Fast Cams to be Synched, Speeding up Surface Street Traffic
The I-15 widening project is going to make those surface streets very busy, so the agency that controls the valley’s traffic signals is planning a massive effort to try to speed the flow.
Planners say the traffic diverted from I-15 is expected to flow into areas well beyond the actual construction zone. So managers at the valley’s traffic light network — called Fast — have a plan to adjust light timings to try to speed things along on the surface streets.
What do you think about how Las Vegas traffic lights are timed? Add your comments.
Categories: traffic
July 11th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I cannot for the life of me understand why so may lgihts are not synchronized. I can sit at corners where tie light have left turn signals on both side of the road, with no cars i that lane and we have to wair 30 to 45 secons for the timer to change. Where are all the sensors in the lanes to determine if cars are there. So many intersections are like this and gas is wasted rime and time again for these terrible timeing errors. Do we not have a million dollar system that should fix this??????
July 11th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I think it’s about time the whole city had the lights times out. This has to be the least timed city I’ve lived in. Talk about added pollution and used gas!
I’m glad they are thinking about timing the streets that will gain so much traffic. I hope they monitor it closely because each of those streets picks up traffic from the intersections and with extremely long lights at each intersection, the problem of red light running and total lack of patience that leads to road rage will increase. You can time lights without making side street lights extremely long. Take some lessons from Denver or Los Angeles if need be. Even Orange County, CA is better timing than here in Las Vegas.
July 11th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Recommended this ti traffic control,12 years ago,they
responded that it was in the works ? Now it will be used only on streets affected by the 1-15 construction? Will LasVegas ever enter the 21st century?
July 11th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
I agree with Roger 100% and I’m glad I’m not the only one who notices. It really peeves me off when I pull up to an intersection, say I’m headed Westbound. I have a red light. North and Southbound goes red, and then the Eastbound lanes and the Eastbound green arrow comes on for NOBODY!! And I’m sitting there at a red light where there’s nobody going north, nobody going south, nobody going east, and east is the only one with the green… for a full minute long cycle. It’s infuriating!!
July 11th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
It’s about time! I’m really tired of going from one block to the next only to be stopped by a red light at EVERY SINGLE INTERSECTION all the way from home to work in the morning, and again from work to home every afternoon! I only hope this synchronization is valley wide, rather than just a small area around I-15.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
What makes me mad is driving on the 215 and where the constrution zone is 55 nobody does it and guess what I don’t one time and get a ticket when all the cars were passing me I guess I was the slowes to get stopped and give a ticket to.
The driver here are the worse the don’t go 65 it 95 or else and 55 nver mine they would like to push you off the road if they could.
July 11th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
What ever agency is in charge of the city lights should be fired. If they think the lights are synchronized, the agency personnel should be fired. The lights are two long sometimes five to seven minutes, the turn lanes cause more congestion and the entire city needs to be synced. The question is why now are they concerned. If the I15 freeway was not being widened, we would continue sitting at lights far too long and filling the skies with smog and wasting fuel.
July 12th, 2008 at 10:44 am
The city doesn’t time the lights properly on purpose. Part of it is some crazy plan to get people to pull into the businesses on the corners. The main reason is that the city traffic managers get paid (quite well) whether they do a good job or not. Unlike most of us, who would be fired if we were incompetent in our jobs. The city traffic managers do not care about polution or about us spending all of our money on gas. We sit at red lights intersection after intersection, we sit on the 215 that is only two lanes each way and has lights on have of it, and now we sit on the I15 that should have been expanded 10 years ago. During all of this the traffic managers get paid for the bang up job they’ve been doing all these years. What a racket!
July 13th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Synchronized? How about disabling the light when the road is closed or have the light flash a constant “Yellow” caution?
I called “What’s Driving You Crazy” about the light on 215 at Pecos when Pecos was closed due to construction more than a year ago. For TEN MONTHS, twice every morning and twice every afternoon, I had to stop (along with SOME of the other drivers on 215) at a light for a road closed to traffic. This road had no cars entering or exiting and no businesses for us to pull into. My concern was the fact that MANY drivers were running the light at 65 to 95 mph in the lane next to me while I sat stopped at the red light. I received a very polite, empathetic email from Dayna and a phone call quoting the LAME excuse the traffic engineers presented to her. Dayna stated the city’s concern for having to pay someone to go out and adjust the light at the intersection. The excuse made NO sense to Dayna either! I guess the city justified ME spending my money for the wear and tear on my tires/brakes and gas consumption (along with the other drivers who actually stopped) based on the savings to their budget. My “Crazy” dilemma was NOT resolved therefore it did not air. Dayna said she would follow up with the city. End result, the construction moved down the road and Pecos re-opened. I joked to Dayna about how the response from traffic engineers was almost like a defiant child stating: “Well, because you WANT me to do something does not mean I WILL do it!”. KUDOS to Dayna for her hard work and persistence. She makes her “What’s Driving You Crazy” segment look so easy, as if she places only one phone call to resolve a concerned drivers issues. I know she worked diligently calling MANY different offices with my issue only to be met (on the other end of her phone calls) with a barrage of excuses….”Road Block”.
Thanks again Dayna. We really do appreciate all your effort!
