The City of Reno, Nevada, has made strides in recent years in making their streets easier to walk and ride a bike on. However, there are still major gaps in the city’s bike infrastructure network, like Center Street which runs between the University of Nevada and the mixed-use neighborhood of Midtown.
Today, Center Street’s current design has resulted in high speeds and a dangerous walking environment, limiting the street’s potential despite it running by major landmarks.
Andrew Samuelsen, a Reno resident and software engineer, is part of a group of citizens with an idea to fill that infrastructure gap. He sees an opportunity to improve safety and quality of life by adding a protected bike lane on Center Street, a key corridor connecting the two neighborhoods.
In order to get stakeholders onboard and better understand his proposal, Andrew needed a way to effectively communicate and visualize his ideas for Center Street. Streetmix was perfect for this and allowed him to easily produce the visuals he needed. “Streetmix images were key in helping stakeholders instantly understand our proposal. It made it easy to see what the trade offs were and producing the images was super easy,” Andrew said.
Andrew’s proposal has brought attention to the fact that Center Street has excessive space dedicated to motor vehicles for the amount of traffic it carries.
As a result of his proposal, a key local agency has now prioritized the project. “[We] got the project moved from our Metropolitan Planning Organization’s 5 year plan to next year’s program of projects,” Andrew said.
Thanks for sharing your story, Andrew! We hope to see your design in action soon.
Cover photo: South Center Street (existing), by Andrew Samuelsen