The Beechwood Neighborhood Coalition recently painted the intersection at the Parsells Avenue and Greeley Street crossing to improve neighborhood traffic problems. The newly painted mural is designed to draw driver attention and encourage slower speeds in a space with heavy pedestrian traffic. The goal is to make the Parsells Avenue neighborhood a safer place to live.
This mural will hopefully benefit everyone from pedestrians to cyclists. The hope is that even drivers will react positively to the sudden splash of color at the heart of this neighborhood.
In addition to the large-scale mural painted across the intersection, there are installations acting as placeholders for future freestanding permanent art structures. The whole project is connected to a growing initiative in the Rochester area to improve city safety. The project, Complete Street Makeover, accepted nominations through June 8, 2018, and is currently working with those streets selected to improve their safety.
The Complete Street Makeover is part of Reconnect Rochester, which houses a number of improvement programs across the city. Within the Complete Street Makeover project, there are no two streets alike. Part of the idea is to experiment and discover which method works best for improving overall pedestrian safety in the city of Rochester.
Pedestrian and cyclist safety is a huge part of Reconnect Rochester’s goals. Nationally, bicyclists deaths were most common during the evening from six to nine at night. In 2016, nearly 71% of deaths occurred during those times in urban areas.
The original submitter who nominated the Parsells intersection for the makeover cited that a child had died on the road in November of 2016.
“Parsells is often used as a cut-through and speedway and it’s not at all uncommon for vehicles to be traveling at 50-plus mph,” they wrote.
The neighborhood gathered feedback from residents before beginning the project and selected the most appropriate makeover idea for the area. The painting on the intersection at this point is temporary as the city continues to experiment with the best means of providing safe neighborhoods for pedestrians and cyclists. Data gathered from this point will be used by city and county officials to determine if permanent streetscapes will benefit the city overall.
No Comment