Clark County presents Neighborhood Traffic Management Program to address speeding on local streets

Clark County Public Works on Wednesday proposed a Neighborhood Traffic Management Program (NTMP) designed to help neighborhoods address speeding and cut‑through traffic on local residential streets.

Public Works transportation staff, led by Steve Gallup, presented the program to the Neighborhood Associations Council (NAC), describing a four‑step framework for resident submissions, evaluation, engagement and implementation and saying the county hopes to begin implementation in 2026. “My name is Steve Gallup. I work for the transportation division in public works,” Gallup said at the start of the presentation.

The proposal would open an annual window for residents and neighborhood associations to submit areas of concern (suggested dates: Jan. 15–March 1), allow staff to collect existing traffic data and field equipment counts, and then score and prioritize projects for council approval in early summer. Staff said high‑scoring projects would be designed, scheduled and added to the county’s six‑year Transportation Improvement Program.

Gallup described a toolkit focused on education, traffic enforcement coordination and engineering treatments. Examples shown to the NAC included small traffic circles, speed cushions/speed bumps, curb extensions and “optical speed bars” — painted road markings that narrow visually and which staff said reduced average speeds by about 5 mph in a before‑and‑after study on one local street. “We have about 8 of those,” Gallup said of the county’s moveable speed‑feedback signs. He also said the county’s traffic engineering group handled roughly 400 customer requests in 2024, and that about 80% of those related to speeding.

Staff proposed adding two full‑time employees to run the program, and said a draft budget currently under consideration would be about $250,000 per year to fund small projects and program operations. Gallup said larger projects identified through the NTMP would be routed into the county’s broader capital program if their scale exceeded the NTMP budget.

During questions, residents pressed staff on enforcement and program mechanics. One resident asked, “you don't even have cameras in those radar detectors. So how are you gonna catch those speeders to educate them?” Gallup and staff responded that the NTMP’s educational work would include outreach campaigns (billboards, school and community events) and that current radar‑based units collect speed and volume data but are not automated enforcement cameras. Staff noted Washington state recently passed legislation authorizing automated speed enforcement programs and said those would be a separate, larger program requiring additional partners and approvals before they could be used locally.

Staff described the program as equity‑minded and said the scoring and prioritization methodology in the concept report intends to spread funding across neighborhoods rather than concentrate it in a small number of places. They also emphasized collaboration plans with internal and external stakeholders — the sheriff’s office, fire districts, transit and school districts — during the evaluation phase to check compatibility of treatments.

Next steps outlined by staff: refine the program details based on feedback, present a single recommended concept to the county council in May, include funding in the 2026 budget and begin hiring two staff members to run the program. Gallup said staff expect some “growing pains” the first year as procedures and outreach are refined.

Residents and NAC members at the meeting raised implementation questions and practical concerns about outreach, whether neighborhood associations could reliably surface problems and how eligible roads would be defined; staff repeatedly noted the NTMP is intended for local, residential streets (posted 25 mph) and not higher‑classification roads such as Patton Parkway. Staff said they would coordinate outreach with county neighborhood liaison offices and post the full list of requests and rankings online to increase transparency.

The presentation materials and concept report will be posted on the county website and staff said they will return to council with a recommendation in May. If council approves, the program would aim to put initial projects into the 2026 capital budget and to report back annually to council on outcomes.