The Memorial Ride for Metro Officer Don Albietz will start in Blue
Diamond at the Bike Outpost on Saturday, August 13, at 7:00 AM. The ride
will also demonstrate concern for the safety of all riders on state
route 159. NDOT will be meeting soon to review safety issues on S.R. 159,
and now is the appropriate time for a show of support. It is probable
that the media will be present. The more publicity the better for this
important cause. Please arrive at Blue Diamond by bike or by vehicle
prior to 7:00 AM so we will all be ready to ride as a group.

Hi Jen,
How did it go? I wanted to be there but a few of us went up to American Fork Utah for a century.

matt

It was a great experience... the first time I've ever ridden with that many people (well over 100 by my estimation). Don Albietz's widow was there at the beginning and gave a very moving speech, as did one of his colleagues. The one blemish on the morning was the fact that some idiot in a pickup decided to speed along the group honking his horn all the way along the half mile column of riders. I was one of the slowbies being on my MTB, but a roadie friend of mine who reached the overlook before I did said the guy pulled into the overlook parking lot and started shouting at people for taking up all the parking spaces. Very disrespectful :(

I also went to the meeting at the Sahara West library last night. Sen. Titus (that's a great biking name if ever I heard one :) ) was there and made a good speech in support of change. I forget his name, but the guy from NDoT looked and sounded terrified after he announced that he was one of those responsible for upping the speed limit to 60 with no public consultation. It was interesting to note that this decision was based on the speed that 85% of road users were doing on rt. 159, but that his percentage had not included cyclists as road users! Other speakers included a trails and recreation guy from Clark County who said that there was plenty of budget for a solution, but they were lacking plans of what to spend the money on; there was also a guy from Silver State Bicycle Coalition who said that cyclists had to ride sensibly and within the law if they expected motorists to do the same.

At the end was a public forum type section where lots of people made good suggestions (Rich from Pro Cyclery mentioned pros and cons to having a separate cycle path and toll booths). I mentioned speed cameras to catch speeding motorists like they have in Europe since a big problem seems to be getting people to obey the posted speed limits. Apparently they're illegal in NV (WTF? No idea why...), but the SSBC people said it was a law they wanted to get repealed.

That's about all I can remember from the meeting for now, but there is a website at www.saveredrock.com that will have more details. The site was only launched this week so it's a bit bare, but you can sign up for the newsletter and they'll let you know any updates.

- Jen.