here.

And Josie McClary, resident of the city of Rochester, welcome back to the program to you.

Thank you for having me.

So you guys have been very, very busy.

And I already have a few questions from listeners who people get fired up about, you know, when there's bicycles colliding with cars whose fault and you know, who's really misbehaving.

We'll get to all of that stuff.

We're going to define terms coming up here so people know what we're talking about.

But let me just kind of go around the table and I'll start with with you, Lourdes is what is this all about here?

I mean, how did you decide this intersection is going to need a makeover?

We're going to paint here.

We're going to do a mural here.

How did you do that?

Yeah.

So we look at a number of different factors.

You know, first off being we only consider locations that are raised to us from the public.

So from other Rochester areas, in those submissions they'll often talk about what's not working at that intersection, why it feels unsafe, and especially from a, the perspective of being outside of the car.

So walking, biking, rolling around these intersections and that is intense in and of itself is data.

But once we have those locations, a list of them, we see which which is eligible.

If it's in the city of Rochester and it's made of local or at least collector roads, so no arterials, no really big roads like Main Street, it's going to be too big for a project like this.

Those are the two things that we look for in terms of eligibility.

So the road type and whether it's in the city of Rochester from there and we gather more data, such as, you know, what is the evidence of safety issues at this intersection?

Some of that is through the submission itself.

Some of that is looking at crash data with pedestrians, with cyclists, vehicle to vehicle crashes.

We we have, Stantec, which is our, you know, pro bono engineering firm that offers a lot of contributions to this project that gets a look over each of those intersections and say, oh, this one has enough space to do something, or depending on how this intersection is set up, we might not really be able to do anything at this particular location.

So within the scope of the project, that is.

So we look at a number of different factors, whether there's a school nearby, elderly housing that those sorts of things to kind of gauge whether there's a lot of foot traffic and especially from some of the most vulnerable road users.

So we have our steering committee that looks over each of those submissions.

But again, it starts with the community.

And another big factor is the community capacity to partner with us on this.

So they may be an intersection that we can do something with the based on the geometry.

You know, there are there is evidence of safety issues, but we also want to in turn in, in time, pass the ownership of this project off to the neighborhood itself.

So that partnership is pivotal to make sure that we're getting the most out of this project and that the community is seeing the benefits that they want to see once in a while, you see stories of cars actually hitting street safety infrastructure.

Some of these installations and I that's confusing to me.

It's one thing to debate whether a bike lane alone is enough for car drivers to give space.

It's another to say we've actually put safety installations and there's collisions.

But I mean, I just kind of a constant battle that reconnect is kind of engaged with in the community, getting people to see that the streets are supposed to be for more than just cars.

Is that fair?

Yes.

And honestly, you know, some of the materials that we use in particular for our projects, you know, they I will say it's better to hit that than to hit a person.

You know, it's better to have.

Yeah, yeah.

For sure.

Yes, yes.

Wild to me.

I'm going like I mean, I don't know if we're not paying attention or if, if cars just are sort of thinking they're dominating the road, I don't, I don't it's hard to relate.

But the bottom line is I understand.

And in a moment we're going to see why this project is, well, why it's designed the way it is.

You're going to see, a part of the video they've put together for some of the work they did this summer, one of them out of the neighborhood of play here.

I remember Chaz years ago on the street where my young son was playing.

One of the neighbors would stand out in the street with two hands up, screaming at cars when they came by, I mean, putting himself at risk, but basically saying, slow down and people would honk at him.

Sometimes people would flip him.

The bird, maybe friendly.

Maybe they were just saying like, number one, I think it was actually flipping the bird and, you know, so everybody I think listening can relate in some way, whether they feel like their street or their neighborhood is safe, how effective you think you can be in making change here.

Well, I think it's interesting.

There is documented evidence, there's a book called killed by a Traffic Engineer that talks about we spent 70 years prioritizing the speed of vehicles above all else.

And the traffic engineers were really told to consider a scratch on your car or a fender bender, such as hitting a flex post or a bollard.

And treat that just with as much.

We need to prevent that just as much as we need to prevent a more serious collision with a fatality or injury.

And so what we're trying to do is say maybe a scratch on your car or something is better than a fatality or injury.

So I think, the design works.

We also really need to focus on education.

And we have again spent 70 years prioritizing convenience of drivers above all else.

So we do need to just start to talk about tipping the scales just to make sure all users are safe, because safety is paramount.

Well, let's let's listen.

If you're listening the program, you'll hear the audio.

If you're watching on YouTube, you can see part of the video that the team from Reconnect Rochester put together from their their very busy summer of work.

This is explaining the Downtown Smart Streets project in the neighborhood of play.

Take a look.

Downtown smart streets in our set of our network.

A growing network of curb extension is not a new or novel idea.

It's a quick build project where we will seasonally put in street murals along with street safety equipment.

This is going to help slow down traffic, make drivers more aware of people in the road, give a little bit more security, a little bit more buffer for people without taking away any driving space.

It'll just promote them to make wider, slower turns.

It helps narrow the road.

So, drivers tend to drive more slowly.

