Paths to fitness growing wider

Cathy Scott

Friday, June 5, 1998 | 9:54 a.m.

Bicyclists and joggers throughout the Las Vegas Valley have just been given the green light to use hundreds of miles of previously closed paths.

Flood-control channel maintenance roads, which are being identified on a map to be released in about three weeks, may now be used as bike and running trails.

In addition, Nevada Power Co. and Southwest Gas Corp. officials recently agreed to allow bicyclists and joggers on their maintenance and utility roads, Jerry Duke, principal planner for the Regional Transportation Commission, said.

Previously, the paths have been available only to maintenance vehicles.

The flood-control channel paths are similar to those in the Los Angeles basin that have been used by cyclists for years as a way to bypass heavily congested streets.

That's the eventual goal for the Las Vegas Valley of an ad hoc organization -- called the Bicycle Trails Planning Committee -- that's just been formed, Duke said.

"But we believe the first thing to do is use what we already have," he said.

The utility roads are a "good shared use of the property," Nevada Power spokesman Tom Henley said.

The flood-control channels and utility roads within the valley will be identified in a pocket guide and map for cyclists to be published this month by the RTC. The routes are identified along with streets that will be marked as bicycle routes with share-the-road signs to alert motorists.

The bicycle plan, which the RTC has been working on for about a year and a half, is "based on the need for safe bicycling opportunities throughout the Las Vegas Valley," Mark Reisman, a planning technician with the RTC and a member of the Las Vegas Valley Bicycle Club, said.

The latest move by the Clark County Regional Flood Control District frees up miles of paths for cyclists and joggers, Duke said.

"There's an open understanding that will allow cyclists, walkers and joggers to access the maintenance roads next to flood-control channels," he said. "They are public rights of way, just like the sidewalks are. But it prohibits access to the concrete channels themselves."

"This has been talked about over the years," Gale Fraser, general manager for the flood-control district, said. "We don't have any objection to it because it's a public right of way. The only thing we ask is that it be a safe use."

The gates to the maintenance roads -- on the embankments next to the channels -- remain closed on many of the flood-control channels.

"They need to be modified," Fraser said. "I don't think anybody's gone out there and modified them to promote that use."

In addition to being opened, Duke said, the paths must be marked. That's where the need for money comes in, he said.

"The issue is, as always, funding," he said. "At this point, we haven't been able to locate a funding source. We need somebody with deep pockets who is friendly with trails. It would be nice if they were paved. We would welcome any kind of support."

Fraser said the Flood Control District provides money only for the maintenance of the channels. "It would be up to the recreation departments (of the county or city) to maintain and mark them," he said.

In the meantime, cyclists and joggers may still use the paths, paved or not.

"We've identified them on a map," Duke said. "Unless there is a safety issue, they can be used. They're part of the regional adopted trails inventory."

And that's good news for the Las Vegas Valley Bicycle Club, which has been pushing for several years for more bike lanes.

"It's one more link in the network," Ed Thiessen, a board member of the club and vice chairman of the state Bicycle Advisory Board.

However, he suggested that if the flood-control channel maintenance roads remain unpaved, "they'll be used by recreational bicyclists and not commuters."

Still, he noted, "Anything is an improvement. They'll be used."