The work flow on this chart kind of bothers me. The Level of Service (LOS) analysis happens before the analysis for Complete Streets!? Level of service is a measurement of how long cars have to wait to get through an intersection....an ancient standard that takes only vehicle traffic into account. This diagram suggests that Complete Streets analysis can only take place if the LOS is currently acceptable. However, the modern logic is if we had a complete street that serviced alternate travel modes better...then there would be less vehicle traffic and the LOS would improve! See the problem!?
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| Not the busiest meeting, but still well attended. |
Interestingly, our favorite Junkie owner was in attendance (and yes, I do genuinely like her on a personal level) and stayed at the table with the Midtown map. One of my friends joked that she was guarding it.... However, when another cyclist added some comments, she and Jessica began to talk. Since we're currently looking at only Sharrows through midtown, the topic of what speed limit the region will get is still up in the air. To my pleasant surprise, Jessica is pushing for the lowest option on the table (15mph)! This is great news because I suspect that RTC and City Council aren't really planning for it to be that slow. Perhaps if Great Streets Coalition plays it's cards right and gets the other business owners to realize the slower limit will allow people to "find" their stores and use all that on street parking, we might just get it pushed through.
Anyway, that was the first meeting. So far so good. Hopefully, RTC and City Council members truly have the vision to build out a complete set of complete streets in our city!
Funny, I thought the same thing when I saw the "crew" guarding the downtown map/table. Nothing like self interest to get people to lobby for slower speeds so there is a silver lining I suppose. Since the Mayor made the statement that she'd like to see the speed limit lowered to 15 mph at the July CC meeting you'd think it could happen (I think she meant she wanted slower speeds posted immediately). The city (you know who I'm talking about) immediately said they could lower them to 25mph. The comments I wrote pretty much ended with me saying the downtown area should like like Copenhagen. Why not?! Time for some serious visionary infrastructure design in this city with the projected influx of people. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could have made it to the workshop! Several weeks ago, my husband and I went to a restaurant at MidTown. It was our first time at that establishment (called Beefys Reno). I spoke to the owner (about what a neat little gem of a place it is and if he was involved in the RTC Virginia Street/Midtown project). Long story short, I asked my husband how he found the place and--kid you not, he said while he was riding by on his road bike. He thought it was so cute that he wanted to go there together to eat lunch. So we rode our bikes from Sparks and had lunch! When we walk or bike, we notice so much more than when driving our cars so if the merchants at MidTown want to capture the local and tourist market, a slow, slow street would be better for business!
ReplyDeleteEspecially with the possibility of bike share coming to Reno. We don't want the fast streets scaring away tourists on bikes from MidTown do we?
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