Additionally, it prevents cars from parking in no parking zones, so the visibility for pedestrians is greater as they don't have to really be in the roadway to see if there's traffic coming.

Welcome to the neighborhood of play.

It's inspired by a traditional board game, so we have the similar paths to, Candy land.

We'll have dice, we have pawn pieces, we have spinners.

One thing about this location, which has been unique with this project we're currently in our second year, is that this is an uncivilized intersection, meaning we don't have any traffic lights here to stop and slow down cars.

We do have some pedestrian walk signage here, but we wanted to reinforce this as a place where pedestrians and cyclists can cross more comfortably.

So you'll see we have some curb extensions here that we're going to map out with, flexible delineate or post as a horizontal and vertical indicator that this is now a space that's being reclaimed for pedestrian use.

We're also putting in a temporary median.

We would hope to see the city harden that with, actual concrete curbing in the future.

So so if you're if you're seeing some of this for the first time and again, we can share the video in our show notes.

If you want to see the full video of what reconnects doing.

So you can actually see this infrastructure on the street.

Some of did you use the word bollard or what was the term, one of those posts that are standing up?

Those are flex posts there.

Yeah, those ones just snap right up.

Whereas the bollards are metal and they're a lot more, secure.

But they can also damage, vehicles.

Okay.

And, so there's one in the neighborhood play that if you saw in the video.

One of the reason I think people think this is just street art is you guys have, like, a lot of cool.

There's a lot of cute, cool murals there.

It's like a a twister or a game of life spinner that you got there right on the road.

But it is, lined with those vertical posts there.

So when people see the vertical posts, one of the things I'm wondering is it's pretty clear to cars, you're not supposed to be in those painted areas.

Do the pedestrians still feel like that?

That space can be for them.

What did you guys see this summer?

Yeah, well, we do have two different ways to walk, a couple different ways to try to map out what's happening since the installation is in place and see the impact of that project.

One thing I will say is for that that particular intersection at South Union, because it was on signalized, we were able to get speed data at a signalized intersection.

Speed data is not as it doesn't say as much, because there's always something that's stopping the cars with the red lights.

But we were able to gather that and we saw about a 10% reduction in speed, overall speed violations from vehicles passing through that intersection, which is great.

We also captured video footage, which we are still in the process of analyzing.

But honestly, I will say that South Union location is part of my daily work commute.

So I'm on that section twice a day usually.

And what have you noticed?

Oh car stop when I'm in that median car.

Stop.

So, you know, the immediate benefit is as a pedestrian, as somebody crossing at that intersection, you only have to look at one direction of traffic before you're in that median.

And then once you're there, you can look at the other direction of traffic before you go.

So you don't have to make sure that both lanes are lining up in terms of a clearance for you to go.

What I've also noticed is cars actually do stop.

I think I've been having like, a counting meter.

Just tallied off in my head, and I've had about 13 encounters with a car.

You know, as I'm crossing that intersection and only twice has a car not stopped for me.

So I've been able to see that.

We also have a survey on our website.

So I encourage anybody who has been able to cross there as a pedestrian, as a cyclist, if somebody outside of the vehicle or even inside the vehicle as well, we do ask for that as well.

On the survey to fill out that survey for any of our four downtown locations, because, safety perception from the community is also very valuable feedback.

And we use that to assess project impact and sometimes where we might need more educational efforts because these are, you know, newer, especially within Rochester.

And not everybody fully knows.

Exactly.

Like you said, the functionality of the safety aspects, apart from just the beautification efforts there, you guys just didn't show up and start paint, right?

The city was down with it.

Yeah.

I think you do need approval for this, right?

Yes, I do is on board.

Yes, yes, yes.

We, we you know, the city partners with us on both projects, the Downtown Smart Streets project, as well as the Complete Streets Makeover Project.

So they're constantly in the room.

When we feel like we've identified a site, we run it by them preliminarily first, and then we go through a more rigorous review with the traffic control board, which is which is made up of, city representatives for our transportation folks, as well as some Monroe County ones as well.

So we have to go through that review to get permits.

I ask because somebody who's listening right now lives in a suburb and they're they're going, yeah, I stand out in the street with both hands up telling people to slow down.

Kids are coming out of summer camps, kids are coming out of school, kids are crossing after school, but they don't know who to talk to.

So in the city of Rochester, you guys have a partner and you've had, you know, a pretty healthy relationship there for people who are listening, who don't live in a city, but they they still feel the same kind of angst.

What would you recommend?

How do they start the process of trying to find change?

What would you tell them to do?

Well, their city did declare Rock Vision Zero, which is the goal of zero traffic deaths.

And there's, proven, documented methods to make that work.

It has worked in other cities, and it revolves around educating drivers and pedestrians and cyclists on their rules and their rights.

But it also involves engineering, like we're discussing today, engineering the street.

So it's uncomfortable to drive fast.

And it also involves, enforcement and making sure we're enforcing reckless driving.

So the city's making a lot of progress.

But, the county, Monroe County is exploring a Vision Zero initiative as well, so that's encouraging.

