Midtown Bike Planning - Two way cycletrack on Center St.

Well if you missed the meeting....you missed a great example of bicycle activism!  We had a packed house for the RTC presentation of  Center Street / Sierra Street bike lane options and had an immense amount of positive comments during the public comment period.

Impressively, we also had three city council members in attendance (and support) of moving the project forward with construction by 2020.  While we can always count on David Bobzien and most often have Oscar Delgado in our corner, I was pleasantly surprised to see Neoma Jardon present and pulling for the project.  She sits on the RTC board as the city counsel representative and has often offered some push back on previous bicycle oriented projects.  Perhaps her time on the RTC board has shifted her opinions or she sees some unique value in having an option for bicycle connectivity to midtown from UNR (since the Virginia St. reboot will not add bike lanes).  Either way we want to welcome her to our side and show her it's worth the political capital!

Given the good nature of the meeting, a large group of old and new bicycle advocates ended the night with a bike ride down Virginia St. (taking the lane the entire way) to Cheney Ave. and a visit to Pinion for a celebratory adult beverage and further bikey discussions!  Next time we hope you'll be there to join us!

Bicycle Warfare!

Below is an email from Scott Hall.  Scott has devoted himself to shepherding some of the RTC projects with good bicycle juju.    Fortunate for us that he has the time and devotion to track these projects, because it appears some have taken turns away from their true bicycle nature.  Below is the list and call to arms from Scott (Bold highlights for the details are mine).

Everyone,

Received word from RTC that they are presenting their proposals for road re-configurations for Plumas Street and Sutro Street at the Reno City Council meeting this Wednesday at 12 noon in the Agenda items J-2 and J-3. Unfortunately the staff proposals from Steve Bunnell, Reno Public Works, recommend a severe compromise for bicyclist and pedestrian safety. Both plans have incomplete road diets, putting bicyclists into intersections without bicycle lanes, or next to two-lane truck traffic.

Plumas would have two lanes traveling south in the proposed Alternative #2, with parking and bicycle lanes on both sides. Despite our committed efforts at the public meetings, written letters and comments, we were denied a "complete street". There is no way to see the final proposal until the meeting, and thus we can't analyze the exact specifics, but from the report it seems we will have another Frankenstein, opportunistic road conversion. In contrast the RTC, NDOT, UNR and the new guidance from the feds, AASHTO, recommended a complete road diet. I also recommended to include buffered bike lanes which separate bicyclists from traffic by another 2-3 feet, but was denied as well. These research-based improvements would allow even more riders such as children, families and inexperienced bicyclists to use Plumas Street to connect West Reno to South Reno. The AASHTO Bicycle Guide states that "latent demand" and "bicycle level of service" be measured and incorporated into the proposal. These of course were not done. The main dissent is from impatient motorists who don't want to be bothered by slow bicyclists and pedestrians in their way.

Sutro Street has a better opportunity to become the main North/South bicycle connector for North Valleys and Downtown Reno. Most of the corridor will be converted to two lanes, with bike lanes both ways. Despite explicit funding for the project from safety grants, the proposal does not include bicycle lanes from Wedekind to Oddie, the most congested section of Sutro. The plan basically tells bicyclists that they can take their chances through this intersection, which is where historically the most crashes occur. Instead of being a priority, bicyclist safety is deferred to motor traffic and engineering convenience. The upper section of Sutro by Hug High will also keep 4-lane traffic to potentially accommodate more traffic from a connection to Sun Valley. The implementation of bike lanes at the school would encourage more students to commute by bike and access Downtown Reno without needing a car. The road diet can be accomplished and is merely a choice by the City of Reno traffic engineer.

I hope our presence at the City Council meeting shows that we are still committed to making Reno a safer place to live and ride our bicycles and walk. We are already behind all the other cities in Nevada, including Las Vegas, Carson City and Sparks, in implementing improved bicycle facilities. We are challenged to continue our efforts for economic, health, and social gains through a consistently safe and inviting public infrastructure for bicyclists and pedestrians.

If you would like to support accommodations for all citizens on our public roadways, please come to the meeting, give public comments, and write a final letter to the City Council. I have created a invite if you know of someone else who is able to come.

https://www.facebook.com/events/379618015444942/?context=create

Thanks again for the support, and see you on Wednesday.

Scott Hall, Chairman

Committee for Bicyclists on 4th Street

RTC 4th and Prater Workshop.

Ok, I did advertise this a while back but I neglected to remind you all that it took place yesterday.  My bad, work was busy and there just wasn't time for a post.  RTC did a really nice job laying out the options and improvements that want to make along this corridor.  This was the second workshop on this project so they have already looked at and incorporated some public comments and options. 

I didn't snap any photos while I was there (sorry), but these are they types of ideas their looking at for the reconstruction.

Option one actually comes in 4 flavors including separated bike ways outside the "parkway" trees!  How very dutch.  They didn't have this on the flyers (just the posters) so you'll have to take my word for it.  Option two has 2 different configurations as well.  The public was give a chance to vote on which version they preferred.  When I left the option 1 configuration was leading by a wide margin.

RTC also had detailed poster board maps (like 10) that laid out all the problematic zones in the corridor, along with zones that represented likely opportunities for improvement.  It looks like they are really doing their homework on this.  They also have a signature page that you can sign to help show support for their TIGER grant application (federal program that distributes funds for this type of project).  This project will cost in the neighborhood of 12 million, so if you get a chance sign this!  These funds are really competitive and being able to demonstrate community support for projects definitely helps. 

Complete Streets a Reno overview.

This presentation is courtesy of Michael Moreno and RTC staff via our last Regional Transportation Committee meeting.  In my option, RTC has the right mindset on making our community more livable.  While complete streets is just one aspect of this, I've been impressed with the depth of the thought process our regional planners, advisory staff, and traffic engineers (yup, these guys are even on board) are going through in evaluating and improve our infrastructure for all modes of transportation.  It's a slow process to get through all the planning and get these types of designs implemented, but the RTC is turning the corner and we're seeing the results all around town!

LOS = Level of Service (meaning how many cars it handles in a "reasonable" time.

ADT = average daily trips (I think).

p.s.  I know some these have small fonts and are hard to read.  The maps are just not up to snuff even in my "original" copy.  I will send you the whole report if you leave a comment with your email but they're still hard to read.

RTC Reno....on the right path.

I know you hear me say that the RTC is actually a pretty good organization a lot.  I thought it might drive the point home to see what they picked up on at a recent public outreach meeting.