Hannaman’s comments on bike lanes out of touch
Regarding Ronni Hannaman’s article, “We’ve become bike friendly — but where are the riders?” trivializing the importance of bicycle lanes downtown. I won’t go into the details of the benefits of bicycle lanes as I believe recent letters have done an adequate job of that. Instead, I want to cover a claim that she made that Boulder, Colo., is removing bicycle lanes in response to citizen backlash.
I fact checked that story, and found at best it is a half-truth. I talked to Matt Jones, transportation planner for Boulder. He explained that Boulder experimented with the removal of two lanes from Folsom Street to create protected bicycle lanes. This included temporarily placing bollards for the expanded bicycle lanes. The public input was negative and the city decided to restore the street to four lanes with bicycle lanes. Boulder is not removing bicycle lanes, as Hannaman said.
According to Jones, Boulder is committed to building bicycle lanes. Boulder is almost always listed as one of the most livable cities in the country in every survey conducted. This is due to the excellent quality of life the city provides including extensive pedestrian and bicycle infrastructures. Carson City is a very nice city and it could do worse than using Boulder as a model.
I hope the Chamber of Commerce supports projects that improve the livability of our city, which may attract businesses and people to our community. These projects are more than just “cool things” to do.
Roger Moellendorf
Carson City