Reno City Council members approved the expansion of the “micro-mobility network” in downtown Reno. It received support from the Truckee Meadows Bicycle Alliance, which has been critical of the city—including in the days leading up to Wednesday’s council meeting—for not advocating for a Center Street cycle track.
Micro-mobility is a term that describes alternate transportation, such as bikes, e-bikes and scooters, instead of standard cars and motorcycles. The Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) is funding the $20 million project and identified streets with lower speeds and traffic volumes, which they determined were the right fit for the network expansion.
These areas are:
- Virginia Street from Ninth Street to Liberty Street
- Lake Street/Sinclair Street/Evans Avenue Corridor from Ninth Street to Holcomb Avenue
- Vine Street from University Terrace to Riverside Drive
- Fifth Street from Keystone Avenue to Evans Avenue
Two other areas were considered including University Way/Center Street from Ninth Street to Virginia Street, and Third Street from Vine Street to Lake Street. These were ultimately determined not to be a good fit for network expansion.
According to city staff, the University Way/Center Street proposal was rejected for several reasons, including high vehicle speeds, loss of vehicle travel lanes, conflict with high-volume cross-streets and driveways, an $11 million price tag, and loss of parking for property owners and businesses.
Similar concerns were determined for the Third Street proposal.
City Planner Kerrie Koskie said the streets that were chosen for the micro-mobility network connect with existing bike lanes and paths, creating a more extensive network from west to east and connecting the university to midtown.
Council member Jenny Brekhus said the streets chosen were a “waste of money” and interests should be focused on the “harder asks,” including University Way/Center Street. She said that, for example, Vine Street is already safe and does not require improvements. Brekhus also claimed that the downtown is less safe than in 2012, when it was “covered in graffiti” and had fewer police patrols.
“If you don’t tame those two high-speed corridors, you’re not gonna get a successful downtown.”
Council member Kathleen Taylor took issue with Brekhus’s claims that the downtown area is unsafe.
“We need to talk about truths … and it is not true that downtown is more unsafe. It is actually more safe today than it was before,” Taylor said. “And that’s what the data shows.”
Council member Naomi Duerr said that in other cities such as Philadelphia, not all bike paths and lanes were uniform, but rather were built based on the areas they served.
“What I learned from that … there is no perfect and we are trying to retrofit not a city that’s hundreds years old but a city that’s 120 or so years old,” Duerr said. “My expectation is that when we do get this product from RTC and ourselves that it’s going to be some of all — some protected lanes, some share the road, some green paint. It really depends on what type of street it is, how wide it is.”
The project was approved with Brekhus voting against. The design and bidding for the project will take place in 2024, with construction beginning in 2025 and continuing through 2026.
