Letter: Rethinking Hwy. 50 realignment
To the community,
Regarding the Stateline loop road project. I personally don’t like the loop road concept of moving traffic around the casinos, uprooting business and people from their homes. And by realigning Highway 50 after tearing town homes for the move, you now have the remaining homes that were in a quiet setting now next to the new Highway 50. It doesn’t seem like the right thing to do.
Les Wright
I would prefer we spend the money and do the job right. In my opinion the right way to do it is to put through traffic underground starting somewhere around Tahoe Meadows and exiting before Kingsbury Grade.
That would mean cutting through the Harrah’s to Harveys pedestrian underpass for the underground Highway 50 road. The casinos should then be given permission for pedestrian overpasses between Harveys and Harrah’s, and MontBleu and Hard Rock.
I’m told it will cost more and realize it will be an inconvenience to build, but in the long run it would be the best solution. The old Highway 50 would become an open mall between Park Avenue and the eastern loop and I think that is the desired outcome.
Caltrans and NDOT would have to come up with the money. It would take some good planning and good politicians to get this project built.
Les Wright, South Lake Tahoe
I 2nd that ;)
This is the solution that will be least disruptive, will truly create a pedestrian area, and will increase safety and save lives by removing the auto/pedestrian interaction.
At the rate the water table is dropping it’s probably doable.
Copper: Bart goes under the bay.
Seems the experts on redevelopment want the closure of 50 from Park to Mont Bleu. Supposedly creating a better quality of life and a better economy. I’ve seen this in a very old city downtown, no more autos and jammed packed with pedestrians and vendors.
Underground sounds absurd to me. The loop road in one of the current forms is a no brainer. In 10 years everyone will forget the disruption and South Shore will finally begin to mature in the right ways.
UNDERGROUND? That doesn’t really seem environmentally friendly, but I’d have to do further research…
IMHO, WHAT WE REALLY NEED TO DO IS GET PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR CARS!
If we are serious about trying to fix our transportation crisis in this town, then we need to warm to the idea of a MONORAIL from Meyers to the airport to the Y then Keys, Lakeview Commons, Timber Cove, Ski Run, and finally the casinos
Not only would it address our transportation crisis, but it could boost our green cred and possibly give tourists another amazing reason to visit Tahoe.. Whaddya say TRPA? Whaddya say Tahoe Chamber?
The idea of expensive purpose built public transportation (like a train or mono-rail) moving large amounts of people within Tahoe sounds great, but you have to remember where our visitors are coming from. As long as they come here predominately by car and from larger cities, there is no way they are going to park in Meyers and then move around town on such public transit – moving around town by car will just not be viewed as anything that is a problem by someone coming from a large city – plus lugging your stuff around to the beach, then a restaurant, and then to a store to shop will not be any sort of advantage. And what about all the folks that are really going to a hotel closer to Stateline? An efficient, well advertised, and free bus system with more enclosed bus shelters would more than take care of those that want to use transit at much less expense and infrastructure, especially during shoulder seasons. Building the church for Easter Sunday when it is 2/3s empty most of the time is absurd.
The bus system does not work here and will never work without having a dedicated lane. Otherwise, the bus will move at the same rate as the highway, which is clearly inefficient for our peak periods and any time it snows.
A MONORAIL would not be as expensive, nor underused as the naysayers predict. In fact, it would attract tourism and actually make increased tourism sustainable with the proper infrastructure. Let’s not forget that green technology also reduces operating costs
A MONORAIL addresses our transportation crisis directly and would put Tahoe on the map as a green community leader.
A MONORAIL is a real, long-term solution to our transportation crisis and not a huge project that does absolutely nothing to address our transportation crisis.