In the News

Transportation Planners Seek to Reduce Traffic, Protect Environment
date posted: March 10 2004

By John Cobourn, Water Resource Specialist; and Heather Segale, Environmental Education Coordinator; University of Nevada Cooperative Extension

A nice car and an open highway are part of the American Dream, symbolizing personal freedom to many people. The ability to go anywhere we want to go on our own time schedule has become part of our way of life. However, unlimited use of privately owned vehicles can cause problems, such as heavy traffic, travel delays, air pollution and even water pollution. For years, transportation planners at the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) and other Tahoe organizations have attempted to solve these problems. However, during peak travel times, our traffic problems are only getting worse.

One reason for the difficulty is our geography. Our communities are built around the lakeshore, and our main route around the lake is 72 miles long. One transportation planner referred to Lake Tahoe as a city with a big hole in the middle. To travel the 10 miles from Glenbrook to Tahoma, we must drive over 30 miles through South Lake Tahoe, where traffic is slow. Instead of taking 10 or 15 minutes, the trip takes over an hour.

At Lake Tahoe, about 97 percent of all travel is by car or privately owned vehicles. During nonpeak periods, traffic delays are not extremely troublesome. However, during peak ski periods and between July 4 and Labor Day, our road system becomes clogged with slowdowns and bumper-to-bumper traffic. Our road system is not likely to expand significantly enough to solve the problem.

Because of the environmental impacts of building and maintaining wider roads, bypasses and freeways, we are probably looking at the roads of the future right now. A great deal of new paving is not likely to happen. Pavement causes more runoff, increases pollution of the lake, reduces wildlife habitat and increases the number of animals killed on the roads. We can make intersection improvements and build short connector and turn-around roads to increase efficiency and reduce travel delays. This will help the environment by reducing the high auto emissions that occur during stop-and-go traffic. It will also reduce driver frustration.

One of the most effective ways to address our traffic and environmental problems is to establish a good public transportation system at Lake Tahoe. Our current systems have improved in recent years, but they are somewhat limited by our geographic sprawl around the shore of the lake. We don’t have a downtown surrounded by suburbs, a grid pattern of streets, or a radial road system. On the south shore, where use of public busses is highest (5 percent of travel), we have essentially one main street, about seven miles long. Most residents don’t live within walking distance of that strip. Many live along the west shore or in outlying areas, such as Meyers and Christmas Valley. The north shore is even more challenging, as residential areas and businesses are spread over 40 miles of state highways. The cost of operating a bus system in such a geographic setting is more than our communities have been able to support.

In similar ski and recreational communities, public transit has flourished and has improved the quality of life. One of the most famous systems is the Yosemite Valley system, which makes use of private vehicles unnecessary once visitors arrive. Aspen has instituted a 1.5 percent sales tax, compared to Tahoe’s current .25 percent sales tax. Aspen has over 50 busses, and up to 30 percent of all travel between Aspen and Snowmass is on public transit. In Summit County, Colorado, free busses run every half hour until midnight. On the north shore, busses do not run past 6:30 p.m.

Gordon Shaw, transportation engineer, LSC Transportation Consultants in Tahoe City, believes that Tahoe will have to come to grips with its transportation problems. He thinks research will show that our use of private vehicles, snow removal and de-icing methods, polluted runoff from roads, highway dust, and other air pollutants from automobiles will be shown to be the largest contributors to the decline in Lake Tahoe’s water clarity.

Shaw thinks we are taking some very promising steps. He thinks TRPA’s Community Plan process will help concentrate economic activity in locations that will be more conducive to pedestrian travel and public transit centers. He applauds efforts to expand the bike trail system in the basin, as well as the newly completed sidewalks in Tahoe City, which have already tripled the number of pedestrians downtown. Shaw is also excited by proposals to extend The Capitols train from Sacramento to Reno, allowing skiers to arrive by train (or airport shuttles) and use an improved transit system once here. He says we can reduce our peak period traffic problems considerably if we can get more visitors to arrive in the basin without a car.

Watch for “The Lake Tahoe Report” in the North Lake Bonanza each Friday, and tune in to KOLO-TV News Channel 8 Tuesdays at 5 p.m. to learn more. Next week, learn about community wildfire prevention planning. “The Lake Tahoe Report” is a collaborative effort of the Lake Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, UC Davis and the USDA Forest Service. For more information, contact Heather Segale, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, (775) 832-4138, or logon to www.lteec.org or www.unce.unr.edu.