Friday, July 6, 2001 | 10:51 a.m.
In the age of cell phones and digital pagers, some might say that call boxes along the highways are part of technological history.
The 2001 Legislature was not among those. Legislators enacted a law requiring the Nevada Department of Transportation to construct and maintain call boxes along Interstate 15 between Lake Mead Drive and the California border and provided $500,000 to pay for it.
"My main concern is getting call boxes in key locations so people who are out in remote areas don't have to worry," said Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, who as chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee helped secure the funding. "This is the age of communication, and people sometimes die without it."
Department of Transportation officials did not initially support the call boxes, because of the wide use of cell phones.
"When we were asked for information on this, we offered cell phone usage," Scott Magruder, NDOT spokesman, said. "With more and more cell phones out there, this seems a little unnecessary. You can find a better way to use half a million dollars." The boxes would allow people to report emergencies, request assistance and receive weather, road and traffic conditions.
NDOT does not oppose call boxes and will install them as soon the details are worked out, Magruder said.
But since this is a new system for Nevada, NDOT has questions about the whole operation. The agency is looking into who would answer the calls, who would maintain the boxes and how far apart the boxes would be.
Supporters of call boxes in Nevada point to the Golden State as an example of a system that works well. Nevada's largest neighbor has had its system up and running since 1987. The state has around 15,000 call boxes in 29 of 58 counties, covering about 6,300 miles of highway, according to the California Department of Transportation.
The call boxes are one-half to one mile apart from each other, and most are solar powered, Gene Berthelsen, spokesman for California DOT, said. The boxes have generated more than 1,000 calls a month, but Berthelsen said the volume on calls has been dropping because of cell phones.
Even with increased cell phone use, Berthelsen believes the call boxes are useful.
"When I am driving down the highways, I still see cars that are stopped at them and are making calls," Berthelsen said. "They still, very much so, have a function."
California's call boxes are operated by the California Highway Patrol, Caltrans, and the California Service Authority for Freeways and Expressways Committee, a volunteer nonprofit association that holds forums to discuss call box issues.
The calls are answered by the California Highway Patrol dispatch center. A $1 annual fee is tacked onto vehicle registrations in participating counties to fund the program, Berthelsen said.
If calls to AAA are any indication, there's plenty of roadside trouble along Southern Nevada's freeways.
AAA Nevada receives an average of 500 calls a months from people who need roadside assistance on I-15 between Las Vegas and Primm, spokeswoman Lisa Foster said. What AAA doesn't know, she said, is whether calls came from fixed-point phones at roadside stations or cell phones.
She said AAA supports any system that helps motorists contact emergency roadside assistance.
Arberry said that because Nevada is such a tourist-driven state with extremely hot temperatures during the summer months, visitors need the call boxes to feel safe driving on the highways.
"We have so much desert and we are dealing with all cross sections of the world, as visitors come here," said Arberry. "We need to provide some sort of service to prevent them from getting stranded."
If the law put call boxes in remote, rural areas that were less traveled and where cell phones did not always have connecting ability, it would have had more support from NDOT, Magruder said.
I-15 does not meet that criteria, Magruder said. It's a heavily traveled road and does have cellular coverage, so it does not have as great a need as other parts of the state.
Spokeswomen from both AT&T Wireless Services and Sprint PCS said their phones have complete coverage from Las Vegas to Primm. Their customers on this stretch of highway are able to use their cell phones without worrying about getting disconnected or not getting a signal, they said.
Still, Sprint PCS spokeswoman Vicki Soares said, call boxes are a good idea.
"Not everyone has cellular devices," Soares said. "Every ounce of safety for the traveler is a benefit."
Arberry said NDOT originally did not support the bill not only because of cell phones, but also because it did not want the responsibility of having to construct and maintain the call boxes. NDOT was concerned with vandalism and the costs to fix and replace phones, Arberry said.
"When we did our research in California, we found there were few cases of vandalism to the phones, I guess because people realize how important they are," Arberry said. "The Department of Transportation really didn't want them. They made excuses that they were going to have to build turnouts -- areas on the side of the road for people to pull off."
In the meantime, the department is trying to get more information and help to motorists through other programs, such as changeable message boards along freeways around the Las Vegas Valley and the Freeway Service Patrol, which helps people who have flats or have run out of gas.
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