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By Mike Governale

It was nearly five years ago when I and a small group of RocSubway readers came together with a single goal; to strengthen our community by working to grow sustainable transportation options across our region. Together we formed Reconnect Rochester, Inc…

With nothing but small donations from ordinary citizens (totaling less than $4,000 in 2013), we accomplished some pretty awesome stuff this year:

• We established three new dedicated task forces, including a Bus Improvement Committee, Rail Transit Committee, and a Pedestrian Safety Committee. Each team will work with the community to make measurable improvements in each of these areas. (to join one of these committees email [email protected])
• We sent Rochester transit advocates to Albany with folks from RTS to ask our legislators for dedicated and reliable funding for public transit in Rochester.
• We pulled off another successful ROC Transit Day with even more fun stuff to do including a giant swing dance, city-wide treasure hunt, and bus excursions – all aimed at helping people become familiar with using our public transit system, AND all completely free of charge to the public. Participation increased over 70% from the year before!
• We hosted our first educational lecture , completely free of charge to the public.
• We have developed a plan to bring much needed seating to Rochester bus stops.
• We won our first small grant from APTA to build an online resource for alternative forms of transportation in Rochester.
• We are working with the City of Rochester on a plan to reuse and repurpose six large bus shelters on Main Street in our downtown.
• We continue to track local transportation projects so that we can notify the public of opportunities to have input.
• We continue to work “behind the scenes” to encourage our local city and town leaders to invest in active transportation planning, infrastructure, traffic-calming measures, and smart-growth policies.

Reconnect Rochester is a small group of volunteers with no members, no angel investors, and no full-time staff. We spend our own time and our own money on these things because we know that if we don’t, no one else will. And so, small donations are critical for us to continue our work.

This year we set a modest goal to raise $5,000 through our end-of-year campaign. But so far we are falling well short with just $2,500 so far. I DO think we can still hit our target. But with two weeks left before the end of the year, we’ll definitely need your help.

You Can Help

If you can, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution before December 31. You can make a one-time or recurring donation online here or send a check to:

Reconnect Rochester
Hungerford Complex
1115 East Main St., Box #61
Rochester, NY 14609

Believe me when I say, we will make every little bit travel as far as we can.

See more Reconnect Rochester photos on Flickr

Tags: mass transportation, public transit, public transportation, Reconnect Rochester, Rochester, Rochester NY, transit

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 13th, 2014 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Transit + Infrastructure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.