Carson City, Nevada

[Alex]

With I-580 opening in less than a month, and U.S. 50 and U.S. 395 formally shifting off of Fairview Drive and South Carson Street to the remainder of the freeway, will U.S. 395 Business be decommissioned through the city? Carson Street is already out of the state route system north of Fairview Drive, and the streetscaping/road diet project along Carson Street  south from William Street further de-emphasized it as a through route. Also noted on GSV that the reassurance marker for U.S. 395 Business posted north of William Street (old U.S. 50) was removed.

Additionally William Street is locally maintained as well, so is U.S. 50 Business not in the cards for Carson City now?

[roadfro]

NDOT sought AASHTO approval for both US 395 Business and US 50 Business in 2009, when the freeway opened down to it's current terminus at Fairview Drive. That recognition, I believe, covered the entire extent of the original through-town alignments on Carson & William Streets.

Curiously, NDOT submitted another application to AASHTO at the spring 2017 meeting of the route numbering subcommittee for recognizing US 50 Business (simultaneously with the formal relocation of US 50/395). This was approved as well.


US 395 Business is not likely to be going away. Permanent BGSs at both north the north and the new south end of the Carson City Bypass prominently refer to the Carson Street exit as US 395 Business & (North/South) Carson Street. There are (or at least there were) sporadic US 395 Business route signs along Carson Street previously. Also, Carson City is still very interested in promoting business interest along Carson Street, as there is concern about stores losing business due to the bypass--that is part of the reason for the road diet/complete street revamping of the downtown/Capitol portion of Carson Street in the first place.

US 50 Business is a bit different story. Even though there was AASHTO approval for it, the closest signage along the freeway is the references to "Downtown Carson City" at the US 50 East interchange. I don't believe NDOT has plans to sign US 50 Business at all. However, BGSs along the off-ramps at the US 50 East interchange have space for US 50 Business shields, if desired (southbound off ramp, which once had US 50 West/US 395 South shields)

[Plutonic Panda]

Narrowing from 6 lanes to 4? I am not a fan of that move at all.

[Alex]

Thanks for the clarification Roadfro, I will update the Nevada pages accordingly.

Narrowing from 6 lanes to 4? I am not a fan of that move at all.

Four lanes with a narrow median and left turn lanes. They wanted to provide on street parking and wider shoulders. Interestingly they also removed the landscaped median and a number of trees to accommodate the new center turn lane.

[Inyomono395]

Not at all happy with the road diet plan!  I've always enjoyed the landscaped median. I know plenty of people that go from Bishop to Reno and they purposely go through Carson City because of their Main Street.

[gonealookin]

Not at all happy with the road diet plan!  I've always enjoyed the landscaped median. I know plenty of people that go from Bishop to Reno and they purposely go through Carson City because of their Main Street.

I have walked in downtown quite a bit and I think the improvements make that stretch of Carson Street much more pedestrian-friendly.  The sidewalks used to be very narrow and that has been improved greatly.  The median landscaping has been replaced by landscaping along the sidewalks.  For through traffic, Stewart Street just to the east has always been a better option anyway.

Here are a couple blog posts with a lot of photos:

1.  Before the improvements.

2.  After the improvements

And for Alex, from that second blog post, HERE is evidence of Business 395 signage after completion of the project.

[sparker]

Not at all happy with the road diet plan!  I've always enjoyed the landscaped median. I know plenty of people that go from Bishop to Reno and they purposely go through Carson City because of their Main Street.

I have walked in downtown quite a bit and I think the improvements make that stretch of Carson Street much more pedestrian-friendly.  The sidewalks used to be very narrow and that has been improved greatly.  The median landscaping has been replaced by landscaping along the sidewalks.  For through traffic, Stewart Street just to the east has always been a better option anyway.

Here are a couple blog posts with a lot of photos:

1.  Before the improvements.

2.  After the improvements

And for Alex, from that second blog post, HERE is evidence of Business 395 signage after completion of the project.

Noticed in the "comments" section immediately following the "after" picture segment there's already a complaint about non-compliance to ADA standards -- specifically mentioning the "posts" in the middle of the flattened street-access ramps at a couple of the intersections.  Those "posts" are in fact activator buttons for the "walk" signals controlling the corner crosswalks; their placement clearly allows any wheelchair-bound sidewalk traffic sufficient room to avoid the post -- and the post itself appears to be placed in such a way as to actually benefit such potential disabled users by not requiring they schlep over to the side of the ramps to activate the appropriate signal.   Now -- having said that, I can see that such placement may be problematic for the sightless, as it's "front & center" in the pathway.  This appears to be one of those instances where circumstances endemic to one type of handicapped person-- the wheelchair-bound -- are enhanced but another -- the sightless, of course, are not well-served.  It'll be interesting to see how -- or whether -- this issue is resolved;  I would think that a couple of years of facility usage would engender some user feedback regarding this matter.