My first trip down the bypass is a pleasant one

I took my first trip down the bypass this week. Somewhat ironically, I guess, it was on foot. I joined the group this week that walked 3.8 miles from Arrowhead Drive to Highway 50 to see what was going on.

The walk was pleasant enough on Tuesday afternoon as about 80 of us set out with Supervisor Robin Williamson in the lead. Ralph Kellogg, who works for Frehner Construction, the company building bridges and drainage structures on the first phase of the freeway, was there to try to keep any of us from falling into a ditch.

By now, most Carson City residents should have a good idea of the path of the highway through the north end of town. It's the wide swath of sagebrush that runs alongside several neighborhoods until it ends abruptly at the shopping center on Highway 50.

Even though I used to live in a house on Ruby Lane that isn't there anymore because of the bypass, it was still interesting to stand in the middle of the right of way and look north to Lakeview Hill to see exactly how the highway will come sweeping through the city.

I also noticed people in several back yards who were hanging out laundry in the afternoon breeze, or firing up their charcoal grills, or swinging their kids on the backyard swing set.

Three years from now, they may still be doing all those things. But they'll be doing them in the shadow of a major freeway, with semi-trucks roaring past their houses. Several neighborhoods bump pretty close to the right of way.

One of the reasons I went on the walk was to try to put some human scale on the landscape of the bypass. It's still hard to imagine what it will look like, but the fact is that the bypass is going to change Carson City forever - on a huge scale.

Walking along the right of way, listening to birds sing and watching the children who were along for the hike hunt for insects, reminded me how pieces of Carson City that are now among the quietest and most pleasant are soon to become the busiest and most raucous.

That's especially true at the wetlands along Lompa Lane, an obvious sanctuary for wildlife. They'll be plowed under. The plan is to replace those acres with lands in Washoe Valley. It won't be the same.

So, yes, something will be lost. But the bypass will be a good thing for Carson City in general, because most of the rest of Carson City will be a saner and safer place to be.

Through traffic, especially the semi-trailers, won't be clogging up Carson Street. Although it will remain a busy street, probably just as congested as it is today, I think it will be a different kind of busy. Most of the traffic will be local, going a few blocks to a destination. I'm hoping for a day when we can actually cross Carson Street east-west without a stoplight.

And, perhaps, there will be hope for pedestrians.

We were all pedestrians Tuesday as we walked the bypass route, so some of us tried to imagine we were walking the much-debated hiking/biking path that would be located at the base of the freeway.

There's no chance it will be as pleasant as Tuesday's walk. A few thousand cars zipping along nearby are bound to make a difference. (And to continue to try to clear up any misconception, the path would not be on the freeway. It would be 20 feet below the roadway, at the base of the slope.)

Neverthless, I think it's important to try to soften the effect of the highway as much as possible - both with a path and with vegetation along the freeway's route - to keep at least a little of the serenity that existed during our walk this week. It would be for all of us, of course, but it would also be for the people who live along the route.

Aren't there better places in Carson City for walking and biking paths? Maybe so. But there are good reasons to create this path here and now. If we don't, I'm afraid, it will never happen.

In my mind, it's just as important to build ways for walkers and hikers to get from Point A to Point B as it is to build highways for cars. Forcing people to drive places they could walk, like the site for the new Boys & Girls Club, only adds to traffic problems.

I go for a walk every morning in my neighborhood near Seeliger Elementary School. I enjoy all of it, but the best part is the asphalt path that runs for a couple of blocks along Saliman Road just south of Seeliger.

It winds a little bit, has some trees to provide a piece of shade and is just enough removed from the street itself to be better than an ordinary sidewalk.

Another favorite place for a stroll is in front of the Capitol. Moving the sidewalk off Carson Street a few feet into the shade made all the difference.

I'll never expect the bypass path to be that pleasant. I am hoping, however, that I will someday be able to walk along the same route I did Tuesday, and at least see some semblance of the Carson City that existed before the bypass.

(Barry Smith is managing editor of the Nevada Appeal.)