I know Ron the Red Rock Loop toll collector quite well.
I check in with Ron at his window whenever I bike the Red Rock Scenic Drive and today Ron made a great point about the end of the .99 of a mile trail outside Summerlin along State Route 159.
"Why didn't they just connect the end of the trail to 159 with a spur trail,?" Ron asked me. "When they continue the trail they can just remove the temporary spur."
Ol' Ron read my mind.
I've been trying to figure that out, too.
The "spur" that Ron described is actually maybe only 40 or 50 feet or from the .99 of a mile trail to 159. It's kind of sad the first phase of the 17-mile Red Rock Legacy Trail is a mere .99 of a mile when the trail was supposed to go six miles down 159 to the Red Rock Loop exit in Phase 1.
But money being tight (for bicycle and pedestrian projects, I guess), Phase 1 funds could only .99 of a mile of paved trail from outside Summerlin to the first State Route 159 hill.
Here's a video of the start of the trail that I biked this morning as part of my 33-mile "Triangle" bike route, a newly-amended and shorter version of my 50-mile "Big Rectangle" bike ride.
It's a good thing the contractor, Las Vegas Paving, installed the "Pavement Ends" sign because it's so hard to figure out the pavement ends.
It's at that point, after .99 of a mile, that I simply walk my bicycle the 40 feet or so from the .99 of mile trail to the shoulder of State Route 159 to continue my trek home through Red Rock Canyon.
You have to wonder why there's no money to continue Phase 1 when the F1 car race tells us it brings in $1 billion a year in spending and the Raiders/Allegiant Stadium says they bring in $1 billion a year in spending and the LVCVA chief Steve Hill says the Super Bowl brings in $1 billion a year in spending. It seems $1 billion a year or per event is the default spending number used by the sports boosters in town.
F1 is all about using our PUBLIC roads for its Las Vegas Grand Prix, so how about F1 pay to build a real regional paved trail network so that Las Vegas can improve its 28 percentile ranking when it comes to Vegas ranked in bicycle networks. National bicycle advocacy group People For Bikes said Las Vegas ranked 2,171th out of 3,019 cities when it comes to its bicycle network. That's accurate because both Clark County and the City of Las Vegas have some bicycle infrastructure like bike lanes and a few paved trail here and there, but because the connectivity of the bike infrastructure is so awful Las Vegas ranks so low for its bicycle network system.
About two miles to the east on 159.Charleston Blvd., thank goodness Clark County is building a 215 beltway trail tunnel underneath busy Charleston because bicyclists and walkers have been trying to dodge car drivers and traffic when crossing Charleston at grade. The drivers are turning onto and off the 215 beltway ramps and often turning into crossing bicyclists who have the right of the way at the time.
Here's a video showing the tunnel construction during my bicycle ride this morning.
I don't understand why Las Vegas and Clark County just don't build infrastructure right the first time. Like, who would design a 215 trail crossing that not a trail bridge or a tunnel? Now, Clark County went back and did it right.
I have been complaining to the city and county about dangerous at-grade crossing for years. Kudos to Channel 8 in 2020 for doing a story on this horribly-designed trail crossing, which is in Clark County on one side and the city of Las Vegas on the other side.
I can't wait to bike in this tunnel to get from one side of Charleston to the other. I will be at this tunnel ribbon-cutting for sure!
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