Moving at Village Speed

In this episode of Fairport Forward, we explore how the way people move through Fairport shapes how the Village feels and why that matters for the local economy. Drawing from our community survey feedback, we talk about how Fairport is at its best when it’s experienced at human scale: walking along Main Street, biking into town, docking along the canal, and lingering a little longer.

We discuss why walkability is one of Fairport’s core strengths, how calm and predictable movement supports local businesses, and how different modes of transportation can work together. Joined by urbanist Arian Horbovetz, we look at what works in other village-scale communities and how Fairport can build on what already makes it special.

The Urban Phoenix Blog: https://theurbanphoenix.com/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hi, I'm Jonna McCouee.

SPEAKER_01 0:01

And I'm Amy Olds.

SPEAKER_02 0:03

And we're back with Fairport Forward. Today we're going to be talking about multimodal transportation in our village, learning about what that means, all the things that we've got in place from a multimodal transportation perspective, how we can better support all the ways people come to our village. We've got a great guest today who can add some good commentary to that, has some good ideas. So let's get into it. As always, are talking about our DRI survey. And when we did the survey, there were a few DRI projects related to transportation on the whole. And though when we talk about transportation today, we're talking about walking, biking, driving, boating because you're coming on the canal. You might even take a bus to the village of Fairport. Maybe I'm leaving out anyways.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

But those are some good ways.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Yeah, yeah. So the projects that we had in the DRI application that related to transportation included the trolley project, an exciting one that I hope we get into a little more later, our wayfinding and signage projects, some improvements to our harbor.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Those are the main three that I think touch on transportation as a whole.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Yeah. So we had those projects in the application, and of course, people had thoughts about it. So let's hear about that, Amy. What did people think about transportation in the village?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Sure. So in the survey, people definitely talked about biking a lot. Biking was a topic for the comment section. People that really wanted to focus in on ways we can improve the safety of biking through the village. Everyone appreciates that taking the canal path on a bike is really fun, but people often would say, Well, I don't know about taking a family bike ride down Main Street, for example. People didn't really have a ton of negative comments about anything particularly. There was obviously, it's mostly safety stuff. Like cars, I don't want cars whizzing past me. I maybe don't feel comfortable if there's not like a separation between my kid on a bike and some car that's whizzing off of the railroad tracks, that kind of thing. And as far as the trolley project goes, I think that garnered a lot of positive feedback, which made me excited. A lot of folks said, Oh my gosh, that'd be so cool for me to just like step out of my house, walk a block, and take a trolley down to the cannery for the night, and then get back on and I'm home. So I think residents particularly thought that was cool, even though I had thought it would be more appealing to visitors.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Right. Well, that's exactly where the idea came from. How can we relieve some of the congestion that we have in some parts of the village at certain points of time? We know we do get a lot of car traffic, and as is typical, people want to take that car and put it like right exactly where they're going. So with a trolley, we could hopefully alleviate some of that, have the benefit of people experiencing the whole of Main Street, the whole village, and not just that one place that they wanted to go that day.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Yeah. So it was really interesting that there were these tiers of safety concerns, no matter what mode of transportation you were utilizing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

So that's where the survey stands. Great, great thoughts. Um, let's hear from Ariane. Yeah, so Ariane, first you should introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

So I'm Arian Horbovitz. I'm the um author of the Urban Phoenix blog. I've been writing this blog for 11 or 12 years now. Um typically I focus on cities. I live in Rochester. It's a great city. What inspired me about this is talking about communities and talking about how do we get back to communities where we connect. Placemaking is a huge thing for me. That third space is a huge thing for me. You know, how do we talk about making our cities not just car friendly, but also pedestrian, bike friendly? You can get around in lots of different modes of transportation. And that's really, really important to me. I had somebody recently, I was mentioning that I was going to be on this on this program, and they were saying, Well, you know, you're a city guy, come on, you know, and whatever. I love Fairport. I love what Fairport has done, both for residents and for visitors. I bike to Fairport regularly, especially in the route.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Do you take the canal?

