County Commissioner Micheal Naft is joined by other local government leaders to sign the Traffic Safety Pledge. Pictured: Mayor John Lee, Clark County Chair Marilyn Kirkpatrick, Deputy Chief Andrew Walsh, Commissioner Micheal Naft, Mayor Debra March, & Mayor Carolyn Goodman.
Clark County Commissioner Micheal Naft hosted County Commission Chair Marilyn Kirkpatrick, and Mayors from North Las Vegas, The City of Las Vegas, and Henderson to sign a Traffic Safety Pledge. The newest County Commissioner raises awareness and recognizes the value of well constructed safe roadways because “as a western state we have wide roads, we have long roads and we have fast roads.” The goal of the Traffic Safety Pledge is to “promote safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all.” The challenges of maintaining the high standard of infrastructure that Southern Nevada is known for comes down to a quality of life issue for many Nevadans and guests who use it every day according to Andrew Bennett of the Nevada Department of Public Safety’s Office of Traffic Safety.
“I look forward to educating the community … working together on this … We are committed in NLV to the safety of our residents [by] doing things that everyone can learn [and] bring safety to every community” -Mayor John Lee, North Las Vegas
Tech Solutions Guide Roadway Safety
Southern Nevada is one of the best places for the development of road safety innovations because of its excellently constructed roadways. One approach Planners from the Regional Transportation Commission and Clark County are considering is The Complete Streets Program for street and sidewalk improvements. A specific suggestion is to make both sidewalks and streets wider to accommodate multiple means of transportation and promote pedestrian safety. Clark County Commission Chair Marilyn Kirkpatrick encouraged having a general standard of ten feet for sidewalks as a way to improve traffic issues.
Craig Raborn is the Manager of Planning at the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada and prioritizes job sites as an important safety issue. As he said “In Southern Nevada one of the critical road safety issues for us is all the construction that is happening so we partnered with some technology companies to actually put devices on cones, vehicles and even some workers that are in work zones so that movement is tracked and identified and is able to be signaled out so the traffic control devices can help” make for safer conditions. Innovations like these make it possible for smartphone apps like Waze to be able to alert drivers where road work is being done in real-time to prevent crashes in the first place.
“It is about all of you coming together because you are a big part of our community whether you are out there enforcing the law, making the roadways, or you are a constituent you really are on the front line and as our communities grow we need to go back out, we have to re-educate. I am totally committed to working with the Mayors and this is about collaboration … we have a responsibility to make life better” Clark County Commission Chair Marilyn Kirkpatrick
Clark County and the Traffic Safety Coalition agree that there is a need for a new outlook to road safety. The Board of County Commissioners, which Marilyn Kirkpatrick and Micheal Naft are members, directed the Department of Comprehensive Planning to find a new vision to logistics in the County. One way this will be accomplished is a directive to reevaluate a code developed in 2000 to bring Clark County into the 21st Century with new infrastructure developments. Similar to the Complete Streets Program, the Traffic Safety Coalition would like to see the multi-national traffic safety project called Vision Zero implemented. Vision Zero has been successful in other areas and focuses on fixing pedestrian issues because improvements to pedestrian conditions improve the road in most other aspects too. While each Department and entity see different approaches to improving Southern Nevada’s roads, each agrees it will take years of road work to make progress.
