Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2004 | 10:54 a.m.
It may be hard to believe while crawling through the Rainbow curve on U.S. 95, but traffic delays in Las Vegas have gotten shorter, according to a study released Tuesday.
Vegas drivers wasted 27 hours in traffic in 2002, compared with 28 hours the previous year and 33 hours in 2000, according to the national study done by the Texas Transportation Institute.
"This is not to give anyone the misconception that we do not have traffic congestion," Regional Transportation Commission spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman said. "In any urban setting there are a lot of people trying to get to a lot of places."
Still, the improvement made Las Vegas look better than a lot of other cities in the report.
The average driver in Los Angeles lost 93 hours to traffic in 2002, which was better than the 114 hours lost there in 1992. In Atlanta the time spent inhaling fumes was 60 hours, according to the study.
Las Vegas was well under the average 38 hours wasted in cities its size, and ranked 42nd among all 85 cities studied.
That probably doesn't make much difference to Las Vegas drivers waiting three lights to get through an intersection.
"No matter where in this report Las Vegas is rated, motorists in Las Vegas will tell you there is too much traffic and that Las Vegas deserves better," said Eric Antebi, Sierra Club spokesman in San Francisco.
Still, county and state officials responsible for traffic pointed to the completion of some major projects as reason for the improvement.
Bob McKenzie, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Transportation, said the factors in 2002 that made the most difference were the the reconstruction of the Spaghetti Bowl, the widening of Interstate 15 at the Sahara interchange and construction on the Rainbow curve on U.S. 95.
"We have kept up with rapid growth in Clark County," McKenzie said, noting that the data for 2003 and 2004 also should be encouraging -- even with the construction of the U.S. 95-Interstate 215 interchange -- given the increased use of the Las Vegas Beltway in the past two years.
"Motorists have alternate routes. As we grow, we have more options," he said.
Reisman of the RTC said the study is "a positive step" that demonstrates the success of the efforts of regional and local leaders and the voters, who in 2002 approved $2.7 billion for "multi-modal options" in transportation.
"Maintaining mobility is difficult for any community," Reisman said. "That we have been able to do it bodes well for a bright future for us.
"... But if you have options you can better address the situation," he said.
Those options, she said, include the Metropolitan Area Express -- the MAX system -- that went into service this year on Las Vegas Boulevard between downtown and Nellis Air Force Base, using the former breakdown lane as a dedicated lane.
Also, Reisman said, plans are to increase frequency on Citizen Area Transit public bus routes, to further reduce traffic delays.
The Sierra Club's Antebi said the encouraging message in the report and in what Las Vegas officials are striving for is to increase the use of public transit.
"Efforts like the new MAX line and other public transit not only helps Las Vegans who commute but also helps those who choose to drive by taking other cars off the road," Antebi said. "The environmental benefits of public transportation is that it reduces pollution from the tailpipe and saves fuel."
The Texas Transportation Institute, which is part of Texas A & M, found that nationwide the annual delay per peak period traveler has grown from 16 hours to 46 hours since 1982. Snarled traffic is costing U.S. travelers 3.5 billion hours a year, up from 700 million in 1982, the report said.
The fuel wasted in car engines idling during traffic jams totaled 5.6 billion gallons in 2002 alone, the study said. Also the study found that the annual financial cost of traffic congestion has risen from $14 billion to more than $63 billion since 1982.
"This report shows the cost of doing business as usual (nationwide) is exorbitant," Antebi said. "It is even worse when you consider there are alternatives. It is a shame that we waste so much time, fuel and money."
Tim Lomax, one of the authors of the study, says Las Vegas apparently has well used its resources and strategies.
"There are more miles of streets and freeways," Lomax said Tuesday, noting a significant jump in lane miles on Las Vegas area freeways from 400 in 1999 to 490 in 2002.
"What we see in Las Vegas is that supply and demand are about the same," he said. "What we see too often in a lot of places is that transportation cannot keep pace with demand and growth."
Even with Las Vegas' growth, Lomax said, Las Vegas can avoid becoming a mini-Los Angeles with similar traffic congestion.
"It depends on what level of attack a community wants to take on traffic congestion as a threat to the local vitality of the economy and the quality of life," he said.
The survey also found that Las Vegas is heading in the right direction in saving fuel and eliminating travel delays during peak-hour travel.
Las Vegas fell from 34th place in that category in 2000 to 43rd place in 2002, while the cost in spent fuel and travel delays caused by traffic jams dipped from $298 per person to $266.
Lomax said people have to start thinking seriously about alternative methods of transportation and changing their methods of doing business.
Among them is to utilize the "virtual office," with employees working at home for a couple of hours in the morning, if possible, before they drive to the office, avoiding peak-hour traffic times.
Car-pooling or using public transportation at least a couple of days a week also are options that reduce gridlock, Lomax said.
In Las Vegas public transportation use has increased over the past 20 years, the study said.
The annual passenger miles of public bus travel in Las Vegas dipped from a record 179 million in 2001 to 172 million in 2002, the report said, noting the latest figure still is up significantly from 125 million passenger miles in 1996.
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