Software touted as possible aid for traffic jam relief

Stephen Curran

Thursday, Aug. 26, 2004 | 9:42 a.m.

The gridlock and kamikaze-style maneuvers common at many Las Vegas intersections, grudgingly accepted by most area drivers as an unpleasant byproduct of growth, could largely be solved using a computer program already available to most local traffic planners, a member of the Regional Transportation's citizens group said.

The Project Conflict Avoidance System, a computer program made available to the RTC in 1999 but rarely used by county planners, provides up-to-date, online information on projects throughout the Las Vegas Valley, Andrew Maline, a local real estate broker and member of the Citizens Advisory Committee, said at the group's meeting Wednesday.

Having that information in an online, easy-to-read format would prevent snarls that result from multiple construction projects, often undertaken at the same time and during peak traffic periods, Maline said.

"We're seeing it over and over again throughout the valley," he said of the poorly planned projects. "They are not well coordinated in terms of timing, phasing and standards."

The software is currently used in less than 10 percent of area road construction projects, Maline said.

Keith Kelley, president of the Nevada Association of Realtors and a committee member, said his group would also review the findings and would possibly lobby for the changes.

"We hope this can be something we will support," he said.

The backups and unsafe conditions could be avoided if an oversight agency managed the projects and prevented multiple projects from beginning along the same stretch of road, one of 14 recommendations the committee voted to take to the Legislative Counsel Bureau next month.

Other recommendations include a provision to tighten oversight and penalize agencies that leave cones in place after work is completed or place barriers long before work starts.

"We (the taxpayers) own those roads," Maline said. "We paid for them. We built them."

Based on a formula devised by the Texas Transportation Institute, a road construction think tank, time spent idling in traffic costs Las Vegas drivers up to $415 million in lost time and wasted fuel, Maline said.