It's easy being green

No doubt you've noticed the green paint being used to highlight potential car/bike conflict points in the bike lanes in certain areas of Reno.  A nice addition that is a visual reminder to drivers to be looking out for cyclists.  Years ago when I sat on the Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee for the RTC we knew of a stash of this green paint existing but it never got used.  Originally we were talking about using it along California Ave. in the uphill stretch where Keystone Avenue merges into the street as a way of highlighting the pinched and unsafe loss of bike lanes as you approach Newlands.  

Not surprisingly a local news story was done by the right wing Fox/NBC KRNV that included a "viewer poll" asking if the green paint would make roads safer.  The story itself was innocuous enough but the poll was just click bait for anybody who doesn't like cyclists getting in the way of them driving.  But research shows that these kinds of visual cues for road users are more effective safety tools than just another sign on the road that gets lost in a driver's field of vision that warns that there might be actual cyclists using a bike lane.  I guess you can't cure stupid.