Federal grant to help UNLV study pedestrian safety

Angela Soo

Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2001 | 8:47 a.m.

Transportation researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas announced Monday they received a grant from the federal government that will help make Las Vegas streets safer for pedestrians.

Shashi Nambisan, director of the Transportation Research Center at UNLV, said the $973,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration will help researchers identify the most dangerous intersections for pedestrians and develop ways to improve them.

"The Las Vegas metropolitan area has some of the worst safety characteristics," Nambisan said.

The most recent figures from a 1999 Federal Highway Administration report showed that Nevada ranked No. 1 in pedestrian fatalities and injuries. In 1999, 71 people were killed in Nevada, with 51 of the fatalities in Clark County alone.

During a presentation Monday at UNLV, researchers used a graph to compare Clark County's pedestrian statistics to other counties. Nevada ranked No.1 in pedestrian fatalities in 1997 and 1999. Florida took the lead in 1998. Nevada had the worst injuries for all three years.

"These are real people, who are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and friends," said Bruce Mackey, acting chief of the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety.

Erin Breen, director of UNLV's Safe Community Partnership, said pedestrian accidents also result in lifelong debilitating injuries that put a tremendous amount of financial strain on the people involved.

"We have a pedestrian safety problem in our community that affects not only our safety, but our quality of life," Breen said. The research team applied for the $973,000 grant in May, competing against all other metropolitan areas in the country. UNLV was one of two research centers that was awarded the grant last month. Florida received the other grant.

State and local agencies involved in transportation safety contributed funding to fulfill a 20 percent local match required by the federal government. The funds will be distributed in two phases for the next four years.

Metro Police Traffic Division and University Medical Center will provide data for the researchers during the first phase of the project, which will end in May. After collecting data and identifying problem areas, the researchers will work with additional community partners for the next three and a half years to implement effective countermeasures.

One possibility the group will consider is adding more crosswalk counters that tell pedestrians how many more seconds they have left to cross a street. There is one being tested at Tropicana Avenue and Island Way near the San Remo hotel.

Mackey, of the state traffic safety office, said many people assume tourists are the main contributors to the high pedestrian fatality rate in Las Vegas.

About 87 percent of pedestrians killed were state residents and 84 percent of motorists involved in a pedestrian fatality held Nevada driver's licenses, Mackey said.