But I think there's, they also have a citizen concern traffic safety forum online.

And that is the best method to reach them directly.

But I also should let Josie speak.

And since I know you're part of the council.

Yeah.

Let's get Josie in the queue here.

So, Josie, tell me about why you got involved here as a resident.

You know what brought you out to to do this kind of work?

About three years ago on Thurston, Ryan Grantham junior got hit and killed on Thurston Road and which truly started my advocacy with the, city residents.

And we connect Rochester on getting a petition signed to get some type of traffic calming measures on Thurston so we didn't have to lose another life.

And so that started my journey on getting involved.

And currently right now I sit on the board of Reconnect Rochester and I truly advocate on, on all modes of transportation.

But particularly I'm a I'm a walker.

And I really, think that we need to come out of.

And I don't want to be anti-caa either, but we need to really, look at the infrastructure around almost the transportation, particularly making sure that cyclists and walkers have, some safety measures around them.

So when you when Josie says, I don't want to be anti-caa reconnect.

Rochester is not officially anti-caa at all.

We connect Rochester is multimodal character multimodal safety for everybody.

Correct.

There are individual members who feel like the cars have dominated for too long, and that maybe we're a little addicted to big parking lots and, you know, car traffic.

But this is not an organization that's anti-caa.

This is just trying to look at data and make changes.

Are you seen enough change?

I mean, where else do you want to see change?

Definitely all over Multnomah County.

I do live in the city.

I do work for Monroe County.

But I think, whether you choose to walk, drive, cycle, however you get around, I think all across Monroe County, we need to really look at safety measures.

Particularly again, I'm back to walking and we know, driving.

Week without driving.

Sorry is coming up on October 1st to October 8th.

And so that's something that I am really engaged in.

I have to say, I'm very proud to be, the 2025, 2026 reigning champion, of of Miles of walking.

And so really pushing people to really sign up and get engaged in that week.

So, so we can see some good competition, to defend my title.

But, definitely, I feel that we need to be if we truly, as a city, as a county, look at equity and safety and accessibility, we really, truly need to look at the infrastructure around walking, cycling and driving and not just be so driven heavy.

Looking at how did you get involved?

I'm I'm definitely the most junior member of this, team here.

I was lucky enough to know the executive director at Reconnect Rochester.

He's a neighbor.

And he said, I think you should get involved.

And they're looking at an intersection that's near you.

And I hear that there's been a lot of problems around there.

And immediately I said, yes, there have been so many accidents.

I have an eight year old.

My perspective has changed in the last few years.

I see things differently with an eight year old.

Genesee Valley Park is within walking distance, and we often choose to drive there instead of walking, because that particular intersection that was targeted for Reconnect Rochester, is so dangerous.

So you could walk.

I could walk, but you're going with an eight year old?

I live right off Lake Avenue.

I'd love to walk down a turning point Park and I do, but when my one year old's around, it's like I want to minimize any time on Lake Avenue if, if at all.

Exactly.

And even sometimes having to drive across it so I don't have to deal with it.

It's because it can be absolutely wild, 100%.

And, I know Lourdes has, gave me the title of, Project Champion.

But really, my eight year old, was really key.

She really wanted to be involved in there.

So from day one, she's we're we talked to neighbors.

We went door to door, to see who was interested.

We met.

We had everyone who's door we knocked on say yes, please and more.

And, we attended various meetings.

I was really impressed with how well, Reconnect Rochester integrated into our neighborhood and really asked us to lead it.

They'll give us the infrastructure, they'll tell us exactly what needs to be done, but they really wanted us to take control, design, make decisions on how we could impact our own neighborhood.

And, that's why the kids were really involved.

They felt like they were a part of this.

Making a change.

And we are so proud.

My daughter, had some relatives come into town, and she walked them to the intersection so they could see, exactly what we participated in and trying to improve and, make our neighborhood safer.

So.

And so how long have some of the changes been implemented?

I think we did this back in May.

Yeah.

So so you coming up on five months and you are you really feel like you're seeing a result already?

I am seeing results.

I think it's important to point out that Reconnect Rochester is our headstart.

They're trying to do a lot of the legwork.

But ultimately we want the city to make an investment longer term.

Because a lot of these beautiful art installations are temporary.

That paint's going to fade.

We're still going to have the same drivers.

People are going, you know, the newness is going to wear off.

And ultimately, if that's a problem, intersection.

These are temporary.

Beautiful neighborhood installations.

But we really need the need a continuation and investment from the city to make it a longer term investment so that we we are safe.

After the installations gone.

Yeah, I think that's.

Well, so I mean, when we talk about design.

Right.

So I can think of a few parts of my regular driving habits that are more in the rural areas where like a long, wide open country road and I'll look down like, how fast am I going?

Oh my gosh.

And I'm not even trying to I mean, I'm not thinking probably I'm not focusing enough, but all of a sudden you find you're going faster than you thought.

And I bring this up because there's two ways, I think of about how you get people to slow down or how you get a safer environment and one is to convince people to do it actively, to change the culture of how drivers think of themselves in their cars.

And then the other is to design it into people.

