Henrietta resident Karen Lankeshofer describes parts of her town as "little subdivisions divided by arterials."
The town has a lot of arterials: big, busy streets like Jefferson and East Henrietta roads that are heavy with traffic all day, every day.
Lankeshofer, a longtime cycling and pedestrian advocate in the town and an avid bicyclist, doesn't mean her description as an insult. It's simply her way of summarizing the often-challenging environment for cyclists, which led her to approach Henrietta officials about creating low-stress bike boulevards. This year, the town established its first two.
"I'm often substituting at the elementary schools here, and I wanted to get over to Crane school without being killed on the way," she said. "And I just started promoting this idea that we create just signage. We don't need anything on the road, but an indication for people that this is a quieter route that kids and families could use without having to fear that they were going to be run over."
That's exactly what a bicycle boulevard is: an alternate route that parallels very busy roads with heavy traffic and is comfortable for most cyclists to use. They often require little in the way of investment — a local government can make a bike boulevard simply by placing signs directing cyclists along the route.
For example, Lankeshofer can get to Crane Elementary School, which sits at the center of a neighborhood between Hyland Drive and East Henrietta Road, by taking the Wedgewood Park Bike Boulevard. That route connects Calkins Road near the Town Hall complex to East Henrietta Road just south of Interstate 390. To get to the Crane school, she passes through a town park, crosses Calkins Road at a light, and then rides through a subdivision en route to the school.
She said the town put up about 10 signs to mark the route, and that was all it needed to do. And it helps cyclists avoid two roads where there is heavy traffic and little room for cyclists.
The Hollybrook Bike Boulevard follows Hollybrook Road between East Henrietta and Pinnacle roads.
"To me, this seems like a very simple, low-stakes way to begin the process of looking for safer roads and better connection within our community," said Millie Sefranek, a Town Board member who has been publicizing the new bike boulevards.
The concept of bike boulevards is not new. The city of Rochester started establishing them in 2013, as part of its broader, ongoing efforts to make the city more bikeable and has created about 25 miles of bicycle boulevards. Brighton also has at least one bicycle boulevard.
Currently, Henrietta does not have additional bike boulevards in the works, Sefranek said. But she's pushing for the town to establish a street and bike safety committee, which could advocate for additional bike boulevards and work with the community, particularly youth and families, around what they want to see.
"When I think about young people and bikes, it's like, that's their independence, right?" Sefranek said. "You know, they can't drive yet, so this is how they get from this is how they get to their friends. This is how they get to their sports. This is how they get to their social life, or their jobs. And I want to hear from them about what's going to work to help them to get to the places they need to go."