SPEAKER_03 4:05

I take the canal. I live in the Highland Park area. So I have the Highland Crossing Trail right across from my apartment where I live my wife. And uh, you know, I can hop right on the canal path and go, it's about an hour trip.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

And go right into Fairport. And it's such a lovely trip.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

It's very important.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

And I know so many people that experience Fairport from that perspective, right? You know, you uh the best part about that trip too is when you come into Fairport, there's this when you're a cyclist, you're rarely welcomed into a community. And you have that really neat kind of you know entrance, entryway uh, you know, from the canal path, uh, the Empire Strait State Trail there, uh, into the community. And you feel like you're welcome. There's bathrooms there if you need to use them. That's a really amazing small amenity that is a big deal for you know, if you're going to approach the community that way. So I love that entrance into the Fairport community. I just love what the town has done to kind of really set itself apart as a dynamic destination, both for residents and for visitors like myself.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

Love to hear it. Great. Do you want to get a job with us?

SPEAKER_03 5:11

I I I I love it. I love what you're doing. I I love the the kind of dynamic. It's hard to kind of have these conversations, right, sometimes in small town settings, right? Because a lot of times you have conversations between residents and visitors. And, you know, finding a common ground and blending those conversations is is really vital and sometimes difficult. But I think you guys do a phenomenal job of that.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Well, thank you. And our last episode was about tourism specifically, and uh, maybe you did listen to it. Uh and we had Visit Rochester here, but that same concept of it has to be that you balance those two together. So it's great to hear that someone with you know such an amazing transportation interest sees us that way because we like to think of ourselves as that way. But um hearing it from a third party feels good.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Yeah. To that point, I think the reason there are so many comments and thoughts is because of the foundation we already have. We have a very walkable community. We're fortunate in that way. It's unique to have the canal path coming right onto your main street. It's unusual that we have even another transportation like entertainment feature is all of the trains, right? You can't get on and off the train, but do you know how many people are train watchers and want to come and watch those trains? Here's one right here. I'm one of those people.

SPEAKER_03 6:31

I love the train platform as somebody who used to go there. I'm a train nerd, always have been. Um it's nice because you know, I know so many people used to go there and watch trains. Now you have a space to do that. And I think it's cool that the the mix of people that are there, whether it's young kids, whether it's you know, ex-railroad employees and stuff like that that have that. Um I love that dimension to the it's it's almost a that in itself is almost a community tourist uh uh destination. It's is you know, watching trains if if you're somebody like me.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Yeah, definitely. Awesome. So we we do have that foundation, we have the the walkability, we have a lot of bike ability, and now we're talking about how can we best support all the ways that you arrive to our village and also the whys behind why we should. There is a direct benefit from a business and economic perspective to making sure you can support again all the ways people arrive to the village, but also the pace by which they move through. So if you're just you know gonna cruise down Main Street in your car and you don't have to stop and you're just you know from this point to that point, that's not a huge benefit from our merchants. It that it doesn't really reflect what Fairport has to offer. We also have to remember there's an economic development impact to moving through the village slowly and not just cruising down Main Street.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Yeah, that's a great point. I think you know, there there are countless studies that show that per capita, people spend more money at local businesses uh when they're on foot, when they're on bike, than when they, you know, are in their car. You know, when you're in your car, you have to find a parking space. First of all, you're kind of in this space where you're amongst other traffic, you're feeling like you have to keep moving forward, and and when you're on foot or when you're on bike, you have the freedom of being able to stop, uh, tie up your bike anywhere. So there are studies that have shown that, like I said, 30% uh people spend 30% more at shops on foot than they do uh when they're in their car.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

You notice things. I mean, if you're just in your vehicle and you probably are there for at least potentially a main purpose, right? I'm maybe task-oriented. I'm going to the UPS store. I need to park as close as possible to the UPS store. I don't notice that this shop window has a new display of cute stuff, or oh, a new little shop just opened, or I could just go grab a coffee real quick. So when you're slowing down, we that's what we're gonna call this episode village speed. Village speed. It's not about rush, rush, rush. It's about embracing the character and charm of what Fairport can be, and maybe not getting all crinky when the lift bridge is up or when a train's going by, but instead remembering it to celebrate those moments of village speed and and remembering it is a strength for us.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

