So much going on lately....

Sorry there hasn't been anything new lately.  I've had clients in the office and it's just been busy.  Anyway there are several things that I wanted to post on so they're all going to be thrown together here this morning.  First up the fun stuff.  We had a pseudo rogue BPAC'esk (Bicycle and Ped Advisory Committee) get together over at Public House in Mid-town last Tuesday.  Officially it was a gathering to celebrate our RTC liaison stepping down from her position.  She has been a huge part of the improvements for bikes (and peds) here in Reno over the last decade and she will be missed.

A couple of panorama's of the crew.  It appears my (and many others) theories about the correlation of bicycles and beer is well founded!  However, the discussion was serious, ranging from how to try to get the right person to replace our friend at RTC, and the future directions that BPAC should be focused on.  We had a little round the table discussion/listing of our priorities for future work and it looked something like this:

Improvements on the Truckee River Bike Path
Better bike lanes on Longly
General Connectivity of our Bike Lane System
Build actual Bike Blvds.
Build some Green Lanes (Bike Lanes with Paint)
Encouraging Women's Biking
Get Company to Support Biking (companies support / promote cycling to work)
Build some Protected Bike Lanes
Work on the next Generation (Middle School Bike Programs)

As you can see....it ranges from very specific, to building for the future.  How we prioritize these is still up in the air, but it's definitely a good list to start with!

We also have received new bike lights (for the Bright Reno Lights Program) that will be distributed to people who need them (for free).  Prior to breaking up for the evening, we hit the bike racks to install a few!  I wonder if their new owners were happy to find they were now equipped for night riding!?

And no....not all the bikes were ours.  People actually ride around in mid-town!

The other big topic is the Keystone road diet.  This project has drawn large crowds at the public meetings (both for and against).  It has also been a bit of a political hot potato....since the city council (lead by Neoma Jardon) stopped the project from going forward as planned last fall. 

Sadly, a life was claimed on Keystone last week on this section of road.  You can get a very well thought out and well written article over at Reno-Rambler. 

My short version of the longer argument.....the road diet might have prevented this tragedy through decreased traffic speeds, altered traffic lane configurations, and decreased points of contact (how many lanes you cross and have chances to be hit).

Here's KTVN's story:



We can debate a particular accident and whether it would have been prevented with the complete street / road diet reconfiguration.  The fact is the road would be safer with the remake than it is without it.  And just possibly this type of accident and loss of life could have been avoided.