TRPA’s bike plan receives praise from Nevada
The Nevada Bicycle Advisory Board on Tuesday recognized the efforts of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and Tahoe Metropolitan Planning Organization for their achievements in bicycling advocacy planning and safety for the 2010 Lake Tahoe Region Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan.
The plan calls for an additional 162 miles of pedestrian and bike facilities in communities around the lake to add to the nearly 100 miles already built. The plan specifically focuses on connecting existing paths and improving facilities in high-use areas with a goal of creating vibrant communities that appeal to locals and visitors and provide environmental, safety, and economic benefits.
In a letter from the governor’s office, the agencies were commended for admirable achievements in bicycling that the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan represents. The plan lays the framework for the long-term planning of bicycle and pedestrian facilities in Lake Tahoe and provides implementing agencies with the ability to apply for funding for new bicycle paths, lanes, routes, and sidewalks while also providing the public with an understanding of which corridors are designated for future facilities.
The Highway 50 project in South Lake Tahoe is an example of the importance of coordination the plan provides. What began as a Caltrans project to regrade a portion of South Shore’s main thoroughfare became a multi-jurisdiction project that included bike lanes, sidewalks, and landscaping and lighting that will enhance community character and safety while improving water quality and reducing vehicle emissions.
Receiving recognition is not the same as announcing that they will be done, especially if ‘implementing agencies’ are only being “provided the ability to apply for funding”.
Unfortunately, P.R. fluff like this only gives the agencies an undue “pat on the head” while giving their public the impression that something is to be done.
Planning is the easiest money source to tap, which has kept a lot of salaries going, without any actual progress being made in a trail network, now over two decades in contemplation, and only now being scraped from the ‘bottom of the barrel’ at the “end of the rope”.
Every project that someone else does only gets local agencies to claim credit, as most of this should have been done a long time ago, but still is not.