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County says full Lakeshore bike-lane conversion would cost about $50 million; small fixes underway
Summary
Washoe County Community Services described pilot measures (bicycle boulevard, signage, sensors) and said a full right-of-way expansion to create dedicated bike lanes on Lakeshore would cost about $50 million; lower-cost options such as striping were estimated at about $45,000 but may not change behavior without broader measures.
Aaron Smith, Washoe County Division Director of Operations, told the CAB that the county is focused on grants, education and pilots to reduce conflicts on multiuse paths and roads. "We estimate that doing that here because of the property values along Lakeshore ' it'd be about $50,000,000 in order to do a right of way expansion," Smith said, describing the high cost of creating a separate, dedicated bike lane.
Smith reviewed lower-cost interventions the county is pursuing: a Lakeshore bicycle boulevard pilot to reduce posted speeds to 25 mph, temporary sandwich-board signage and sensors to count trail users, stenciling and chalk campaigns, and outreach materials (including sheriff flyers in English and Spanish). He said the county is continuing to chase multimodal and CDBG-style grants and that striping alone (estimated at about $45,000) is unlikely to fully change behavior without larger design changes.
Board members pushed for coordination of signage with the Nevada Department of Transportation on State Route 28, and residents asked whether bike-shop rental outreach and school-based training were being targeted; Smith said shops are stakeholders within outreach but that business-level training is typically the responsibility of the individual business unless code enforcement finds a violation. He urged filing 311 requests to register recurring problems and noted that funding constraints mean the county prioritizes projects across the entire jurisdiction.
Smith said the county supports "trail etiquette" education, docent/volunteer soft-enforcement programs and targeted school outreach as the highest-return interventions while grant-seeking continues for major infrastructure work.