Yes, Amy. That is you mentioning that, talking about the trains and talking about the lift bridge are two key elements. I wrote a piece on how this helps make Fairport such a vibrant place.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

We'll link it in the show notes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:34

So think about like if you're ever a pedestrian, right? You've been a pedestrian, I'm sure, at one point or another along a busy, fast-moving traffic street, right? It's not fun. It's not a good experience, right? When traffic moves slowly, sometimes it's inhibited by, you know, a train or a lift bridge in Fairport, you know, for example, or just general traffic on Church Street, right? But you feel like the cars are not moving that much faster than you. And that does a weird thing to your brain that you don't even realize, right? So when that's the case, when traffic is moving slowly, that's where you're going to see places where people feel good about walking, uh, good about biking, uh, you know, getting scootering, whatever your mode of transportation is, or uh just what whatever your vibe is and your feel is, that's always accentuated by slower traffic. And that's something that because of Fairport's kind of barriers to traffic speed, those are actually positives to community building. And I think outside of Fairport, a place like Schoen Place, right, in Pittsford, you have that same situation. You have slow moving traffic through there because the streets are narrow, there's a lot of pedestrian traffic. That's where you see a lot of vibrancy. So I think about Schoen Place, I think about downtown Fairport as those same places where traffic speed is restricted, and that is a positive, not a negative.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Love to see it that way. I think that's something we can all really remember when instead of driving a main street and the next train comes by and slow us down. Or sometimes it'll be like the lifter just came down and then you're stuck in that little spot and you're like you hear the horn and go, Oh my god. But you're right, it is it is wonderful for our merchants, it's wonderful for our vibes, and everyone loves the vibes. Yes, definitely definitely discovered through all of this conversation.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

So um we've got this great foundation. I'm interested to talk about how do we take it to the next level? We know we have a bikeable community, people are riding their bike down the towpath, they're coming, they're staying, they're passing by, um, maybe they're on foot. What are the ways that communities like ours can enhance what we have on offer and and you know, through that cycle, attract more folks to our downtown?

SPEAKER_03 11:45

Yeah, it I think there's a lot of opportunities for Fairport to, especially from a cycling perspective on the canal there, um, to to you know, kind of welcome more of that modality, right? You know, Church Street, interestingly enough, has you know it's a major thoroughfare, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:02

And you have um Church Church Street, even though most of our listeners do know Church Street is 31F, but it's it's 31F if you're not from Fairport, that's Church Street. And how most of our car traffic arrives to our village is right up 31F, now you're on Church Street and in our village.

SPEAKER_03 12:20

So Church Street has those um you know shoulders, they're not necessarily bike lanes, but you have that opportunity, that space um to explore in the future and maybe putting up some bollards along there. So that cyclists so the the interesting thing is if you're on bike uh and you're looking to bike for transportation, not just for or even for recreation as well, um, it's for both. If you bike in the sidewalk, you're a menace to um pedestrians. If you bike in the road, people honk at you and you know don't like so any kind anytime you have that division, that space that's specifically yours on bike, uh where you feel safe, you you're not bothering pedestrians, also you're not in the way of drivers. If you can basically cordon off that space, if you can create some sort of uh delineation between traffic and cyclists, other than you know, a little strip of paint, um, that's huge. There's an opportunity on I think on Church Street.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

That's interesting for you to say because I know many of our streets are restricted from a you know, we're a little village and we have narrow streets just like other places made. But you're right, Church Street does have that width that could accommodate something like that. It's interesting because I I know from doing the research for the show that there is safety in even the perception of safety when you are not only separated, but also just like the clarity of knowing you are supposed to be there and and other people know that you are supposed to be there. Like to your point, the driver is like, nope, they're in the they're they're where they're supposed to be, and I'm over here.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

