Neighbors plan slowdown on Parsells Avenue

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Nearly two years after a Beechwood toddler was struck and killed while chasing a ball, residents, neighborhood groups and several organizations teamed up to make Parsells Avenue safer for everyone.

Dozens of volunteers came together Saturday for Reconnect Rochester’s Complete Streets Makeover at the intersection of Parsells Avenue and Greeley Street, a now brightly colored juncture designed to slow traffic and make the neighborhood safer and more walkable.

In May, Reconnect Rochester asked the community to submit intersections and trouble spots that could be redesigned to make them safer for everyone. With more than 90 nominations, the Beechwood intersection was chosen as the winner, while Lake Avenue and Phelps Street was named a finalist, as was the intersection of Monroe Avenue, Canterbury Road and Dartmouth Street.

“We had been brainstorming an idea of some kind to highlight intersections that could be made safer,” said Renee Stetzer, vice president of community outreach and pedestrian work group chair at Reconnect Rochester. “Our perspective is one of streets being for people and not just the cars that some of them drive.”

The City of Rochester and a number of surrounding towns have Complete Streets policies. A Complete Streets approach integrates people and place in the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of transportation networks, according to the National Complete Streets Coalition. This helps to ensure streets are safe for people of all ages and abilities, balance the needs of different modes of transport and support local land uses, economies, cultures and natural environments.

“Our cities and communities grew a lot after the advent of the vehicle, in this country in particular, and we have streets that are ruled by cars,” Stetzer said. “A lot of the ways we used to identify the success of streets was by how much traffic and how fast it flowed through those areas. We widened roads, we took away street trees, we took away sidewalks and in some cases didn’t put them in at all. All designed to get you through an area as quickly as possible with your car.”

But now, many are calling for more walkable neighborhoods. Not everyone drives. Not everyone can afford to and not everyone wants to.

“So when we talk about Complete Streets we’re really talking about making streets safe for all people who use them,” Stetzer said. “It’s not that we want to get rid of cars—many of us are drivers as well at Reconnect Rochester—we just want to see the car put in its proper place as a mode of transportation, without putting other people in danger.”

Although Reconnect Rochester— a not-for-profit organization that works to improve transportation choices in the region—spearheaded the Complete Streets Makeover, it enlisted the expertise of other local organizations to help design and implement the renovation.

A steering committee was established that consisted of volunteers from the City of Rochester, Rochester’s Regional Transit Service, Center for Disability Rights, Common Ground Health, Community Design Center, Genesee Transportation Council, Rochester Cycling Alliance, Monroe County Department of Transportation, Stantec Consulting Services Inc. and Reconnect Rochester.

“After we selected a winner we opened a community charrette. We wanted to hear what the community wanted and their thoughts and ideas,” said Stantec landscape designer Michael D’Amico. “The main problem that surfaced from that charrette was controlling speeds.”

D’Amico noted that drivers often use Parsells Avenue as a cut-through from Culver Road to Webster Avenue and just beyond to Goodman Street. Although the posted speed limit is 30 miles per hour, cars typically drive upwards of 45 miles per hour on the residential street, he said.

The intersection received a bit of attention to slow drivers more than a decade ago, D’Amico noted, but since that time pedestrian traffic has increased. The steering committee, which now also includes the Beechwood Neighborhood Coalition, and residents hope to engage each of the intersection’s four corners to draw attention to the Parsells/Greeley area.

The more people at the intersection, the more drivers will slow down, D’Amico said.

Park Avenue is a good example of that, said Joe Difiore, a member of the neighborhood coalition and a supporter of Reconnect Rochester.

“It’s lined with cars, the storefronts are active, you know that pedestrians are going to be crossing the street, so people by and large tend to drive fairly slowly as they go through there,” Difiore said, noting the difference between the two neighborhoods. “On a daily basis we’ll see cars speeding down the street. We’ve tried different things to try to get cars to slow down over the years but they’ve been half measures in a lot of ways.”

Saturday’s makeover was a temporary fix to a permanent problem, but it was designed with long-term solutions in mind. Information and performance criteria will be gathered in the coming months so that the city can then use that data for permanent implementation, D’Amico said.

Volunteers painted the intersection, crosswalks and sidewalks with bright colors. Temporary curb extenders were installed and on one entrance to the intersection a temporary speed table is being used. Roughly the width of a crosswalk, a speed table inclines slightly to slow drivers and then declines slightly. It’s meant to simulate what the intersection will look and feel like when the makeover is made permanent, Difiore said.

Volunteers also “yarn bombed” the RTS bus shelters and signs with some of the yarn art that was displayed for the last couple of months downtown at Schiller Park. A piano, painted Saturday with bright colors, remains near a curb for passersby to use and large, colorful blocks grab the attention of drivers.

“Just trying to create a better sense of community through community art,” D’Amico said of all the installments.

The permanent solution to the Parsells Avenue speed issue looks similar to Saturday’s Complete Streets Makeover. The entire intersection will be a speed table of sorts; as a driver approaches the intersection he inclines and as he leaves the intersection he declines. The intersection would be painted with the Beechwood neighborhood design, which is a beech tree, Difiore said.

Recent reports from Healthi Kids—a grassroots, community-based coalition advocating for policy and practice changes to improve the lives and health of children—show that speed is a contributing factor in nearly 1,500 crashes across Monroe County. Nearly 400 pedestrians and bicyclists are injured in crashes in Rochester each year, and three are killed.

Healthi Kids reports also show that pedestrians and bicyclists in certain neighborhoods—including Beechwood, Marketview Heights, Edgerton and JOSANA—are more likely than others to be struck by a car.

“One of our approaches addresses the built environment, and we know from our conversations with residents and parents that traffic safety is a concern and a barrier for them allowing their kids to walk, bike and play in their neighborhoods,” said Mike Bulger, Healthy Communities project coordinator at Common Ground Health, which operates the Healthi Kids coalition.

Changes to the built environment can encourage physical activity and help kids develop socially, emotionally and physically, Bulger said.

“So we view Complete Streets as a great tool, a policy tool, to enhance kids’ environments,” he added.

The impetus for Saturday’s event, and the eventual permanent traffic calming in Beechwood, is to reprioritize rights of way back to the pedestrian, D’Amico said.

“We’ve got children that are relaxing, living, playing in the streets, in their front yards, in their back yards,” he said. “We also have speeds that are equivalent to a separated boulevard. Those two things aren’t jiving.

“We’re trying to create a better sense of place,” he added.

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