So when you have these long stretches and there's going to be country roads that should have long open stretches, that's just part of rural America.

But I just bring that up because I think that people can relate to parts where they are surprised at maybe how fast they're going, or it lends itself to speeding up, whereas can you design it out of people?

Can you design a culture change?

What do you think?

I think you can design it out of.

I think you can do a culture change.

View via design.

For the vast majority of people, just change new habits then.

Yeah, I think engineering is key.

I think, education, like you said, is important, but we really have been educating for the 70 years while we were also simultaneously making our roads look more like highways.

So I think everyone knows that traffic violence is a problem.

They know that, no one likes it.

But there's also just this cultural norm of, oh, we all go ten miles per hour over the speed limit, or don't give me a speeding ticket.

Hi.

I'm late, you know, and it's really there's a cultural shift that we need to do.

So I think, engineering is part of it.

But also, I'd say one of the more controversial parts of Vision Zero is enforcement.

And that means, like, there is reckless driving, there's people running red lights.

We do need to make sure that we are actually encouraging behavior change through incentives, such as that.

So, that's why we're happy to see the city roll out automated enforcement, as part of Rock Vision Zero as just a way.

And we're well aware of the history of the red light cameras and what happened ten years ago.

And what the city's doing now is just like with complete streets Makeover, bring it to the community saying, we need to figure out how to do this equitably.

But it is important because if there's no incentive for behavior change, then we're not going to change, because again, we've been doing the education.

Yeah.

I had I'm going to start reading some emails from listeners I should have mentioned at the outset here, as we talk about creating safer streets, reducing traffic, deaths and fatalities and injuries, all kinds of collisions that our guests today feel are entirely preventable.

I'd love to hear from the audience on this.

The Connections at talk is the email address, as always, Connections.

And so I thought if you're watching on the Sky news YouTube, you can join the chat there.

You can call the program toll free.

844295 talk.

8442958255263 WXXI.

If you're calling from Rochester 2639994.

So one of the emails we got here, Jen wrote this morning basically said, why not just red light cameras and speed bumps?

So let's let's talk, let's get the second part first.

Speed bumps.

What is their data on?

The speed bumps help.

Oh, speed bumps are definitely a very interruptive traffic calming measure.

That generally does work very well.

However, the city does have a temporary speed hump policy that is currently a rather restrictive in terms of where we're able to test out those temporary speed humps.

And that was a change done maybe 2 to 3 years ago.

And, so there is a little bit less leeway in, in terms of use cases where we can see speed bumps on our road.

But hopefully we'll see that that policy change to better fit our needs here in the city as a, as a resident of the city and, and my street, is doesn't have speed bumps, but on the right side of my street, the next street over does on the right side and on the left side.

Next street over has speed bumps.

So what happens is, and you probably hear a lot of residents say this than the speed in comes down my street.

Yeah.

They they know they can fly down your street.

Right, right.

And so I truly believe, you know, speed humps are bumps.

They are effective in so many ways.

But then on other ways that they make other streets dangerous.

Okay.

And what about red light?

So red light cameras is, I want to use the term correctly.

And I remember the conversation we had with Mitch Gruber earlier this year.

So I don't know the update.

It's been a little while.

It's been a couple of months.

The general idea that we were left with earlier this year is that the city is not going to just repeat what happened a decade ago, that there were lessons in all for all kinds of reasons equity enforcement, etc.

that the city does not want to repeat.

The city does want to find out if there's better updated technology that can actually be used fairly.

And to help where it does reconnect.

Have a position on this one as well.

I think the fact that we're not focusing specifically on certain neighborhoods is a big part of it.

We need to do it citywide because it affects all of us, and we need everyone to learn that this is just not accepted.

I think there is there has been sometimes a bit of a lax view of enforcement for a variety of reasons, and that is that lends people to just say they need to go fast to save time.

We're all in a hurry.

We have a busy schedule, so I do get it, but there's also a lot of data that shows you're really not saving much time.

45 seconds, two minutes is what you may save if you're going somewhere 15 minutes away, and that's just not worth a human life.

So again, it's maybe a bit controversial, but I think part of it is because we've been very permissive and we again, we're not anti-caa, but we are anti-caa dependency.

And what that means is people like you both just cited, you will drive somewhere because you don't feel safe walking.

So that to us is car dependency.

And we want to break that because so many people don't own cars and they deserve options.

So our stance is that safety is paramount and we need to make sure that we are doing something to change behaviors, because I think everyone agrees there is reckless driving briefly to cars, speed bumps, red light cameras.

Any thoughts on those?

So as a resident, my main focus is my the safety of my eight year old.

And I think as we were doing all the options or reviewing all the options, for our intersection, we looked at how can we get red lights, implemented?

Can we get speed bumps implemented in lines?

Lourdes, I said, there's a lot of restrictions right now we don't have and reconnect.

Rochester doesn't have the ability to just implement that type of stuff.

But that's where I said reconnect.

Rochester's is a great jumpstart for us, and we need the investment from the from the city.

So for me, I, I'm a big proponent of how do we permanently prevent these safety risks when it comes to red light cameras?

