Rochester Residents Urge Assemblyman Gantt to Support Complete Streets

by Ya-Ting Liu, Mobilizing The Region

As the fate of the NYS complete streets bill (S5411) hangs in the balance in Albany, Rochester residents and organizations including The Center for Disability Rights, Reconnect Rochester, and NeighborWorks Rochester called on Assemblyman David Gantt, who represents parts of the city and chairs the State Assembly Transportation Committee, to support the bipartisan bill that is likely to be voted on in the Senate this week. The groups cited a recent national pedestrian safety report by Transportation for America which found that from 2000-2009, 122 pedestrians were killed while waking in the Rochester area. One in eight traffic fatalities in Rochester are pedestrians, making it one of the most dangerous places for walking in the Northeast.

“It pains me to see Rochester and our surrounding counties rank so poorly on this list. While I’ve seen our metro take great steps towards traffic calming and complete streets recently, our suburbs and rural areas are far behind the curve. These are not just numbers; these are human lives. Lives that could have been saved with some thoughtful planning. It’s up to all of us to step up our efforts to push for changes at every level of government and with each new road project,” said Mike Governale, Executive Director of Reconnect Rochester.

Their call for safer streets caught the attention of Rochester media over the weekend.

“It is clear that we need to address problems on our roadways right here in Rochester,” said William Armbruster, AARP Associate State Director for Western New York. “The Assembly needs to act and make our roads safer for all users.”