Get anywhere in 20 minutes
Mobility Options
Choosing city living is choosing the freedom of multiple options for getting around. In many city neighborhoods, stores, restaurants, and services are within walking distance, providing the option for a “car-free” or “car-lite” lifestyle. Across the country, more and more people are choosing to locate in walkable neighborhoods. Walk Score, a company that has developed a walkability index for communities nationwide, rates 14 Rochester neighborhoods as “very walkable” or “walker’s paradise.”
The Erie Canalway Trail and Genesee Riverway Trail form the back-bone of Rochester’s bicycle infrastructure and the city was named a ‘Bicycle Friendly Community’ by the League of American Bicyclists. Rochester has recently completed both a Bicycle Master Plan and a Bicycle Boulevard Plan. The city is implementing these plans with additional trail segments, on-street markings and bike lanes, and two soon-to-be-constructed cycle tracks: fully separated on-street bike paths.
The Regional Transit Service (RTS) provides another option for city residents, with bus service on many main corridors across the city. The new downtown transit center is a state-of-the-art facility for transfers. Hopping on a warm bus and letting someone else drive is a nice alternative to digging out your car on Rochester’s snowy days! All RTS buses are equipped with bike racks, further expanding transportation options.
While Rochester rightfully boasts the ease and amazing timing of its car commutes and the overall breeziness of getting around town, there are an array of modes and methods for getting around – and to and from – Rochester.
Easy Commutes
For drivers, The City offers interstate expressways (I-390, I-490, and I-590) for provide easy access to quick navigation of the city and region. Within the city, a dense network of avenues and streets, laid out in a modified grid pattern, provide multiple routes to travel around town., as well as a variety of scenic/interesting and efficient boulevards and parkways to get around town. Thousands of city streets, laid out traditionally and efficiently in a grid system, offer many route choices and a variety of scenery.
The Regional Transit Service provides solid, reliable bus service throughout the city and county (see information, schedules, and trip planners at this link).
And for those who prefer to get around on foot or on bicycle, Rochester is navigable as well, thanks to a great network of well-maintained sidewalks and crosswalks, and through a choice of wide streets that offer ample space for the cyclist. (Also – the RGRTA buses also offer bike racks on the front!) In addition, Rochester’s spectacular and interconnecting off-road trails – the Genesee Riverway Trail, the Erie Canalway Trail, and the Genesee Valley Greenway– provide not only scenic walking and cycling options, but also wonderful commuting/everyday-transportation options!
The City of Rochester has completed a Bicycle Boulevard Plan to create parallel bicycle-friendly streets along key arterial corridors characterized by high automobile traffic volumes, high parking demand, and/or constrained rights of way which make standard on-street bicycle lanes difficult to achieve.
Get out of town
Amtrak conveniently provides several trains a day to Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Albany, New York City, and beyond. The downtown station is currently being rebuilt to provide easier boarding and a more welcoming environment for travelers.
Also downtown, across the street from the train station, multiple long distance bus lines connect Rochester to places like Batavia, Buffalo, Toronto, Geneva, Ithaca, and beyond.
The Greater Rochester International Airport, 12 minutes from downtown Rochester by car, offers dozens of direct flights a day via several major carriers to myriad cities in the east, south, and even western U.S. cities, such as: New York, Washington, Atlanta, Chicago, Orlando, Tampa, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and more.