It's gray.

I understand the history.

I think the goal is beautiful, that, if we can do it in a responsible way, in an equitable way, 100%.

I mean, my number one goal is to make sure my daughter is safe.

And we have a beautiful neighborhood we love walking through.

We want to be able to walk.

So I drive.

But I also love to walk and would like to not be car dependent, and have the option to walk more.

All right, let me grab Mike on Lake Avenue on the phone.

Hey, Mike, go ahead.

Hi, there.

Mike, do we have Mike on Lake Avenue?

Megan.

Mike.

Do it.

Do we have.

We don't have, well, I, I don't want to make Mike unsafe.

Anybody calling for Mike Avenue?

I think may please be safe.

Mike, hang there for a second.

Here's what we'll do.

I see the phone ring, and let's get our only break of the hour.

And let's take that now.

We'll come back, see if we can get Mike.

I got more calls coming in.

We've got more emails to share.

And in our second half hour with our guests from Reconnect Rochester, including some residents of the city of Rochester who are very active in some of these street safety initiatives, we're going to talk about what starts on Thursday, their desire to see more people, see if they can go a week without driving.

And you're going to hear Joseph McClary say, you can do it.

You could definitely can do it.

She does it.

So we're going to talk more about that coming up.

We'll take your feedback on Connections.

Coming up in our second hour, we continue our series of special rebroadcast as we tour Rochester and beyond.

And we're bringing back a conversation with entrepreneur Erin Newman, who became just the 717th known human to pass the Karman line.

That's leaving the Earth's atmosphere, leaving Earth officially.

What was that like?

And where should we go next?

We'll talk about it next.

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All right this is Connections.

Mike on Lake Avenue had a connection issue.

And it's also Mark on Lake Avenue.

So that was our fault.

So this is Mark on Lake Avenue.

Hey Mark go ahead.

Yeah.

Hey how are you doing I've been very good.

So I just wanted to say I really appreciate the conversation.

And I appreciate the work.

Reconnect.

Rochester does, I live up in Charlotte, right by, the lighthouse there.

And I take Lake Avenue twice a day, you know, to work and back.

And I'm acutely aware of how reckless the driving can be.

And then also, I'm surprised that we have so many crosswalks that don't have lights at them.

You know, I pass by pedestrians all the time that are just standing there waiting and no one stops for them.

Why?

We don't have more raised crosswalks so that we really force, people to slow down.

And then, you know, the stretch right there by the cemetery, it's like people just jump ten, 15, 20mph and just.

Okay.

Yeah.

And it is it is insane.

And I see, I'm RPD sitting up there sometimes the sheriff not very often times as well.

But I'm surprised that more people aren't caught kind of in that little stretch there, because it seems like it's the Wild West.

Once you get that, you know, no, no street or no driveways.

Mark, part of my running route takes me along Lake Avenue near the cemeteries, actually go down through one of them.

That is where I'm the most nervous.

Even just running on a sidewalk, like, I mean, that's where I'm sprinting.

Like I'm going, I guess I'm gonna run intervals and sprint here because I don't want to be on Lake Avenue for one second longer than I need to be.

Thank you for the phone call.

Stay safe out there, sir.

And let's ask the guest here.

So everything from raised intersection, it may be more enforcement.

What do you hear in there, Lourdes?

Is.

What do you hear?

Well, I will say Lake Ave is a there's a pretty problematic corridor, right?

Like that's a larger section for a spot treatments like the Complete Streets make over.

You know, this wouldn't be a good fit one.

It's on arterial roads.

We already wouldn't be able to do it, but second, there are so many trouble spots along that corridor that a spot treatment at one intersection is really not going to do a whole lot.

Even with our, our past project at Genesee Park Boulevard and Pioneer Street.

You know, while that is more of a residential setting, again, it is a longer stretch of road with very few things that stops cars between the very few traffic lights that are on either side.

And so one spot treatment is, you know, even with this completely smoke over, we did see some speed reductions.

We did see some good things coming out of this.

But even as Nicole was saying, as we work with our community to say, all right, what did we learn from this spot treatment and what's what's the bigger advocacy?

Things that we want to push for, especially things that could be long term or permanent infrastructure in the future?

And one thing that came out of that meeting was we need to address the larger corridor and the network of how people behave in this area, and not just this one intersection.

So when I think of Lake Avenue, I know you know, we've had reports saying that that's one of the most dangerous streets in the state.

We need to have a very holistic and resource filled approach to that.

So that's most of my thoughts on that.

Okay.

Anything that Jess, I know, I think you put that very well.

I would say Lake Avenue is also a state road.

And the New York State Department of Transportation, is someone that we're trying to work with more and more to show that, you know, speed of cars is not the only thing that matters.

And these are communities, and we need to make sure we're designing streets for everyone.

I mark, thank you.

Let me get, Kevin in Penfield on the phone next.

Hey, Kevin, go ahead, you guys.

Thanks so much for this conversation.

I'm really enjoying it.

I live in Penfield, like you mentioned, and I, my neighborhood is one of those streets that people love to cut through so that they can avoid the congestion.

