Editorial: Traffic jams while city and RTC jaw

Monday, March 15, 2004 | 8:40 a.m.

Two years ago voters approved a $2.7 billion transportation bond issue that featured, among many projects, a modern traffic control system. In this new world of commuting, highway entrance ramps would have traffic signals to prevent bottlenecks, electronic signs along the busier highways would have messages about accidents and construction delays and the traffic lights on major arterials would recognize and work with the traffic patterns on the highways. The vision was of a traffic system that worked regionally, smoothing commutes all over the valley.

Not part of the vision was the battle now shaping up between the proponent of the bond issue, the Regional Transportation Commission, and the city of Las Vegas, which currently has jurisdiction over FAST, the Freeway and Arterial System of Transportation which covers most of the high-traffic areas. After the transportation bond issue was passed, it was anticipated that FAST would move from city management to RTC management. This transition has been anything but smooth.

While the city argues jurisdictional issues, stews over pay and benefits for the traffic controllers and complicates everything by advocating that FAST be expanded from 10 hours of control a day to 24, the commuter sits for interminably long times at intersections, comes to a complete halt on jammed freeways and must depend on intermittent radio reports for news about accidents and other delays.

We believe two years has been a very generous amount of time for the city and the RTC to negotiate all of the issues involving this transition. The voters approved this bond issue because they were willing to spend their money on a traffic system that will allow them to meet their schedules. It's imperative for this impasse to be resolved, and soon.