Clark County presents neighborhood traffic-management program, eyes extension of application window

Clark County public works staff on Monday introduced a revived Neighborhood Traffic Management Program that will accept resident requests for traffic-calming measures on local streets.

"We rolled out our neighborhood traffic management program in the second week of January," said David Jardine, the countytraffic engineering section manager, who told the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association that applications opened Jan. 15. Jardine said the posted application deadline is March 1 but that staff planned to extend it by about one month to build a larger pool of candidates.

The program is aimed at neighborhood streets — those with on-street parking and without a center line — rather than collectors or arterials, Jardine said. County examples included 88th Street (collector), 94th Avenue (arterial) and 99th Street (arterial), which are generally excluded because of higher traffic volumes and lane configurations.

Jardine outlined a data-driven evaluation process: applicants submit a form identifying a single roadway and, where possible, intersecting streets and typical times of concern. Staff or consultants then collect speed and volume counts, review crash history and consider pedestrian use. "We accept the applications, then we evaluate the applications. The evaluation deals with ... volumes over the roadway," Jardine said.

If a roadway is selected, the county will match the problem to a toolbox of countermeasures that can include speed humps, speed-feedback radar signs, traffic circles, pavement markings and additional signage. Jardine said the county will notify the submitting neighborhood association or the individual applicant when a roadway is chosen and will post selections on the program webpage and in a social-media announcement.

Program funding is limited, Jardine said: "We have about 250,000 a year, and we're gonna spend on doing traffic calming projects on local roads within neighborhoods." He added that implementation will depend on weather, design timelines and staffing; projects identified late in the year could be pushed into the following spring.

Staff emphasized procedural rules: each road must be submitted with its own application; applications submitted after the cutoff will not automatically roll into the next year and must be resubmitted because roadway conditions change from year to year. Jardine also said being on a safe walk route to school or having pedestrian activity within a quarter mile can increase a roadway's prioritization score.

Residents asked how to report other concerns such as fallen signs or sight-distance hazards; staff said the "Report a Concern" button on the county Public Works page routes transportation issues to traffic engineers who will investigate. Jardine said the county met with a sheriff's office liaison while setting up the program and that staff will share findings with law enforcement, though routine video recording is not part of the standard data-collection approach.

The countystaff advised neighborhood groups to use the application form for each problematic road and to include as many details as possible (times, days, specific behavior) to help target data collection and evaluation. The program webpage and the Public Works customer-service form were the main points of contact for questions and submissions.

Next steps: organizers said staff will send outreach and a social-media notice about any extension of the application period and will notify applicants whose roads are chosen for evaluation.