South Ave Reconstruction

 Back to regular order on this blog, covering some construction projects that I see around the city.

Right around South Ave, near College Town and the South Wedge there's a good amount of heavy machinery tearing up the pavement and diverting traffic.

 

 
 
According to the project page the scope of this project is "... Full depth pavement reconstruction.  Additional improvements will also include new sidewalk, curb, curb ramps, driveway aprons, drainage basins, water main, water services, hydrants, lighting, signals, signing, pavement markings, tree plantings, pedestrian crossing improvements, and bicycle accommodations"

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this project is the new bicycle infrastructure. The cycle path from the University of Rochester to College Town is being extended further along Elmwood where it will meet with the multi-use path.

 

Intersection of Elmwood and South, from this presentation

 The project is also adding separated bicycle lanes on South Ave north of Highland ave, so around the area of Highland Park.

To add some of my own commentary to the project. I think it's smart to expand the bike network in this area first. University students are less likely to own their own car, so it makes sense to put infrastructure where it is most likely to be used. This connects the University of Rochester to Highland park by bike. In addition the University, Strong Hospital, and nearby Highland Hospital are large job centers for the area. Providing bicycle infrastructure to these areas may mean more people are able to ride bikes to work and reduce the space needed for parking at these locations.

 

 

 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Attending a Local Meeting

Image
Last night I attended my first ever public planning meeting, this was for Rochester ZAP changes for the southeast quadrant, which I've covered extensively in my previous post . I already had a pretty good idea about the material that was being presented, but it was also neat to hear from other people in the community. So this is a pro-city blog. I like cities, and I think it was a mistake for Americans to turn away from cities in the 20th century. And of course not everyone agrees with me on that. The start of the presentation felt like a reassurance that "no, we're not getting rid of your single family zoning". There was one older lady who talked about how she fought really hard to keep a strip of street zoned residential a few decades ago, and if it was rezoned now she threatened to move out of the city. Another lady was complaining about the planned project at the former Colgate campus, which is a pretty cool site and project, and I'll make sure to make a futu
Read more

An LVT for Rochester

Image
Among mid-sized cities, Rochester may be #1 in our hearts, but it's #2 in an important metric. According to Roofstock , Rochester, NY has the second highest property tax rate among mid-sized cities (Population 150k-350k) in the United States, only behind Aurora, IL. On top of this tax, Rochesterians also pay an 8% sales tax (4% county on top of 4% state), and state income tax, the 7th highest in the nation. The tax bill for living here is painful to be sure. Chief Justice John Marshall once wrote "The power to tax is the power to destroy", and while it often doesn't go as far as that, it isn't hard to see taxes make people go out of their way to do something. For example, the tax rate in Monroe County is 8%, while in the bordering Ontario County the tax rate is 3.5%. Eastview Mall sits in the town of Victor, just across the county border from Monroe. Almost all of the customers for Eastview originate in Monroe county, yet because of how a line was drawn on a map s
Read more