And that's that's a huge thing that you mentioned. You know, people talk about bike lanes as you know, there's there's a whole lot of people. Oh, we know the comment section has a lot to say. But bike lanes can be good for drivers as they are for cyclists, right? Because you know that these folks have this room, right? And you're not gonna be in that room and they're not gonna be in your room, right? Like so they have their own space, and that's cool. I appreciate that very much because sometimes if you're approaching a cyclist and there are no bike lanes, there's no shoulders, no nothing, you as a driver go, should I go around them? How should I go around them? How close should I get? Um, you know, any time you have an opportunity to kind of create a space that is specifically dedicated for that, you know, mode of transportation is really, really important, even for the people who are not using that mode of transportation. It makes easier for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Yeah. Your idea of Church Street is interesting. So um in preparing for this episode, John and I met with Andy Martin, who is a member of our village planning board and a transportation guy by trade. He had um some very similar points of view and knows uh when he talks about bike lanes, he talks a lot about how it's not that we just put bike lanes everywhere. It's that you also have to have like reasonable expectations of what can work here and that it's not as simple as just throwing them up everywhere and just, well, there they are, have fun, go forth.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Even uh another point from that conversation with Andy is that bikers are not all equal, right? There there are the type A biker, maybe that's you, Arian, who's gonna ride it. I think Andy described it as a type A biker is gonna bike anywhere. They would probably bike on 490 if you would let them do that. Um, a type B biker is um going to bike for transportation with the right facility, the things that we talked about just now. There's uh maybe barriers, maybe a clearly marked lane. You know, if there's a good spot for them, that then they're happy. And then there's the type C biker who is typically more recreational. They would want to be on the sidewalk, they're their families with children, they they probably also don't feel safe in that bike lane. And so it's important to remember as we look at solutions or opportunities that it's not a one size fits all in a bike line down Main Street doesn't necessarily make it any easier for that uh family and young kids to bike down Main Street if they're too close to traffic or so.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Andy was talking about maybe finding they that that type of biker might be more interested in a bike-only area or an area where, yeah, I'm gonna take my kids down and we're gonna putz around for an hour and then we'll go grab ice cream after, but we're not gonna spend all of our time, you know, biking up and down the main street, downtown corridor, Fairport.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

But still connections are important for those. So, do you have any thoughts about the concept of we may have opportunities within the village to create more bike lanes or bike boulevards and those kinds of things, but also can we create opportunities to connect our village from some of the further away places? And what are the best ways to do that?

SPEAKER_03 17:04

Yeah, definitely being a city advocate for these kinds of things, cities have something that is inherently different than suburbs. We cities have street grids, right? So you have main streets, and then just sometimes a block away, you have a side street that has far less traffic and is much easier to navigate on bike, right? Less traffic, it's moving slower, maybe it's more residential. So, for example, uh living in the Highland Park area with my wife, um, if you're gonna drive into the city, you're gonna take Goodman, okay? But one street over is Meg Street. Meg Street is far less traveled, right? Uh, very low car count. Um, and there's there's um speed bumps. So if I'm biking, I'm moving at the speed of cars, right? Because I could just fly over those speed bumps where cars have to slow down as they approach. Umurbs unfortunately don't have that uh luxury usually of having a street grid. Usually they're what are called collector roads. For example, Ayrault is what we would call a collector road, where neighborhoods are built off of that, and those neighborhoods are typically isolated, they're not interconnected, they end in a cul-de-sac, or maybe they just uh it's a circle, right? Yeah, a bunch of meandering streets. Right, right. And there's nothing wrong with that, it's just a different level of design. So there's not as much of an opportunity for suburbs to create those kind of alternate routes off the main routes. However, I did, for example, look at Fairport and see you can actually get from downtown Fairport to the Parenton Wegmans with maybe traveling along a main road. You can even be on the sidewalk for about 30 seconds.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Okay, wonderful.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

So there are ways you can knit through a community through those off-street. You mentioned bike boulevards, and that's kind of that example, right? Bike routes that are off the beaten path that you wouldn't maybe consider, but are actually really pleasant routes. So I think of areas like um, I think West Avenue, um, you know, right in downtown Fairport, you could um kind of go off of Church Street there and you can access downtown Fairport.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Is that the one that kind of curves around? Like it follows the canal path kind of, but or what am I thinking incorrectly?

