Thursday, Sept. 15, 2005 | 8:59 a.m.
A community meeting on safety issues for the road threading the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area demonstrated the sometimes diametrically opposed views of some of the most frequent users of the highway, while presenting few potential solutions that would make all users happy.
The future of State Route 159, a designated scenic byway that has seen traffic and sometimes fatal collisions steadily increase over the years, has become an issue of sharp debate as local and state agencies, particularly the Nevada Department of Transportation, work to find a way to make the road safer for the multiple different users.
Conservationists, members of the small community of Blue Diamond outside the conservation area and bicyclists favor reducing the 60 mph speed limit to at least 45 mph and restricting commercial or commuting traffic with gates at either end of the road.
They blame the current speed and mix of users for contributing to fatal collisions on the road, including one in July that took the life of an off-duty Metro Police officer.
Those who increasingly use the road to commute to Pahrump from Las Vegas, including commercial truckers, strongly oppose the proposal to restrict traffic and argue that reducing the speed limit will actually lead to an increase in the number of dangerous collisions.
Some advocated building a bikeway off of the highway for bicycles, but bicyclists said they would not use a path with stops and starts and instead would continue riding on the main road.
One side brought a banner hanging outside the Clark County meeting hall that said "Red Rock looks good at 45 (mph)." The other side posted fliers on windshields outside the hall that urged government agencies to "Stop Bike Riders on SR 159 Red Rock for Their Own Safety and for Drivers' Safety."
The flier adds that bicyclists "should use the scenic route" maintained by the federal Bureau of Land Management.
Mike Colety, an engineer for the Raleigh, N.C.-based Kimley-Horn Associates, which the Nevada Department of Transportation has hired to look at the road's safety issues, said his job is at this stage to listen carefully to what people have to say.
"At this point we're reserving any preconceived notions on the solution to these issues," Colety said.
Those who feel passionately about the roadway, however, have no such reservations.
"The best overall thing for the long run is an entry booth," said Blue Diamond resident and real estate agent Pauline van Betten. "Right now that road is so impacted by traffic."
For horses and burros in the conservation area, crossing the two-lane highway has become "a slaughter," van Betten said.
"We have got to stop the slaughter of these burros," she said.
Van Betten said users should pay $5 to use SR 159 unless they are residents or buy a yearly pass.
Alan O'Neill, executive director of Outside Las Vegas, a conservation group, agreed that restricting traffic could work. He said a similar move at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area when he served as the area's superintendent worked to improve safety.
SR 159 "was never, should never have been designated as a commuter route," he said. "It is a scenic byway ... and it should be managed as such.
"This is an incredibly scenic road and should be the heart of the Red Rock experience."
Jim Cullen, who was elected just two days earlier to be vice president of the Las Vegas Valley Bicycle Club, rejected the idea of a separate bike path away from the main road.
"If they build it, we won't come," he said.
Like other cyclists, he said riders want to traverse the 20 miles from Summerlin to State Route 160 without having to stop. A bike path would mean multiple stops and starts at turnoffs and other features, he said.
Instead of a separate bike path, Cullen said, the state Transportation Department should fulfill a promise it made to provide 4-foot "vehicle recover lanes," which also double as bike lanes by the side of the road.
"There are areas where the lanes are less than 3 feet wide," he said, potentially forcing bicyclists into traffic.
Scott Leslie, a Las Vegas accountant who frequently uses the road to commute to work in Pahrump, said he would like bicyclists completely off SR 159.
"Stop bicycling," Leslie said, prompting loud chuckles to come from some of the bicyclists at the meeting. Leslie opposes restricting traffic or lowering speed limits on the road.
"That's the way the roads have been designed," he said. The only solution Leslie sees is a separate bike path.
Ron Levine, assistant managing director with the Nevada Motor Transport Association, which represents commercial truckers, agreed.
"I haven't seen any justification as to why trucks should not be on that highway," he said. The accident that claimed the bicycling off-duty police officer involved a commercial truck, but that was an isolated instance, Levine said.
Truckers "have just as much right to that highway as anyone else," he said.
One potential solution has just about everyone's support. Levine, van Betten and many of the cyclists agreed that one way to move much of the traffic off of SR 159 would be to widen and improve State Route 160 and tie it to the Las Vegas Beltway southwest of the urban area.
That would allow commuters to and from growing Pahrump to completely avoid the road through the conservation area.
"They (commuters and truckers) love 159, but if there was an alternative, they would love that more," van Betten said.
The problem would be the potential cost for the miles of road work.
Levine said such work would likely cost many millions of dollars.
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