RTC sets criteria for future projects

Friday, Jan. 10, 2003 | 9:40 a.m.

In a city whose population grows by 70,000 people a year, transportation is one of the problems growing just as fast.

The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada moved Thursday to set up a system that commission staff and board members hope will help select those road and mass transit projects that will help the most.

The board met for three hours in a "strategic planning retreat" in an RTC meeting room. The product of their discussion: a list of criteria for new projects and a greater emphasis on truly regional projects.

And the twin issues of improved air quality and reduced traffic congestion will govern consideration of new transportation projects, staff said.

"You can't even be considered as a project without considering them," RTC General Manager Jacob Snow said.

The RTC will screen new transportation programs with the following criteria: the effect a project would have on air quality; the effect the project would have on traffic volume in a given area now, in five years and in 10 years; and the effect the project would have on travel time for commuters.

Projects also will receive priority for funding based on several criteria, including the safety of a project, how well the project connects with other transportation points, how soon the project can be developed, and the overall benefit versus cost of the project.

Snow said the criteria-based system will help his staff determine what projects will come and how much money they will get.

"We've got direction from the commission on how they want us to set policy," he said.

RTC Chairman and Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury said the planning session was "a good dialogue."

"We have an agreement that the need to be more criteria based, maybe a little less parochial," he said.

He said the criteria need to be tempered with a sense of fairness, because everyone in the county pays for the RTC so all should benefit from transportation projects.