SPEAKER_03 19:15

It connects back with you mentioned the cream the creamery there. Oh, Moonlight Creamery Moonlight Creamery, right? Yeah, like the back of the garage. It's it's a residential street, right? But like if you are coming up, you know, uh Church Street, for example, and didn't want to, you know, go to that main intersection in downtown between church and right, yeah. I mean, there's a lot of traffic, obviously. And the good thing, it it's not terrible. It's it's move it's slow-moving traffic for the most part, it's great. But if you want to avoid that altogether, you could take that street, you could take West Av into downtown. And it's it's finding those strategies, it's thinking differently about how you get from point A to point B.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Now that is obviously something that as a bicyclist and you drove around and looked or rode around probably, but is that something where you would see like an opportunity for like some sort of cute signage? Like this is the a fun bikeway. Like, is that how you take it to the next level that you recognize and show that, yeah, we care about you too. We care about someone that's using a bicycle and we want to direct you and and educate you on some interesting routes to take, or like how do you take how do you get the word out that that's something cool?

SPEAKER_03 20:21

That's a great question. Signage is everything there, right? Like, so when you're accommodating, you know, you're you're on the you're you're in a car and you see signs all the time that accommodate you. Most of those signs don't have any meaning to cyclists.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Are there any like industry standards for bicycle signage? This is very new to me.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

If you go to Rochester, we have lots of bike boulevards on downtown Rochester. And what they'll do is they'll give you um, you know, um, you know, this many miles to this destination, this many miles to this street, this many miles to this street. And when you see that, it that's really, really cool. It's a welcoming thing. Also, you know, if you want to create a community map, if you want to make this a priority and say, this is a map of how you get about, you know, how you move about uh Fairport um, you know, on bike. I love it. I think that would be a phenomenal resource because, you know, again, with so many people moving through the canal path there, I I think that that would be a great resource for the phone.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

That's really cool, even like a little uh brochure that you pick up maybe at in at the by the public restroom. Um actually taking it back to Andy, he told us that there's an ingredient that people don't often think about, which is bike storage or parking. So like say that we have that area, you're coming up the canal path and you're like, ah, I'm gonna swing into the village for a hot minute. But then what? Like where you need somewhere very obvious for you to put your bike safely and feel confident that it's gonna still be there when you come back. And, you know, to your point, the that area could be perfect for that. You know, hey, here's where I'm filling my water bottle up because we have a water station there and I'm gonna run to the restroom and my bike's safely parked and locked up and now I'm gonna walk in.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

So um another tool that Andy had mentioned is not just having those, but the communication of those are around. Making sure that can you get those bike stations listed on Google Maps? Do people know where to find those resources? How what to do once you arrive? And maybe this is a great segue, although I think we could talk about bikes this whole time and a whole other episode. Let's talk about we we're doing it a little bit now. Once you get to the village on your bike, um we have the right supports there. You can fill your water bottle, you can use a restroom, you can repair your bike. Repair your bike at a bike station over there. Um good. We want to we want to get another one.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

We think we need another one on the other side.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Um but then there's the concept, okay, now you're here, and we also want to serve the pedestrian. Um so I know you ride your bike a lot of places, but then you're also an urbanist, so you get off that bike and you explore. One of our DRI projects is wayfinding and signage. And the the best way to make sure that we use those for yes, for cars, where do I park if I have to go to this place? I don't need to drive there. I could park in this public parking lot. But also, I'm just walking down Main Street. I I want to know what's five minutes down that way, or I just parked my my bike, I want to find something to eat. Thoughts on innovative ways to use your wayfinding to serve all modes of transportation.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

