Rochester officials are looking at an ambitious plan to add 50 more miles of bike routes and 60 safer crossings in the city over the next 25 years.
That’s the bottom line of a Bicycle Master Plan, funded by the state and U.S. Health Departments and prepared by the city-county Planning Department, and presented to the city council this week, reports the Rochester Post-bulletin.
The story notes that city was named a Bicycle Friendly Community in 2010 by the League of American Bicyclists and added 16 miles of new bike lanes, trails and routes in recent years.
There’s still a problem, though, with gaps in the system that keep people from easily biking to some parts of the city, the paper said:
“As they [the lanes and paths] get connected to more complete routes, I think you’ll see more usage,” said council member Michael Wojcik, himself an active cyclist. “Like having the first telephone, it’s not very useful.”
Under the plan, the funding for the bike improvements would come from using 2.5 percent of the estimated $1.3 billion expected for transportation projects in the area over the next 25 to 30 years. That would make about $33 million available for the bike network, the story said.
