RTC looks at future safety

Stephen Curran

Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004 | 9:24 a.m.

Members of the Regional Transportation Commission readily agreed Wednesday that safety should be one of the agency's top goals, but commissioners have yet to settle how they want the RTC to tackle the issue.

On the table during the RTC's strategic planning retreat at the County Government Center was a plan to create what commissioners agreed to call an "integrated regional transportation safety system" that would unite services provided by the RTC, police departments and the state Transportation Department.

Commissioners took no action at the meeting but agreed to look at the issue again.

The retreat, designed as a forum for commissioners to refine their goals for RTC staff, is the first such meeting held since 2002, RTC General Manager Jacob Snow said. The meeting was held after the RTC's regularly monthly meeting.

The new system could likely take the shape of another RTC committee, although Commissioner Shari Buck said she did not know how it would differ from the existing methods.

"How is this different from what we're already doing?" asked Buck, a North Las Vegas councilwoman. "It seems like we're already doing these things."

The primary difference, Snow said, is that the RTC has not devised a countywide plan to address safety with other agencies.

The plan would also establish a long-term driver safety program that could allow the RTC to set up a river safety program that, with transportation department help, would synchronize traffic lights and help the agencies keep closer tabs on dangerous areas, Commissioner Chip Maxfield said.

"We don't have a solid safety program (for the future)," he said. "It's so we can have our roads more safe than they are today. Safety would be a huge element."

It would expand upon a current RTC plan to identify at least eight roadways each year where engineers will reset timers on each street's traffic lights to shorten wait times, Snow said. The agency recently finished resetting four traffic lights in Las Vegas, he said.

But such a plan would mean greater competition for the RTC's already limited time and money, Snow said, and could drastically shift the agency's structure as it works to allow for more feedback from other county agencies.

"In my mind, it's clear it's going to change our commitment of resources," Snow said after the retreat.

Maxfield, who also chairs the Clark County Commission, said developing such a system -- whatever form it takes -- will help the RTC keep pace with the county's growing population, which planners expect to keep climbing in coming decades.

"It's now time to start asking the bigger questions," he said.