On Road Safety In Las Vegas: Clark County Rolling Ahead With First Protected Bicycle Lane
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — For literally decades, Clark County and the city of Las Vegas built roads for car driver and overlooked the fact that people also used bicycles and walked along these public right-of-ways.
As a result, many of the streets in the Las Vegas Valley were built like mini highways with traffic lights, with walkers and bicyclist deaths and injuries mounting over the years.
But Clark County Commissioners Michael Naft and Justin Jones, along with the county’s traffic safety director, Andrew Bennett, have tried to reverse the the county’s and city of Las Vegas’ dubious record of being one of the worst towns for bicycle route connectivity.
Protected bicycle lanes are common around the major metro areas around county. But not in Clark County — until now.
The county is building a protected bike lane along Starr Avenue in the southest Valley from Las Vegas Boulevard to Bermuda Road. Starr Avenue runs into the city of Henderson and leads to the NFL Raiders headquarters.
Take a look at how it looked as of Thursday morning:
Road safety is a crisis issue in Las Vegas/Clark County because more than 425 Clark County School District students were hit by motorists going and leaving schools during last school year. That’s a stunning number of kids struck by motorists in the Las Vegas area.
And four of those students were killed from the crashes, including a 12-year-old girl who was bicycling home when she had to bike around a car parked illegally in a bike lane and she was struck and killed by a school bus operator.
In response, Naft chaired a safety committee that came up with 75 recommendations to improve safety for kids coming to and leaving schools around Clark County.
PSA
