Yes In My Back Yard, please!

When I first visited Rochester, about 20 years ago, it puzzled me that East Avenue in Brighton and Pittsford was four lanes, with not an inch of shoulder, and a hard curb to boot. If you are driving side-by-side with another car, there is no margin for missing a pothole, or random debris, or a biker, or a stupid walker or runner who refuses to use the sidewalk (yes, those people exist, and I’ve almost hit them!). There is also no room to peek out of a side street to see what’s coming, and sight lines are obscured by curves, or on my road, a stone wall that is sacrosanct. Of course, I voiced my opinion to my neighbors that what would make more sense is one lane in each direction, a turning lane in the middle, and shoulders/bike lanes on each side.

So imagine my delight when we got a notice recently from the New York State Department of Transportation that they intended to do just that, and were hosting an open meeting to learn more about their vision! One of my neighbors even called me to ask if I’d had anything to do with it, but I don’t have those kinds of connections…

Their proposed work includes resurfacing (which the stretch sorely needs, especially after this year’s batch of slush turtle hatchings – I tried googling that term but can’t any reference to the tales my dad told about this mythical cause of potholes); widening the remaining three lanes by a foot each, and providing 3.5’ shoulders; and repairing sidewalks to be ADA compliant. I would hope that part of this project includes creating more sidewalks, the lack of which is apparently the reason that kids on my street have to take a bus to a school that is half a mile away.

Project Engineers were on hand at the meeting to answer questions about this project, which will stretch from the “can of worms” Rochester city line to St. John Fisher. Most of the intersections with lights will remain as they are, which won’t minimize the strategizing necessary when heading north at Allens Creek Road. And, at least initially, it may cause more rush-half-hour congestion on this stretch that parallels 490 and is used as an alternate when that highway is backed up. But it will ease making left turns out of side streets, as an engineer and I tried to explain to an elderly resident of the apartments of the Crossway Condos, since you could go halfway, to the turning lane, instead of waiting for 3-4 lanes to clear. She refused to see the logic, and both he and I ended up rolling our eyes and walking away.

Construction isn’t slated to begin till this summer, and that means that this spring’s pothole-patching will be haphazard, at best. And there will be some disruption (and night work! Oh no!). But I look forward to the results – a newly resurfaced road, better visibility turning left out of my street, and the ability to ride my bike on East Avenue with less fear of getting hit (because, let’s face it, there’s always the fear of some texting idiot hitting a biker…).