Plan to Narrow South Carson Street (opinion)
Despite our increasing population and existing traffic congestion, the City has plans for a road diet on South Carson Street. What does that mean? In this case, it means reducing the street from six lanes to four from Appion Way to 8th Street, with an additional reduction to one northbound lane north of 8th.
To add insult to injury, they intend to reduce speed limits in some parts. The city plans to use some of the space gained by taking out lanes to put in a "multi-use path", which is a cross between a bike lane and an extra-wide sidewalk. My observations of other bike lanes and multi-use paths in Carson City is that they get very little use. The supposed justification for the road diet is that traffic on this section has decreased since I 580 was extended to the base of Spooner.
However, the city's own numbers (from http://carsonproud.com/southcarsonstreet/) indicate that South Carson Street still sees over 20,000 vehicles per day. Driving that section with the existing number of lanes, one can easily see the level of congestion during peak hours. Taking lanes out isn't going to help. It just doesn't make sense to take out lanes used by thousands of cars for the benefit of a handful of pedestrians and cyclists.