At the intersection of Penfield Road and Five Mile.

And, people just come barreling down our street, when, you know, especially notice that when I'm walking, my dog is just afraid for his life.

People are just, you know, you can yell at people and Thomas slow down, but they just don't seem to care.

I'm wondering, what is the process outside of Rochester itself?

To do I go talk to the town or, like, what is the process for trying to look at, getting some speed bumps installed in our neighborhood?

Okay, I just kind of touched on this a little bit before.

It's a really important question.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

The citizen traffic safety concern form.

So it is available online.

The county does review it and it is important.

And the more people who are sharing these thoughts, the more that we can enact change.

Unfortunately, there is a we call our work pushing the needle.

It just takes a lot of people continually, making this case for safe streets.

And it does involve, just sort of a mindset change.

It's interesting because I think people are driving fast.

Everyone says like, oh, people love their cars.

I think people are driving fast because they are just anxious and impatient to get there.

If we can get more people on public transit or on bikes, that also eases congestion, makes driving easier for the people who want to drive.

But on an individual level, yes, I think calling your local officials and telling them this matters is important.

I think filling out the form is great and that's very easy.

But calling officials and telling them that you care about this matters because people who sometimes when you need to do traffic calming, you have to lose a few parking spots or something, and that people don't like losing parking and they will call and complain.

So if you call and say safety is first, then that is how we continue to push the needle.

But unfortunately, there's no one magic thing that will solve everything.

It just takes a lot of people saying, this is preventable and we need to change it.

Well, in the emails and on YouTube, the debate about what will solve it continues.

Let me read a little bit more.

Rachel.

In Canandaigua says, well, I understand why they remove them.

Red light cameras need to be returned, but will require a change in the law.

Drivers have avoided fines by saying it wasn't me driving, so change the law unless your car has been reported stolen.

The owner is responsible for any violations, period.

Daily I watch all manner of vehicles ignoring the red lights.

Addressing that problem should reduce the number of pedestrians hit as well.

That's Rachel in Canandaigua, so it's another idea on automated enforcement of red light cameras, which, do we know a timeline.

Do you know Chaz?

What?

What the city's timeline is for moving on.

Something like that?

No, I actually don't.

I know that they had their public meetings, with where they listened to the community, but, no, I apologize.

I'm not sure that that's one of the subjects, like, like, parking red light cameras.

We just say it.

We could just take calls for an hour.

So we should probably update where the city of Rochester is on that.

And I don't want to give anybody any bad information on that.

And YouTube David says cameras catch 96% of speeding offenses in the UK.

London lowered its speed limit to 20mph to improve safety.

But US society can't handle this.

Maybe self-driving cars will solve it eventually.

And then another listener on YouTube says self-driving cars won't solve the problem of car dependency and car centrist design, so that the response on YouTube was, you gotta change the design first.

Read my mind.

I'm going to say something that's kind of unpopular.

The self-driving cars are probably better drivers than human beings are right now.

We have, what, 30,000 deaths a year in this country?

Is that right?

Is self-driving cars.

The data is encouraging and them being safer than human drivers.

There is also the congestion problem.

There is also there's not a ton of transparency from Waymo or and there's not much accountability built into their practices when they implement 100%.

So I mean, like the coda to my thought is, and who cares what I think?

But my thought is I think they're safer and I think they're a terrible idea, but not because I don't want people to get hurt.

I want people to get better, and I want design to get better before we outsource our identity and everything that we turn our brains on to machines.

And just a quick note that there was some actual momentum in heat to improve public transit in this country in the early 20 tens, and that's when Uber and Lyft came out.

And then, as is sometimes want to do, elected officials said, oh, great, private equity will solve this problem.

So we, this is yet another magic fix to traffic and traffic deaths.

And I just the thing is, fewer cars is benefits everyone, including drivers.

So I don't want to see this as another excuse to not fund public transit.

All right, I'll take a few more calls, and then we're going to talk in a moment about a week without your car.

See if we can do that here.

Rob Braden, is this a foreigner lyric that I see here, I knew it, this is Lou in Rochester.

It's Lou Graham running all night on Lake Avenue.

It's a piece of cake if you know what to do.

Rev on the red line.

No, I love foreigner, but don't do that.

I let someone who lifts us, like, have a new, Yeah.

I love you, Lou Graham.

But, I don't even know what song that's from.

It's, I should know more of my foreigner history.

Jeremy in Rochester wants to talk about changing driving habits.

Jeremy.

Go ahead.

The red line.

Listen, I consider myself a safe driver.

I consider myself a defensive driver.

I break the law every day I drive 70.

I don't know why.

It just makes me feel comfortable.

I take Saint Paul home from the inner loop every day.

Saint Paul in the afternoon is the Wild West.

Not only do you have multiple people running red lights, you have multiple people while you're coming at them and they're making eye contact with you.

Walk straight out into the street.

I know this isn't generally what you're talking about.

You're talking about trying to reduce car dependency.

But my point is, is that unless it happens to someone, I don't have any objective data to this.

