ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A bike lane installed on University Avenue was torn up and replaced just months later, leaving cyclists questioning why the city changed course from it’s original plan.
What stands there now is what’s called a shared use pathway for both pedestrians and bike paths. But when it was first built just a few months ago, parts of University Avenue were kept separate for cyclists and pedestrians.
“The cycle track on the south side here actually was built last year. The asphalt was in the ground. It was set,” Hendrik de Smidt said.
De Smidt is a cyclist here in Rochester. Reporter Tom Kowalski met him when he was out biking along University Avenue, and he told him about a question he was looking for an answer for: What happened to the bike lane?
“And then over the winter, it was torn up and replaced with this shared wide sidewalk,” de Smidt said.
For years, the city of Rochester has been working to become more bicycle friendly. Since 2011, they’ve installed nearly 70 miles of bicycle infrastructure like bike lanes and cycle tracks.
But according to information from the city obtained by News10NBC via a Freedom of Information Law request, the original plan was to install separate bike accommodations as part of a larger Preventative Maintenance Project. They had originally installed an asphalt bike path parallel to some parts of University Avenue, as shown in plans from 2024, at the cost of $123,944. But after “not meeting the City’s or neighborhood’s expectations,” it was ripped up and replaced with the shared use path seen today, at the cost of $401,430.
“Where I do take issue is when we start prioritizing the aesthetic concerns of a handful of property owners along the frontage of a corridor over the safety of the, as we know from the data, thousands of people who use this road for transportation,” de Smidt said.
De Smidt isn’t the only one upset about the changes made from the original plans to the current layout. Reconnect Rochester’s Cody Donahue is disappointed as well.
“Especially on the north side there, there was a provision for continuous cycle tracks five feet wide that would go pretty much the whole span of University, from Culver over to Atlantic. And now it’s mostly in street, almost all in street, and it’s not protected,” Donahue said.
Cyclists question Rochester’s decision to remove University Avenue bike lane WHEC.com.
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