July 20th, 2008 at 8:37 am
I couldn’t agree more with the comments here and would really like to know what I can do as a citizen to encourage the city to move towards timed and synchronized traffic signals on major thoroughfares. There’s absolutely no logical reason why drivers should have to stop at nearly every intersection.
Timed lights decrease driver frustration, save fuel, and encourage drivers not to exceed the speed limit. Why would we support any other method of traffic control?
As always, many thanks to Dayna and her team for having the courage to take on such a volatile subject as traffic in Las Vegas.
July 27th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I sat on Lamb, facing southbound, trying to turn left onto eastbound Charleston so long yesterday, I actually put my car in park. I’ve worked that side of town for 6 years, and my car is my office. I’m familiar with that area and the light stayed green for Charleston so long I honestly thought the signal was malfunctioning. Meanwhile traffic on Lamb was backed up nearly to Stewart.
You know, Las Vegas has seen unprecedented growth, that’s no secret. If the people who are controlling the traffic signals got overwhelmed, that’s not a crime. After all, they’re only human, we all face challenges we can’t quite handle from time to time. The problem appears when you face a challenge you can’t handle and are too proud, arrogant or embarassed to ask for help.
I beg the traffic engineers: If you’re confused, PLEASE ask someone from a larger city for help! We won’t think less of you, honest!! When traffic starts moving like it should around here, you guys will be heroes!… As it stands now everyone pretty much thinks you’re idiots… which would you rather be??
August 3rd, 2008 at 6:06 pm
The answer is quite simple, just time the lights to the speed limit, after conducting a study of traffic flow. Some thoroughfares here are better than others, but I must say, Las Vegas is one of the worst cities for traffic light synchronization that I’ve driven in.
Fifteen years ago when there wasn’t a lot of people living here it was not a huge problem. Now that we are 2.2 million, it’s a bit frustrating. And one thing I don’t understand is on major holidays, when the strip is extremely congested, you can spot LV Metro, parked up and down the strip on the medians and just standing around and chatting with each other, when they could be improving traffic flow.
August 4th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
HAHAHA, you should take a look at the lights on Charleston from the west side of the 215 all the way down to Buffalo. I used to live over there and every time I used Charleston, I went from one light to the next, stop and go all the way to Buffalo, every single day, I saw one person make it past one light once (only to get caught at the next light), but he had to speed up to 75MPH to make it! There are 12 lights from Vista Center Dr to Buffalo, and heading east bound you sit at every single one of them, there are 5 lights in the first mile that you sit at each one for 30-60+ seconds.
August 5th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Doug, you said “And one thing I don’t understand is on major holidays, when the strip is extremely congested, you can spot LV Metro, parked up and down the strip on the medians and just standing around and chatting with each other, when they could be improving traffic flow.”
I’m going to guess that you’ve never put on a yellow vest, grabbed a flashlight and tried to get drivers in this town to follow your non-verbal commands have you? You should give it a shot sometime, dealing with impatient locals who have a schedule to keep, lost tourists who don’t know where they’re going, the people who feel it’s their right to drive a car simply because they live in this country (driver’s license not needed) and overall the lowest common denominator behind the wheel of a 3500 pound weapon of mass destruction. People are dumb, Doug. And if you’re the cop trying to direct traffic when there is a working traffic light above you, (i.e. one that is not flashing 4 way red or yellow or turned off completely) God help you. Drivers don’t know if they should ignore the light and look at you, or ignore you and look at the light. Then there’s those people who don’t even see you because they stare at their phones, their kids or the road 10 feet in front of them.
Long story short, Doug, major event times, it’s best (and safer) just to let the traffic lights do their thing. There’s nothing more embarassing than causing a fender bender when you’re “trying to improve the flow”… trust me. We all know these roads were never designed to handle the flow created by the entire occupancy of the MGM Grand Garden Area leaving at once anyway.
September 1st, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Don’t count on anything like that. They were suppose to start this 2-3 years ago, well we’re still waiting
September 26th, 2008 at 3:32 am
The traffic light timing in NLV is so bad I rather drink bleach then drive a second longer then I have too.
September 26th, 2008 at 3:56 am
So many times I was gonna take my daughter to go get ice cream or just get out of the house,go spend some money somewhere and then I would think about how frustrating the drive is going to be and simply put down my keys.I also drive a cement truck and believe me,I see whats going on all day,all over town and its not pretty.
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:53 am
Craig Rd is timed if you are going 52-55 mph, the problem is the speed limit is 45.
March 12th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
I left a phone message about the unreliable traffic lights at 7th and Bridger. They had been bothering me
for the past two years since I had moved into that area.
Two weeks ago I gave the button a push (I had spaced that I had ever called)…and was surprised when the
traffic light actually changed.
For myself, and the many, many people who use this
intersection…thank you!!! When something gets fixed, it actually makes you feel that your world has
become a saner place…that makes you feel like a saner person!!! Now, I’ll have one less reason to
go nuttsy coo coo!
Thank you! Jack
January 15th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
It is great that you took the time to write all this up; it’s nice to see another’s point of view. I appreciate your work on this post, and I’ll come back for more info.
January 15th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
On your report of whats driving you crazy on Jan 15 2010 you got it wrong. Its not that the road is in need of repair but the work that was done for the city to leave all these steel plates in the middle lane on Eastern between Eastern and Russel is the cause of the roller coaster ride. It’s terrible and a traffic hazard . When are these plates going to be removed?