mulveyr 

I emailed our local transportation department about a construction project going on near me. Slightly edited for the pretense of anonymity. ;-) The detour is a very steep, extremely narrow winding road about 3/4 mile long.

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Dear Ms. Cox:

I'm writing in regards to the bridge replacement project currently underway on Penfield Road, at the Irondequoit Creek crossing.

I live on Exciting Suburban Drive, a street near the western end of the closed-off portion of Penfield Road. I regularly bicycle down the road to travel to the center of Penfield and points east.

Traffic is now detoured down Old Penfield Road, which runs roughly parallel to the closed portion, but which is very narrow and has no shoulders or sidewalks for approximately 50% of the length of the detour. More importantly, it has several blind curves and very poor pavement conditions on the uphill portion of the road. With the vastly increased traffic on Old Penfield, we're finding that there are issues with motorists coming into conflict with cyclists ( i.e, honking, driving aggressively when they find themselves behind a cyclist who must move leftward into the lane to avoid broken pavement, etc. ).

My questions are therefore two-fold:

1) Is there any plan to provide pedestrian/cyclist access over the bridge prior to re-opening it in six months, which would help make things safer for non-motorized users now forced on to Old Penfield Road?

2) Can additional signage be installed, particularly heading on the uphill end of Old Penfield, warning that pedestrians and cyclists may be in the roadway?


Unfortunately, there seems to be no reasonable alternative route for cyclists, barring making a very long and hilly detour all the way over to Landing & Blossom roads.


Thank you for your assistance,
mulveyr
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Within a day, I received the following response:

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Dear Mr. Mulveyr:

Thank you for letting us know your concerns regarding the project. In answer to your questions I offer the following:

1. During the duration of the project, pedestrians and bicyclists will be detoured on Old Penfield Road. As part of the project, we will be installing sidewalk on the north side of the road and across the bridge within the project limits. The town of Penfield plans to complete the sidewalk system after our project is finished.

2. We will be installing signs on Old Penfield Road near each end of Old Penfield Road that will warn motorists about bicyclists and pedestrians and that asks them to share the road with these users. Additionally, we have made the Monroe County sherriff aware of the agressive driver behavior you have observed and have asked that they patrol the road on a regular basis.

Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

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I'll be interested to see how quickly things change.

Mr Danw

Nice.

unterhausen

in this area they do put up signs when conditions like this occur.

mulveyr 

I was surprised they didn't here - the detour is literally a 150-year-old wagon road with a token asphalt surface. You'd think that someone would have said "Hey, if we're suddenly diverting 5000 cars a day down the only road that can be used by cyclists and pedestrians for miles around, maybe we need to see what we can do to accomodate them..."

Jamesw2

good Thanks for taking the time to send a letter