But people won't change their habits until something bad or good happens to them.

That's all I've got.

Well, Jeremy, thank you.

I mean, in general, Jeremy's point is correct.

Most people are not moved to activism until something directly affects them.

And that's not a criticism of human beings.

People are busy.

There's a lot of examples of this and a lot of different levels.

But what our guests are trying to avoid are more people having tragic circumstances and move to activism.

Then we have way too many pedestrian deaths.

We've got way too many people dying in cars.

That's not like a an editorial weird position.

I hope everybody agrees on that.

It's just a question of how you make a change.

Charles wrote in to say, what are the penalties for pedestrians that don't use sidewalks, crosswalks, pedestrian walkways, and cyclists that don't use bike lanes?

There's an awful lot of this stuff being built and an awful lot of people not using it.

If we spend money on all this and it doesn't get used at a certain point, people who get hit by cars will have no one to blame but themselves.

That is from Charles.

I wonder if our guests think that is fair or harsh.

Lawless?

Yeah, I saw a little reaction there.

What are you thinking?

Well, I will say, first and foremost, there is a lot you can unpack with that statement.

This is very nuanced.

When we talk about infrastructure, whether it's bike dedicated or pedestrian dedicated infrastructure in the city of Rochester and especially in our towns and villages, it's a completely different ballpark.

For instance, you know, the 19th Ward is one of the only neighborhoods in the city of Rochester that doesn't have complete sidewalks.

When you go out to the suburbs, you see that there's a lot of places that don't have any sidewalks at all when it comes to bike infrastructure.

Sometimes there's not a continuation of that.

So some, some folks don't feel comfortable without a continued protected bike lane.

Right.

And so these are different disjointed elements of some of our different multimodal infrastructure.

Right.

And of course, there's always going to be that element of personal responsibility.

And you know, really knowing how to be a responsible pedestrian, how to be a responsible cyclist in addition to being a responsible driver.

But I will say that the infrastructure is not always there.

The education is not always there.

As a shameless plug, I will say reconnects.

Rochester does offer a lot of resources to supplement some of that education, including, smart Street, cycling classes to know what is your responsibility as a bike, as somebody on a bike traveling around.

I see, I will say I was a person on a bike beforehand and having taken that class, a lot of myths were just demystified for me.

And I was like, oh, I didn't even know that was like, what I should be doing best practice as a person on a bike.

So we have all of these different layers in which we could help bolster some of that personal responsibility as well as the actual infrastructure, whether it's there or not.

And some of the, you know, even with some of these, quick builds projects that we have with complete sheets make and downtown smart streets, what we're essentially making is a self enforcing design.

Now, of course, some of our most reckless drivers will not, bend to, you know, some of those things.

But even looking at, Genesee Park Boulevard, that is a those are 12ft travel lanes.

That's something you're going to see on a highway, you know, so as a somebody in the driver's seat going down, you feel like it's a highway, you're going highway speeds, right?

When you narrow those roads, it doesn't feel like a highway anymore.

It feels like you're actually in a residential area.

You start to slow down a little bit when everybody plays their parts from inside the car, from outside the car, from on bike, from on foot.

Then we start to see a safer a safer overall environment.

So we all have stakes in this and we all have a, a role to play.

And if I could just add to I think yes, absolutely.

Bicycle education is a cornerstone of our work.

We need pedestrians and cyclists to follow the law.

We also say that drivers have a bigger responsibility.

It's a five ton piece of steel that you are going very quick, and there is a responsibility when operating that.

And I think we can all agree that there is a big responsibility there.

And, just making sure that, I think also there's a if you build it, they will come, like I hear people say, like no one bikes here anyways.

But I know in Bay road where, in Webster, they went from four lanes to two lanes with a turn lane.

And now there's wide shoulders.

And I've seen cyclists on that almost every time I've gone since.

So when you build it, people will come and start to bike and it will reduce congestion.

I blame all of you.

We could have just taken calls and emails all day and we still got to talk about it.

Okay, let me just get one more email on a phone call.

An email says, my road has a mile per hour sign that shows how fast you're going.

And if you go over the speed limit by some number, it flashes pretend police lights.

It's nice.

Okay, anything to kind of let people know.

Andrew wants to jump in on speed bumps, too.

Hey, Andrew, on the phone.

Go ahead.

I was in, my Colombia in April and, South America and, there were speed bumps everywhere.

And there was, believe me, nobody was speeding.

I mean, you didn't have to wonder if there was a speed bump coming up.

There was a speed bump coming up, and everybody was going 28, 30 miles an hour, and that was it.

And it was great.

It was a wonderful city.

I'll tell you about it.

Time.

What's my speed bumps are are you because you give somebody a ticket?

Guess what.

He's he's out running a red light the next day.

You don't.

They don't seem to be fazed by that.

What's the city you're talking about in Colombia?

Montreal, Colombia.

Nobody's heard of it.

It's a little.

It's like equivalent to Lincoln, Nebraska or something, you know.

Well, it it was it was great.

There was no tourism.

There was no gringos.

That was just so right.

Andrew, thank you for the phone call.

