Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005 | 10:54 a.m.
Special meeting
Stunned by yet another death of a bicyclist on State Route 159 through Red Rock Canyon, state and local officials and interest groups are seeking ways to make two troublesome highways safer.
SR 159 and State Route 160, which wind from Las Vegas over the Spring Mountains to Pahrump, are two state-run highways that have been targeted as trouble spots for safety.
The state Transportation Department has had and will continue to have meetings throughout the next several months to discuss the potential changes.
One of those meetings this week should bring together officials from the state and local transportation agencies, Clark County planners and County Commissioners Lynette Boggs McDonald and Chip Maxfield, Nevada Highway Patrol troopers and Metro Police representatives, bicycle enthusiasts and residents of the village of Blue Diamond.
The meeting is scheduled at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the community center in Blue Diamond, in the southern end of Red Rock Canyon.
Both roads have seen many fatalities. Concern over SR 159 recently peaked after the July 28 death of a Metro police officer who was bicycling on the road. Officer Don Albietz, who was 45, died eight days after he was hit while cycling.
A 27-year-old truck driver has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident in the incident. State investigators said the driver, Michael Reich, said he was returning from working in Pahrump at the time of the incident.
Those who have called for lower speed limits and other measures on the roads include many of the residents of Blue Diamond, which close to both roads. Bicyclists, hikers and conservationists also have expressed concerns.
"The recent fatality out there of the Metro officer has certainly galvanized them," said Chris Munhall, a Clark County planner who works with the rural town advisory boards, including the Red Rock Citizens Advisory Council.
"Folks out there have long thought that highway 159, being a scenic highway, shouldn't be a speed zone."
Munhall said SR 160 has been known as the "widowmaker."
"159 is its little sister now," he said.
Evan Blythin, a member of the Red Rock advisory group and a Blue Diamond resident, said many of the village's residents and Red Rock visitors have felt for years that the speeds were just too high on SR 159.
"I think everyone out here recognizes that speed is a killer," he said. "It's a scenic byway."
The growth of Pahrump on the far side of the Spring Mountains has exacerbated the situation, he said, especially on SR 160.
"It's just turned into a gantlet," Blythin said.
Beyond reducing speed limits, which can go to 65 mph on SR 159 and 70 mph on SR 160, other suggestions have included requiring commercial traffic to stay on SR 160 or even setting up entry restrictions on SR 159 through Red Rock.
Heather Fisher, a Blue Diamond resident who owns Las Vegas Cyclery, said the issues on the two roads are different. SR 159 is problematic because it is "becoming more of a commuter route," while SR 160 is a problem because what once was a fast highway is now broken up with development and cross streets.
People who once took SR 160 now are increasingly using the road through Red Rock, and that means problems for wildlife, cyclists and those who use the road for recreational purposes, she said.
Fisher, who is chairwoman of Scenic Byways, a group working to make roads safer for recreational uses, supports at least a new speed limit for SR 159. Fisher, a friend and bicycle riding companion of Don Albietz and his family, said it is unfortunate that it has taken another death of the road to focus attention on the traffic issues.
"The speed limit is not appropriate for a recreational area," she said. "It's appropriate for a big freeway ... It's turning into a really dangerous road.
"It doesn't matter whether you are a biker, a driver or a burro. There's this incompatible mix of tourists, wildlife, commuters and truckers."
Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, who represents Blue Diamond and much of the surrounding rural area, said the traffic issues are particularly nettlesome because two governments are involved.
"It's always been a challenge when you have this disconnect, when you have local governments approving land use decisions and not having jurisdictional control of the state highways impacted by those decisions," she said. "It's always been a bit frustrating."
Part of the solution is to foster better communication between the many affected agencies, among them the federal Bureau of Land Management, which runs the conservation area, she said. The meeting Wednesday will be an important part of keeping communication open on the issues, she added.
On another front, Boggs McDonald said she and county staffers are working to increase the number of north-south connections between Blue Diamond Road -- SR 160's other name -- and the Las Vegas Beltway, Interstate 215.
"Not having these north-south connections has created a lot of the problems we are experiencing today," she said.
The lack of those connections means that people have to stay on SR 160 longer than they would like, and some residents are going to the northern SR 159, she said.
"A lot of the traffic that has accumulated on 160 is because of the increasing number of citizens who work in Clark County but live in Pahrump," Boggs McDonald said.
Mary Martini, state Transportation Department district engineer, said her agency hopes to listen to what various interest groups have to say in the meeting and other meetings into October, and apply those results as soon as possible.
She said the Transportation Department has about $400,000 to make changes along the roadways -- not enough for major road construction, but enough to begin some simpler changes.
The difficult part will be finding the balance among the different groups.
"You've got a number of issues out there depending on which constituency is talking," Martini said. "What we basically have is a need to share the road and yet we're not doing that in a way that lets it be safe for everyone."
The Transportation Department is "purposely trying to not presuppose any solutions," she said.
But Jim Cullen, a geologist and representative of the Silver State Bicycle Club who attended an invitation-only meeting with Transportation Department engineering consultant Kimley-Horn on Aug. 23, suspected otherwise. The meeting, he said, was supposed to be a brainstorming session for bicyclists who have raised concerns about speed on 159.
So Cullen, 55, said he was surprised to see four Transportation Department engineers actively participating in that meeting.
"I think they were trying to find out what the loyal opposition was and how they were going to fight," Cullen said. "We have some real problems with what NDOT has done on that road."
That evening's meeting was one of three separate meeting meant to gather input from bicyclists, environmental groups and government agencies before a string of public presentations on the Transportation Department's plans, he said.
Cullen said he has not talked with department representatives about their attending the bicyclists' meeting and does not imagine it will result in a formal complaint or legal action.
Cullen said the engineers were receptive to ideas floated by the bicycling enthusiasts during the meeting but were unlikely to implement any of them.
"They've actually been pretty fair about the whole thing," he said of the discussion process. "... There's a lot of possible solutions that are being proposed, but NDOT's really digging in their heels on this."
Martini said drivers and bicycle riders who use the roads need to keep an important issue in mind: "It comes down to behavior."
Those who use the highways need to make room for others and do so safely. She said other highways with even higher traffic volumes have better safety records. Martini believes that the fundamental factor is the behavior of those using the roads.
"The issue applied to any highway near or beyond its capacity is that you start having safety issues," she said. "It's one of the growing pains that Las Vegas is facing, but I still go back to the the same thing. Ultimately every driver has a responsibility to be safe."
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