RTC seeking business input for transit system

The Regional Transportation Commission is listening hoping to hear what the business community thinks of a rapid transit system for the Virginia Street corridor.

By rapid transit, the RTC is talking about more than just slow-moving buses and windscreened benches.

That's today.

What the future holds is a system of rapid transit stations, neighborhood villages clustered about them, supported by parking lots or garages, and designated transit lanes.

The vision includes modern, stylish vehicles tracked by satellite and equipped with signal trippers to change traffic lights to green.

RTC already has satellite tracking, says James McGrath, RTC's public information officer.

The department knows where its buses are.

That's a beginning; in the future, the tracking will serve to create transit station readouts of bus locations much like those seen in subway stations.

It'll tell transit riders when the next vehicle is due and where it's going.

The system is part of Reno's journey toward urban living."We're in a transition period," says John Hester, Reno's community development director.About 10 percent of the current traffic along Virginia Street is via bus.

And use of transit systems is a major component of the inevitable conversion of Reno's mountain town lifestyle to one of urban living.

But bus systems and future transit systems need high density.

To achieve the optimum density, the city of Reno rezoned the Virginia Street corridor for higher density of both housing and businesses.

A system also needs economic vitality along the corridor, and neighborhood businesses developed at the stations.

That's where the business community comes in.As a positive example of what the corridor seeks, McGrath points to new developments on the books, such as the commercial piece of the Virginia Lakes Crossing, a Silverstar Communities development of the old Mark Twain motel parcel.

Another piece of the corridor plan is a new downtown transit center, set for 3.3 acres on land bordered by Lake Street, 4th Street, Evans Street, and the Union-Pacific trench.

Says McGrath, the land is being acquired, with $24 million to $28 million in funds, some through eminent domain, some through direct purchase.

Over the next two years, the RTC will be studying the entire corridor, from North McCarran to the Mount Rose highway, and areas in between, for development of a system.

Business buy-in is important to the planning process, says McGrath.

The city is actively seeking input from the business community not because it must, though to fulfill Federal Transit Authority grant requirements it must but because it really wants to know.

The plan to reach everyone includes a Web site, www.rtcwashoe.com/vtc, which will be updated periodically.

The RTC has scheduled the first of five open houses: Thursday, July 21, from 4-7 p.m., at the Meadowood Courtyard Motel, 5851 S.

Virginia Street.And it is offering presentations to community and business organizations.