Speed bumps everywhere.

And last email, Charlie says on the Lake Avenue side, I worked at Charlotte High School for 20 years and I feel your pain.

I changed my commute route to avoid Lake Avenue, taking Durand Eastman Boulevard to avoid it.

It can be fixed, however, Lake Avenue needs to be one lane each way with the median and left turn lanes.

It's what worked on East Ave in Pittsford.

It's psychologically slows people down.

Yes, after people lose their minds.

I think that you're probably right, Charlie, but that would be quite a battle.

Chaz is nodding vigorously to that.

Fewer lanes on Lake Avenue.

Oh, man, that's good.

We could do a whole hour on that.

People will fight over that one.

So on Thursday, reconnect Rochester wants people thinking about spending a week without a car.

And if you can't do a full week without a car, maybe less car usage, more on foot, more on bicycle for a week.

Although, Jose, you think people can do it?

Absolutely.

They can do it.

Where I live in the 19th Ward and where I work downtown, I could it's a mile and a half.

It takes me about 20 minutes to walk to work 20 minutes back.

It's doable.

And I think it's it's important.

I think it allows community to see their neighbors and their community outside of the car.

There's so much beauty out there when you're not driving that you just don't see when you are driving.

And just like, you know, the caller or the email mentioned about just bike lanes and people not using them, but they're not using them because they don't feel safe using them because of the cars.

Right.

And so just think about you as a car driver, just coming out of your car every now and then, walking to the grocery store, walking to work, walk into a rec center, just walk in somewhere and now seeing how the walkers feel or how the cyclists feel, it just really that's where the educational pieces and the perspective of oh wow.

Like, I didn't realize that this is what they go go through, whether it's it's cracks in the sidewalk or the curb bumps not there.

And just, you know, it's it's something worth doing.

And just to think about, for me, it's not just getting to point A to point B, but it's really exercise.

It's really clear in my head.

It's the emotional and social part of it, and it's really getting back into nature.

It's a wonderful thing.

You should try it there.

Yeah.

Again, being more junior on the team here, I think that, I want to be a part of this this week.

I haven't done it before.

And I think I don't think we all need to be 100% to participate, right.

Because I do have an eight year old I have to pick up from school and do some activities.

But there are opportunities that you just you stay in your car, you don't think about the things that you can do to reduce your car dependency.

So I think, me and my family are going to try and participate.

We won't be able to do it 100%, but we will be able to examine where we can increase our walking and biking time.

So that's great.

Yeah, yeah.

Chaz, Lourdes has anything you want to address?

Yeah.

Well, essentially what we do is we send an email, we send seven emails over the course of October 1st through the eighth.

You get one each day.

It gives you a little tips on how to get started.

We focus on a different mode each day.

And really it is geared towards people who are very focused on driving.

And it's just showing them, what our leaders are saying, giving them tips.

And there's many challenges and we understand not everyone's in the same situation if you're in the city versus the suburbs.

So, for instance, if you are in a car centric suburb, maybe you can't walk to work or walk to the grocery store, but can you go to one of those big plazas and try and see how many errands you can do without getting back in your car and just seeing, oh, is this a more pleasant way to do it?

You can bring a friend and walk there versus having to drive, park and get out, get out.

So it's just, we try to adjust the challenges to fit everyone's perspective and just it's really a great way to just get started in the movement and consider a different perspective.

About 45 seconds.

What do you want to add?

Yeah, I think in addition to some of the personal revelations that come out of, participating in the week without driving, this also encompasses the encompasses the intersectionality about the transportation sector as a whole.

You know, when we talk about it was really easy to get to this place because I live here and I work here, and there's this multi-use building where I can just stop by and get all of these places on, right that brings about this land use and development question as well.

Some of the city planning, urban planning, design, and how we're getting to the things that are vital to life and to the health of our communities.

So I just say I encourage everyone listening to participate, even if it's only for a couple days.

You can do but see what works, see what doesn't.

Even things that don't work is valuable information and says we have work to do here.

So looking forward to seeing everybody's, participation and some of the reflections that come out of that sign up on our website.

And the website is Reconnect Rochester, Dawg.

There you go.

We'll close with this, joining, remotely here.

Just a note from City Council member Mitch Gruber popped out of a meeting to tell us that the city is finalizing a report based on community meetings and a large survey.

The city is going to be releasing that report soon on automated enforcement as a possibility, probably.

Among other things, this is not the red light cameras that you experienced ten years ago, and I don't know what the report is going to say, but I know they've been looking at a number of different things that's going to be released soon.

And we expect to be able to talk to not only Council Member Gruber, but other city leaders about what that report says and what they want to do about it.

So that'll probably be in the next month or so.

And you're going to want to be right here in your public square in Connections for that conversation.

Hey, everybody.

Thank you for a great conversation.

From Reconnect Rochester Lourdes Sharp, Chaz Goodman, thank you for being here.

Our thanks to Josie McClary, the Ccpd, for sharing their perspectives.

Thank you very much for being here.

Everybody.

Reconnect rochester.org for more information.

More Connections.

In a moment.

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