One thing that we say as urbanists, right, is no matter what your mode of transportation is, whether you're driving, biking, using a scooter, whatever you're doing, riding the bus, you're always eventually a pedestrian. Yes, it's one point or another, you are always on foot. Yeah. So, you know, how do you best kind of accommodate that experience? I would say that Fairport, inherently as it is, is already extremely walkable. Um, you know, I love to park my bike. You know, when I come into Fairport there, I I lock up there at one of the one of the bike, you know, the nice uh bike stations there, and then I become a pedestrian. And, you know, I use that public restroom that's there, I'll fill up a water bottle, like you said, um, and then I'm on foot. And I'm visiting, you know, the little um shop, you know, uh uh across the street there, um, you know, which is great. I'll go over to the cannery. I love whiskey, so you know, iron smoke is always a distant destination. I'll go over the the was it, Lulu's uh Takoria there, which is amazing. Um, you know, and I think Fairport is fantastic if you are on foot. It's just a great place to explore and pop into whatever place you want to go to. Um, but you know, always, always, always, again, signage is huge. If you can say, you know, this many miles to the, you know, 0.3 miles to this, 0.7 miles to this.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Or maybe walk time. That could be average walk time.

SPEAKER_03 24:57

I was used to O'Hare Airport, and it was just nice to say it's you know, 15 minutes to gate, whatever, you know, and it does.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Oh, I'm always going.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

I can walk five minutes. Yeah. Or I have time to go pop in here because I only takes me 10 more minutes.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Maybe you have some mobility challenges too. Maybe you're somebody, you know, and you know, to say, you know, to see that you're walking five minutes instead of 15.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Um, that might be a good transition to talking about the trolley, because I really want to talk about the trolley before we get run out of time. But do it. Thinking of all the different reasons why a trolley could be cool. And one of them is to accommodate those with accessibility challenges or just, you know, we maybe you just can't think about walking that far. You know, there are days when even the most the most athletic person just they're on a break from it. And it's a part of the experience of the charm of Fairport, you know, to lean into that with something like a trolley, I think could be really cool. Um we I've seen a couple in different places. Maybe you could speak because you're more well traveled than I am, but I did see one in action in um Charleston, and it was super cute and all kind of uh branded uh to the city. I I don't know if it was run by the city or who it was, but people were using it and it was cool. It's like have you seen anything like that in action? Or what what kind of um recommendations could you make if if something like that were to get some legs?

SPEAKER_03 26:26

Yeah, definitely. And when you're talking trolley, I assume you're not talking like tracks in the ground and talking a big thing. We call it a trolley. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

It's shh, don't tell anyone, it's a shuttle bus. But give a cute shuttle bus that looks like a trolley and that fits the aesthetic of the village. The vision is it will run up and down Main Street. Maybe there would even be two. So you could start at one end, you could start at another end, park your car, park your bike, arrive on on the uh uh Colonial Belt, and hop on that trolley and go up and down Main Street and hop off when you want to. And that's the vision for the trolley. Just to be clear, for the DRI project, we're talking about investing in the the shelter infrastructure of the trolley, not the actual vehicles. Yeah, the restrictions to certain grant funding and the the um the trolley station not could be not just the place where you hop on the trolley, it could also be a bike station. It could also be a bike rack.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

It could be where you fill your water, it could be, you know, there could be a lot of amenities there for pedestrians, bicyclists alike materials. There could like I know like right by the lift bridge, there's um like a brochure place, you know, that not in the winter because it gets all yuck, but um in the summer or three seasons, you can go and and see where uh merchants are offering a little trifield brochure. So so it could accommodate kind of visitation and hospitality stuff.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

Yeah, the opportunity for that um is is huge. Um you know, I I I've seen that in even smaller communities. Uh my aunt and uncle in New Hampshire uh have have a circulator trolley um that kind of you know goes around their their neighborhood, it's a little kind of destination. Um and that's the the cool thing is that's cool for residents and for visitors, right? So if you want to spend uh an evening in downtown, for example, you know, especially if you connect that circulator with parking, that's the idea. Now, you know, you're not just trying to find spaces for people to park downtown, you're also alleviating that congestion, that traffic congestion in downtown by taking a whole bunch of people that would otherwise be in a car. You you know, maybe have a parking a little bit outside of downtown. Now you bring all those people downtown with one vehicle instead of 30, right? So that alleviates all the congestion and and and the the hassle, right? For everybody. That's good for pedestrians, that's good for cyclists, that's good for drivers who have to park their car that want to experience Fairport. I think it's a phenomenal idea. I've seen it work. Um, circulators can be very, very kind of um they work in two ways. One, they do everything that I just mentioned, and two, they can be a little bit of an iconic piece. Uh uh kind of a, you know, this is our little trolley, our little can fit the vibe.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

