Columnist Jeff German: Controlling the traffic controllers

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

Anyone driving across town or to the neighborhood supermarket knows the stress of dealing with traffic congestion.

Running into gridlock and construction projects everywhere you go in the valley 24 hours a day, even on weekends, causes headaches and raises blood pressure. It also leads to accidents and, in some cases, road rage.

Motorists are frustrated and fed up. They want the problem fixed, and they want to hold someone accountable if it isn't fixed.

Since 1982 local officials have poured millions of taxpayer dollars into a high-tech computer system designed to coordinate traffic lights and ease the flow of vehicles on major thoroughfares in fast-growing Southern Nevada.

But the public for the most part has been kept in the dark about how those funds have been spent.

Every year we hear promises from local officials that things will get better, and every year they seem to get worse.

And there's never anyone to blame when things don't improve.

The Regional Transportation Commission, which is pushing Question 10 on the November ballot to raise $2.7 billion for traffic improvements, has no control over the computer system that synchronizes the traffic lights. Neither do the city of Las Vegas, Clark County and the Nevada Department of Transportation.

So who does?

It turns out there's a multi-jurisdictional agency, the Las Vegas Area Computer Traffic System, that has been running things under the public's radar since 1985.

Though it has a $2 million annual budget and has received $24.5 million in state and federal funds since 1989, LVACTS does not answer directly to any elected officials who deal regularly with the voters.

"It's a group that operates pretty much in the background," NDOT Assistant Director Kent Cooper says. "The only time valley residents really hear about it is when there's a power failure."

LVACTS, tucked away in small headquarters at 416 N. 8th St., has a manager and 12 other staffers, mostly engineer types, who report to a five-member operating committee of bureaucrats from the RTC, Clark County and the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson.

Niel Rohleder, the system manager at LVACTS, says about 600 of the more than 900 traffic lights in the valley now are hooked up to the computer system, and there's room for another 100-150 signals.

The job of coordinating the lights isn't easy, he says.

Construction projects often limit the number of lanes for motorists on many roadways, creating fits for those manning the computers. Irregular spacing between traffic lights also complicates matters.

"We're doing pretty well with what we have," Rohleder says. "But we can always do better, and we'll continue to do better."

County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who chairs the RTC, is not a fan of the way LVACTS conducts business.

"I don't think they have a clear mandate because they don't answer to the public," he says. "In the past, we've been told we're going to have a state-of-the-art synchronization, and that hasn't happened."

But Rohleder counters, "We get a great deal of input from our elected officials. We get a lot of independent opinions."

How many of those opinions, however, come from motorists who have to spend 45 minutes traveling across town in rush-hour traffic? Who even knows how to contact LVACTS with a complaint? Who knows LVACTS exists?

Woodbury looks at the agency this way: "If you're answerable to all of the agencies, you're answerable to nobody."

LVACTS, he insists, could be more effective and more accessible if it's brought under the jurisdiction of the RTC, which has eight elected officials on its board.

RTC General Manager Jacob Snow agrees.

"It would be a much more open process," he says. "The public would have a chance to comment."

Snow says the RTC will make a bid to take over LVACTS if the voters pass Question 10, which allocates another $1.7 million a year to upgrade the traffic synchronization system.

The move makes sense when you consider the RTC is responsible for setting up the valley's transportation infrastructure.

Even Rohleder doesn't care if the RTC ends up being his boss.

"I will work for whoever wants to pay me," he says.

The best argument for putting LVACTS under the RTC's wing is accountability.

With eight elected officials on the RTC's board, the public finally will be able put some faces on the traffic woes around town. It finally will have someone to blame.

If the eight members of the RTC can't improve gridlock, then the voters can elect eight more who can.