Center Street Reconfiguration Meeting

I love the idea of turning Center into a residential and retail corridor for Midtown, instead of a transportation corridor. Reduce traffic, increase parking. I guess the devil is in the details, but I like the concept.

More parking close to the nice parts of Midtown should be a boon for the area and make Center Street safer for all users. More stuff like this would be welcome in other areas, too. I'd like to see traffic reductions on Kirman and Locust as well.

Great idea....there never is a need for the 2 wide lanes of Center street in that area....MIke where can I send an email to City of Reno to register our support for the idea.thx

Center street is scary to cross sometimes. Drivers go barreling down it and it's hard to see them. I like the idea of changing it to one lane. Midtown needs more parking.

This is solving the problem backwards. The solution is not closing down Center to match the low traffic volume. The solution is directing more traffic onto Center, like it was designed for. Right now there is WAY too much traffic on Virginia through Midtown and Downtown. I say make Virginia two lanes one way southbound between Liberty and Mary (where Center splits.) By eliminating the center turn lane, that leaves plenty of extra lanespace to accommodate a proper bike lane, and expanded sidewalks to improve the attractiveness of Virginia. It puts traffic onto one-way, two lane, un-stoplighted roads, which is much more efficient. And in my dream it leads to a phase 2 where Virginia between 4th st and Liberty is closed to traffic and turned into a pedestrian mall. Regular northbound traffic gets shunted onto Center, southbound onto Sierra, east and westbound traffic has an easier time making it through downtown, and we get more pedestrian space. They close that stretch of Virginia most summer weekends anyway for events, why not just make it permanent?

Knocking Center Street down to one lane for more parking in that area of town is a great idea. And that, Geo, is why they're tackling this "backwards." There's more of a need for parking in the Midtown area than tackling the traffic issue -- which at this moment isn't nearly as pressing.

Walk a block, it's healthy. Making Virginia a more pedestrian friendly place is much more critical to Midtown than a lack of parking DIRECTLY in front of wherever you're going. Compared to any other city, parking is effortless and cheap in Reno.

I'm a huge advocate of walking a block. That's why at least doubling the amount of parking available on Center Street is a big deal. Whether or not there's backed up traffic at the intersection of South Virginia & California is of (slightly) less concern right now. Plus who uses Virginia as a corridor across town anymore? I thought most citizens gave that up years ago.

Sara Lee, I kinda agree with geopower, the Virginia corridor is wretched. As someone who lives in the area, Virginia is still heavily used in the Midtown area. While Center is particularly vacant considering there are minimal to no shops and its a one way side street, (and a wonderful way to blow through town on my way to anywhere in the Truckee Meadows, especially since its a real pain to get anywhere from Midtown). All this being said, the reduction zone they're speaking of won't be that big of deal. My only true concern is visibility at Taylor. Ever try making that left onto Center at the one time its busy? You better be on good terms with the universe before making the maneuver.

I'm for additional parking along center street, as long as it is part of a larger master-plan to integrate UNR, downtown, and mid-town into a cohesive whole. If motor vehicle traffic was closed from Virginia street starting at the south end of the UNR campus to Virginia and Holcomb and turned into a pedestrian and transit mall, with free shuttles going down the center, the whole stretch would get a huge boost in foot traffic and revenue. It would be similar to Denver's shopping district, and integrate a college town feel, which I know is another initiative in front of the city planners.

Completely agree to SVA needs to go one-way at least from Vassar/Center, and probably to Holcomb. RTC is not considering this in the Virginia Street Corridor Plan http://www.rtcwashoe.com/Planning/documents/03005-VirginiaSt%20Corridor_Report_FINAL_043014_REVISED.pdf Warnigng- it is a HUGE file and don't try to email it.

doofus, RTC is too busy planning major arterial roads through ag flood plains to alleviate nonexistent congestion and taking two years on a simple 5 block resurface and sidewalk job. Griping aside, they seem to have pretty good community outreach (if poorly publicized,) but I guess we missed the last round of community workshops on the Virginia Street Corridor Plan, back in April.

Sorry, that last comment to doofus was from me.