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!

Reno Mayor believes we need Better Bike Infrastructure!

Well, we have some new numbers in from LimeBike (you can link to the article by clicking HERE).  Not surprisingly, Reno locals and tourists alike actually have embraced bicycles and took 36,000 trips and racked up 35,000 miles in one month!  So maybe this will be what it takes for everyone (Ahem...City of Reno and RTC) to get behind building a FULLY integrated, safe bicycle network in Reno.  It was disappointing to see midtown shirk off real bike lanes in the planning process over the last few years.  Hopefully, public statements like this from our Mayor will help swing the tide and not just be another talking point as our election cycle rolls around!

Bike Lanes in the News!

KTVN Channel 2 - Reno Tahoe News Weather, Video -

Bike lanes make the news!  I wonder if anyone on Reno City council will watch and learn!?

Want a Great Street in Midtown....Get to the Council Meeting tomorrow!!!!

Well folks....it time for the final showdown.  The vote to see if we get a truly Great Street in Midtown is tomorrow. The agenda item is J3 (see below) and will have the option for public comments if you fill out a comment card ahead of time (slated for a presentation time of 3:30 pm).

I'd make a joke about the fact that it's less important to council than J2 (the shade of grey we're going to paint the new Virginia Street bridge....but it just depressing that it might be true).

The Players...

The previous discussion from the July Meeting:

Discussion ensued regarding Option B as presented by RTC, and how it could be
refined during the design process to provide additional parking, perhaps on nearby
surface lots or on side streets; having the City provide guidance to RTC with
respect to the City's priorities; turn lanes and bicycle safety; lane sharing with
automobiles and bicycles; time lines associated with RTC's 2017-2018
construction plans; the possibility of replacing the parking spaces eliminated by
the project; and lowering the speed limit in the project area to15 or 25 miles per hour.

Council Member Duerr requested that RTC bring back displays depicting the entire project.

It was moved by Council Member Jardon, seconded by Council Member
Duerr to select Option B as the preferred alternative with: 1) an evaluation
of off-street surface parking lot availability and side-street diagonal parking possibilities; 2) an increase in the number of street trees and reconsideration of their spacing; 3) direction to RTC to bring back large displays of the entire project that will highlight the continuity of the bicycle lanes and how traffic will flow; 4) an analysis of lowering the speed limit without adversely affecting traffic or causing other safety issues; 5) working with the Great Streets Coalition; and 6) doing all of
these things within a reasonable amount of time that will allow RTC to stay within the federal grant application time frames.

Mr. Gibson summarized by saying that RTC should work to keep some level of
on-street parking, work to minimize conflicts, look at the speed issues, look to capture and utilize off-street sites for parking as well as looking at side-street parking opportunities, and attempt to put it all together in drawings that seek to demonstrate that we can have effective access for businesses, maximize pedestrian opportunities, and handle the parking question. We need to reiterate that we have reached out and talked to developers who own off-street lots, and they have plans to put buildings on those sites. There is a set number today, but there will likely be an increase in the demand for parking over time because Midtown is a regional asset that will continue to grow. We will do our engineering work, flesh out Option B, examine the cost/benefit of off-street parking sites, and report back.
 
Council Member Brekhus asked if a bike lane or lanes were included in the motion, and Council Member Jardon stated that they were not included in the motion.  Council Member Bobzien discussed his preference for exploring the opportunity of removing additional parking and finding side-street parking opportunities now.

Council Member Jardon said that Option B reduces on-street parking by 50%, which is the compromise the Midtown merchants prefer.  Motion carried with Council Members Bobzien and Brekhus voting nay.

There are a number things wrong with the discussion and with what was voted on and I'll point out just a few.

OPTION B isn't really an RTC design to start with and was originally designed by the originators of the Great Streets Coalition at my kitchen table.  It was only to be implemented in the section north of Vasser St. where bike lanes are hard to fit.

It was added by the Great Streets Group as a compromise option to both cyclists and business owners... loosing ~30 % of the on street parking (Naoma Jardon is once again wrong on facts stating a 50 % reduction) in exchange for wider sidewalks, street trees, benches, and a 15-20 mph speed limit with Sharrows in the lanes and pocket turn lanes. RTC modified option B and dropped the reduced speed limits and extended this design (in place of bike lanes) much farther south.

