Letter: Trading safety for bike lanes?

This letter is about the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) lane reduction plan.

Safety is not the motivation of NDOT or TRPA to reduce the lanes on US50 between Spooner Summit and Round Hill! I am not saying it is a safe road, but it was NDOT that build it as it is! They are responsible for 'Dead man's curve' and other design flaws. Their real intention is to use the least expensive way to complete the TRPA pipedream of completing the Stateline to Stateline bike path. They have been pushing this since 2017 against the wishes of the local residents.

Their own crash data by Kimley Horn consultants list contributing factors for fatal accidents as #1 impairment, #2 lane change, and #3 intersections.

Not only will these not be addressed by lane reductions, the real risk of fire evacuations like Caldor in 2021 will be immensely more delayed and dangerous. The National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), published data about crash severity and the number of traffic lanes and concluded, that the severity and number of crashes are dramatically reduced the higher the number of traffic lanes. Which contradicts NDOTS arguments.

https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/811402 (See page 55, Table 32).

Sincerely,
Elisabeth Lernhardt