Keystone Complete Street Meeting (Updated w/ KTVN report).

Well, last night was another Keystone Ave. meeting about the potential design options.  They cover a distance all the way from Keystone and California to north to Coleman.  Since this project has actually received a bit of push back from somewhere, the meetings are very well attended by both sides and by the local politicals. 

I saw both the Aizzi's and Naoma Jardon our current council member....and I'm sure there were a few other Mayoral candidates.  The honest truth is there are so many of them I probably wouldn't recognize some of them if they did say hello!  Anyway, it definitely shows that complete streets aren't a done deal in this political climate.

It was also busy enough that I wasn't able to get clear shots of the options presented on all the boards.  In short the Booth St. and California intersection had about 5 different options ranging from leave it alone, to various traffic circle options with bike and ped improvements, and bridge reconstructions with bike and ped improvements.  I'd guess most people opted for one of the traffic circle options based on the folks I talked with.

There was also discussion on using Vine St. (a residential side street to Keystone) as a way to get bicycles through to downtown.  It was popular with folks at the meeting, but it also represents a lack of will to not just take the easy way out in my opinion.  Keystone is the arterial with access to all the businesses....there should be a place here for people, bikes, and cars.....not just cars.  This is a prime example of a choice to only pick the lowest hanging fruit.  I think we are ready to move past this view and Keystone is the opportunity at hand.  So come on folks, let's do this one right!

The other design options presented were in my home turf, the northern portion of Keystone (North of I-80).  The design options presented were drop a lane and add a center turn lane and bike lanes, or a "combo" option were the first design is only instituted north of Kings Row, and South to the freeway we have "shared" lanes with marked sharrows (lane markings that warn drivers that bicycles are present and may take the entire lane).  There's no contest here for the correct decision.  We need a complete street, not a combo option.  You only have to look at W7th right next door (same traffic volumes and only 1 lane with bike lanes in each direction) to see it works just fine without causing traffic issues.  Come on folks, we need this one!

So that's the write up....sorry not to give maps to show this stuff but I'm time limited right now.

Finally, it was a beautiful evening to ride to the event and as usual we had a good crew of cyclist on hand.  Here's a bit of evidence!

Full bike racks make me happy!

Update:  Here's ktvn's report on the meeting.


KTVN Channel 2 - Reno Tahoe News Weather, Video -