The charm, all the things that we've we've already talked about as part of what make Fairport Fairport. So a trolley on Main Street doesn't take away from the vibe because oh my gosh, we have a permanent shuttle bus. The trolley on Main Street enhances your experience and lets you be part of the vibe, really.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

Imagine being a kid, right? Like, you know, a kid like myself. You know, I love taking, I was born in Chicago. I love taking the train. I love taking public transit. It was cool. You you wave at the the the the driver of the train, stuff like that. You know, kids love that.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Yeah, you're probably the kid that gets like the pilot pinned.

SPEAKER_03 29:48

Oh, a thousand percent I was. Yes, a hundred percent. Um, you know, so uh, you know, you think about families and stuff like that, that can be part of the experience too.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

Yeah, that's that's true.

SPEAKER_03 29:59

It's almost a little Disney World-ish, you know, where you kind of like, oh, I'm gonna get on the trolley and we're gonna go to downtown and we're gonna it's memorable. We're gonna get some ice cream and it's gonna be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

It's a different, it could be a different, a really unique, uh unique differentiator. I feel like that's the same thing, but um, it just really could lean into what we already have going for us. So it I I just love the idea. And and maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't. But um, there definitely was some support there in in the survey comments. There a lot of people were like, that is a cool idea. I think that uh there's also some trolley routes in Fairport, and I wish I knew more specifics, but I know there used to be trolleys that ran all the way to the city um way back in the day. But then I think even more recently they've talked about it like the dock man the dockmaster little hot, that is an old trolley station, as is like Lyftbridge Yarns. That so there's some interesting history there, so it's not just coming out of nowhere either, which I think makes it even cooler.

SPEAKER_03 30:58

That is true because you know, Fairport was a big railroad town. So, you know, to kind of again lean into that sort of thing, you know, would be kind of a neat, I think, piece um, you know, to kind of express that is this is how we used to be. We're bringing a little bit of that back. Yeah, that would be a really neat additive. Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

So this has been such a great conversation. We have so much foundation already from a walkable, bikeable, multimodal community, and so many opportunities with the DRI or in general to grow and build on that. Ariane, you've been such a great guest. Any closing thoughts for our listeners?

SPEAKER_03 31:38

No, I I gotta say, what you're doing in Fairport, what Fairport is doing as a whole is phenomenal. Um, like I said, I love being close to the city, but if I were to move outside of the city, Fairport would be where I would be. Um I absolutely love the community, I love the forward thinking, um, but I also love you know that that residents are also being considered to finding that middle ground, I think. Fairport is doing such a great job of being a destination while also being true to the people uh who live there and and and call it home.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Thank you so much. It feels so nice to hear that. And um, I just value your opinion on this topic so much. You know, what was funny was when I said, Oh, I said to Brian, my husband, hey, I had to I had to find a guest for for our multimodal episode. I said, I'll give you one guess who it is. And first he said, I don't know what multimodal means. So then once I told him that, then he said, So you definitely have a reputation uh built around, you know, how into bicycling and urbanism you are. So it was a pleasure to have you today. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Where can people find your blog?

SPEAKER_03 32:43

Um just go to the urbanphoenix.com. Um it's uh, you know, I I've been doing this for, like I said, uh 11, 12 years, um, talking about, you know, um uh communities, how we can get better about placemaking, um, you know, how we can, you know, build uh, you know, meaningful density uh into our communities, uh, how we can, you know, uh access our communities through you know different modes of transportation, talking about equity and what that means uh in communities. How do we create communities that are good for everyone, accessible for everyone? Um those are the conversations I love to have, and those are the things that I'm truly passionate about and why I do what I do.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Thank you so much. Great. All right, see you next time. We'll be back.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

Thanks so much.