As we all come out of hibernation, and start walking the streets again, we are reminded of how difficult it is to try and cross Penfield Rd. Which makes it a perfect time to restart our efforts in taking back our safe walkways and making it clear that pedestrians are not secondary to traffic!

The most important thing we can do is to show up to town board meetings and to get this issue into the meeting minutes. To that end, I am very excited to announce that we have a volunteer from Brighton to be that towns’ spokesperson.

Other updates:

I had the pleasure of meeting with Clara Sanguinetti who is currently running for Brighton town board. She is a huge proponent of crosswalks on Penfield Rd. and we had a very nice conversation at Tree Town recently. Check out her page at https://claraforbrighton.com/

I’ve created a facebook group (since I hear that’s what all the kids are using nowadays). Feel free to stop by and post your thoughts! https://www.facebook.com/groups/penfieldroadcrosswalks

I’m working on collecting links and other online resources we can use. There are many great resources we can use to stay informed, they just end up a little hidden and disparate between Penfield, Brighton, and Monroe County. Check back sometime for that update.

Happy springtime walking. Stay safe!

A lot of the work I’ve done so far is to try and understand how a decision like this would get made, and how the different municipalities work internally and with each other. The first thing I found was that this is a County road, so they would do the work to add the crosswalks. However the decision starts at the Town level, who will make a recommendation to the County.

I don’t think anyone is really “against” crosswalks, but some do find a reason that it should not be done. The #1 obstacle I have found so far is the notion that crosswalks cannot be added until there are sidewalks for them to go to. In this case, the crosswalks are providing access to light traffic side streets that do not need sidewalks. Sidewalks would be great, but these are existing neighborhoods and nobody that I know of is advocating to add them. It is a bridge too far, and would only sandbag our efforts (which depending on who you talk to might be the goal).

The crosswalks must be ADA compliant, and do require curb ramps and a landing on each side. This can be a simple ramp a small section of sidewalk that spills out into the road once you are safely into the neighborhoods. This part of the work is done by the Town, not the County – though the same engineer probably does both parts of the design in the end.

This dynamic sets up a situation where the County says they need sidewalks before adding a crosswalk, and the Town will not recommend a crosswalk because there are no sidewalks.

10/10/2024 – Response from the Town of Penfield via email; Penfield Rd. is a County road, so must first be approved by the Monroe County Department of Transportation (MCDOT)

10/15/2024 – Spoke with a representative of the Monroe County DOT via phone; the Towns would need to first install accessible curb ramps and sidewalk area on both sides of the road. Very supportive!

10/21/2024 – Response from the Town of Brighton via email; will be presented to the Public Works Committee (PWC) at an upcoming meeting.

10/22/2024 – Created flyers and this website!

But we can think even bigger than that. Our primary goal is to give back priority to pedestrians so we can enjoy the outdoors, get some exercise, and get from place to place without fighting traffic. The goal is to make it apparent to drivers that they should yield to anyone crossing this road. They can wait. We can all slow down a bit. By adding several crosswalks, we can take back our neighborhood from traffic cutting off access (during rush-hour particularly) to/from the sidewalk on Penfield Rd.

I certainly hope that crosswalks can be added to improve our neighborhoods, to make life a bit more enjoyable, and not simply as a self defense strategy to prevent injury. In a recent response received by one resident, the Monroe County DOT did not recommended the addition of crosswalks based on a “good safety record.”

This does make some sense. I do understand. With limited resources, crosswalks should be added first to intersections with a history of injuries. Unfortunately, it does come across as reactionary and backwards. Certainly we should not have to wait for one of us to be hurt or killed before we add crosswalks, and certainly the bar can be raised a bit higher than that.

My take home message is that this is not only an effort to improve safety, and so cannot be dismissed based on those grounds alone. While I appreciate the MCDOT efforts (and support!), I think we should consider the scope of their recommendation for what it is.