Item 4 (from highlighting above)... lowering traffic speed limits NEVER causes safety issues!?...it always helps for vehicles, bikes, or just pedestrians!  And since when is slowing traffic down in a business district that whats people to stop and shop a bad thing?

Item 5 (from highlighting above)... RTC hasn't interacted with Great Streets for design ideas since that time....or BPAC for that matter.

Mr. Gibson (Head of RTC) states there will be an increase in demand for parking in the future (with the implied note we should address it now).  WORST statement by Lee in a while!  If this were true all new roads in Reno every city should be build as 4 lanes with center turn lanes (veritable highways) to accommodate "future" traffic growth (which in reality isn't really occurring).  The real facts are that RTC (and cities all over the country) have been reducing traffic lanes through road diets (complete streets) and they carry traffic just as effectively or better than before, and make our neighborhoods and cities more walkable, bikeable, and enjoyable!

Anyway...that's just a few of my pet peeves.

Here's my guess on how the vote for "Option B" will fall...
(No = Vote for a true Complete Street, Yes = Vote against a true Complete Street)

Mayor Scheive:  Yes
Bozien:  No
Brekhus: No
Buerr: Yes
Delgado: Yes
Mckenzie: Yes
Jardon: Yes

So really, no change since the meeting in July despite months of work, a series of public meetings that showed the people who use Midtown want bike lanes, business developers who ask for bike lanes, and repeated documentation that parking is currently only a perceived problem in Midtown.

Its unfortunate, but due to a few business owners (not even building owners in most cases) who have council members ears....we'll end up with a missed opportunity to build a truly Great Street to live with for the next 50 years.

If you still want to try to force their hands....please make an effort to get to the council meeting and put in your two cents!

From the mouth of babes....why we need bike lanes in Midtown.

Totally not local, but related to our current Midtown issues....sometimes the basics are so simple that even a child gets it.  So why doesn't Reno City Council and RTC!?

Here's the text:

Here is Grossman's spiel. You may want to put on a patriotic tune while you read it.

Clearly there are motorists out there who are not mature enough to share the road without having the rules painted on the road to show who goes where. The road diet, by design, is meant to slow down cars because — motorists are the problem. Even if there are zero bicyclists taking advantage of the bike lanes, it doesn't matter. The road diet effectively reduces collisions and the statistics prove this. Stop bullying and victim-blaming the pedestrians and bicyclists as being the problem.
If motorists acted towards women, or another group of people, the way you act towards cyclists, people would be horrified by your hateful words and violent actions.
I don't understand why driving a car makes you think you're more important than someone else. You're not.
It's whiny entitled behavior you wouldn't tolerate from a kid, why should I tolerate it from adults?

Here's a couple more locals who seem to agree!

What will the Real Logo for Midtown Be?

Back in January of this year I came across this little picture of a t-shirt with a new Midtown logo.  I don't remember where...but it got everyone excited that midtown and apparently Midtown businesses saw bicycles as part of their business and philosophy.

Yeah...a great Midtown Logo.

 I'll argue that the statement was and still is true for many business owners in Midtown.  However, the current problem is some of the the "old" business owners of Midtown (who seem to have the ear of RTC and City Council) and could be generalized by terms junk, hardware, and records have a different logo in mind....

Wow...this is the new Midtown Logo!?

The funniest part about the whole issue is the business owners who seem to be most vocal about losing on street parking having on street parking relocated....are some of the business owners who have the largest parking lots in all of the Midtown District and the fewest on street parking spots to lose!

So, the question comes down to this.  Should a city and it's government cater to a small group of business owners (not even necessarily the building owners)....or should the government work towards what is best for the city and all the people who live in it.  We all know system is supposed to work for the good of the people...and this will be a great test case to see if the Reno city council remembers who they work for!  

And just in case you're interested in what regular people are saying about Midtown....

How do the people who live and play in Midtown feel about bikes?

This is just a template for what the Great Streets Coalition is hoping to show city leaders in our last push to get bike lanes in Midtown.  If you'd be interested in doing one please let us know.  And we want everyone who goes to Midtown for any reason.  Live there?  Great.  Work there?  Great.  Only go to Midtown for food and beer?  Great. 

If you'd like to get involved please leave us a message at the Great Streets Coalition Facebook Page!