Car Free Day Held at Kingsbury Businesses

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency closed it's parking lot to motorized staff vehicles on Friday for what has become a hallmark event for the agency.

Over 60 staff members of both TRPA and adjoining offices at their lower Kingsbury building biked, walked, used transit or a combination of these to get to work.

The 4th annual event started started as a way to get more staff members of TRPA to participate in the Tahoe Bike Challenge.

“We all recognize that reliance on the private automobile has a major impact on Lake Tahoe, but we often put up barriers to changing our daily habits on how we get around,” TRPA Public Information Officer Jeff Cowen said. “So our staff has really embraced this event as a way to break through those barriers and they have a lot of fun doing it.”

“It is fun but also an eye-opener for us,” said Cowen. Some staff members have mixed commutes where they drop off kids in bike trailers, leave the trailer, get on a bus with a bike rack, then bike the rest of the way to the office. Others, including one staff member who lives in Reno, are able link bus routes and walk up from the transit center at Lower Kingsbury, according to Cowen.

“TRPA and many others are working to make Lake Tahoe more bikeable and walkable and to improve transportation,” Cowen said. “We know there are gaps in the system and Car-Free Day keeps our heads in the game.”

Employees from the TRPA, the Tahoe Transportation District, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other tenants in the building including Design Workshop, Ascent Environmental, Inc., and the Tahoe Rim Trail participated in Car-Free Day.