Streets should be open - and safe, too

Sunrise Drive and Bowers Lane should be open to through traffic because there's no good reason to keep them closed - other than to serve as examples of Carson City's shortsightedness when it comes to planning its streets.

We can sympathize with residents there because the two streets, especially Bowers, are shortcuts between Nye Lane and Arrowhead Drive. Actually, they're not shortcuts at all - they're the only connection between a couple of important east-west routes.

The neighborhood was being overrun by commuter traffic to the industrial park when the streets were blocked in 1997. It was a controversial decision at the time, but safety carried the day over convenience.

Not much has changed since then, except for Carson City's streets getting busier. And Bowers and Sunrise residents getting accustomed to the peace and quiet.

Yes, the streets should be open - but not until some significant speed-control work is done there.

If there can be "undulations" on the west side of town, at Ash Canyon Road, and there can be speed bumps in front of the Department of Motor Vehicles, and Curry Street can be closed to construction for years at a time, then the residents of Bowers and Sunrise can get something to keep their kids safe.

Everybody would like to live on a cul-de-sac, but few neighborhoods are subject to the kind of traffic that could pour through this one. It deserves some special consideration.

The long-term solution is a street connecting Arrowhead with College Parkway at the east end of the Carson City Airport, but residents shouldn't have to hold their breath until that happens.

It should be possible to drive Bowers and Sunrise streets; it just shouldn't be convenient.