You've been sitting in a line of cars through three changes of traffic signals, and you can finally see the intersection. You're late, you're annoyed, and you're wishing you had taken advantage of that yellow light instead of hesitating. Now, you're itching to be off like a rocket when that light changes.
You also know that in your current state of mind, you're a prime candidate for some kind of automobile mishap.
But with a little care - and some help from UNLV's Transportation Research Center - you might just make it through the day without being involved in one.
The UNLV Transportation Research Center (TRC) is working to find ways to improve the quality of life on Southern Nevada's roadways. It is the base for several multifaceted research projects aimed at exploring the traffic problems of the valley and recommending practical solutions to them.
The Transportation Research Center was originally funded in the late 1980s with a grant from the Nuclear Weapons Project Office in Carson City to conduct studies on transportation issues related to the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
It has since been given a broader mission, and in the last five years the center has received more than $325,000 from the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety to assist in meeting the many traffic challenges posed by the valley's tremendous growth.
The center now uses state-of-the-art technology to research various factors in the traffic picture and has developed community outreach programs to en-hance communication among interested agencies.
"We've looked at the real, immediate problems in the valley's traffic situation and have contributed ideas and possible solutions to those problems," says Edward Neumann, TRC director and chair of UNLV's department of civil and environmental engineering.
An example of the types of research the center conducts is its investigation into ways of making the safety markings on pavement, such as lane dividers, last longer; TRC researchers are examining different materials to determine which combinations of paint and pavement hold up better. Also, Neumann himself is studying automated people movers, which he believes could alleviate traffic problems under some conditions.
But one of the center's top priorities is improving safety on the roads, Neumann says, adding that the starting point for developing effective safety programs is knowing where crashes occur.
So, UNLV researchers are now employing a new computer-based tool known as the Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze crashes in connection with their locations.
In the old days, pins representing dif-ferent kinds of crashes would have been stuck on a wall map and counted. But today's GIS-generated maps and charts can provide much more information much more graphically - and much more quickly.
The TRC's analysis also paints a countywide picture of traffic safety not available from any other agency.
"The fact that we now have data georeferenced means we can very quickly do analyses comparing different characteristics of the crashes," says Neumann. "This gives planners information not previously available on which to base traffic engineering decisions."
UNLV's use of the Geographical Information System in this way makes it a pioneer in the field.
"These traffic depictions are using new technology and new software, and we're among the first to put it all together," explains Justin Rasas, transportation systems analyst and the TRC's acknowledged computer guru.
In analyzing crash data, center researchers consider various types of information, such as intersection design, traffic conditions, and driver behavior. The results are used by local agencies to make streets safer.
For example, the center recently began receiving reports of increased numbers of accidents, both vehicular and pedestrian, in the immediate vicinity of Citizen's Area Transit buses. And as bus ridership has climbed, so have the number of crashes. The center wants to know why.
Two theories have emerged. The first is that the crashes are occurring because drivers who get caught behind stopped buses are taking more chances in order to switch lanes to avoid slowing down or stopping. The second is that the pedestrian accidents are occurring because passengers, going to and from the buses, are taking more risks by crossing in front of stopped buses.
The TRC researchers hope to discover what is actually happening at the bus stops through analysis of crash data. Then, with data in hand, they also plan to conduct field observations of the bus stop sites involved and recommend possible solutions, such as creating more turn-out lanes to get buses out of the main flow of traffic.
This kind of analysis from the TRC is used not only by numerous agencies in the area, but also by the Safe Communities Partnership, an arm of the TRC.
According to partnership director Erin Breen, in 1995 the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety asked the TRC to set up a coalition of local agencies that are involved in traffic safety in an effort to enhance communication and cooperation among them.
The result is the Safe Communities Partnership, founded in 1996; those involved include representatives from local law enforcement, city and county government, the fire department, the county hospital trauma center, and the emergency medicine field.
"We are concerned with the four E's of traffic safety - enforcement, engineering, education, and emergency medicine," Breen notes, adding that the coalition tries to find ways to take information provided by the TRC and turn it into concrete projects that will improve safety.
The partnership draws on the statistics analyzed by the TRC to decide where to direct its attention for best results; it also provides support for TRC projects in the form of volunteers.
For example, the TRC and the partnership recently completed a child-safety seat survey in Clark County. Rasas and Breen organized the survey and analyzed the results, while partnership volunteers set up sites around the valley at which they observed safety seat use. They observed 1,266 children in vehicles and found 47 percent in compliance with child-safety seat use laws.
The study also showed that parents were more careful with infants than toddlers and that drivers in Summerlin are particularly aware of the safety value of the seats; 80 percent of the children observed in that part of the valley were properly restrained. Elsewhere, compliance was sometimes as low as 12 percent.
Information like this enables the partnership to identify areas it
should target with its educational safety campaigns, Breen says.
Pedestrian safety is another area the partnership is particularly active in promoting, says Breen, who has a special sympathy for people on foot.
"One of the worst problems Clark County has is our pedestrian fatality rate. There are a lot of people whose primary source of transportation is their feet, but the policy-makers drive cars," she says.
She adds that few people realize that 40 pedestrians were killed on Clark County's streets in 1996; that number is just one fewer than the number of fatalities resulting from drunken driving.
The TRC is continuing to identify trouble spots where there may be a need to modify or relocate dangerous crosswalks, and the partnership will work with the appropriate agencies to make changes.
Children walking to school have been a particular focus for the partnership as well. Maps of possible routes to school have helped parents identify the safest routes for their children. The coalition also takes its mascot, SALLY (an acronym for the program Save A Life Like Yours), to schools where she distributes coloring books and other safety information to children.
Breen says most people think pedestrian safety is a tourist problem.
"The reality is that it is a resident problem - and very much an older population problem," she says. "As we become more and more of a retirement spot, we can expect the problem to grow."
The growth in the elderly resident population in the area has led the TRC to study elderly drivers as well.
One of Neumann's graduate students is looking at the ratio of elderly drivers who have been responsible for crashes compared to the elderly drivers who are victims of crashes.
"If a large number of elderly drivers are having crashes at particular locations, maybe that means there is something in the design of the location that is confusing to the elderly driver, Neumann says. "If we can identify what that is, then maybe we can make the intersection safer for the elderly, which makes it safer all around."
The Safe Communities Partnership is focusing some of its attention on drivers at the other end of the age spectrum as well.
The partnership has pioneered a community program to reach youthful drivers that could become a model for other communities. The adolescent driver project targets 16- to 20-year-olds who end up before a judge because they've caused crashes or have been charged with reckless driving or driving under the influence.
These drivers will be sentenced to a special program, run by Clark County Family Court Services, that meets three nights a week for six weeks and involves the youths in activities such as visiting the University Medical Center's Trauma Center, listening to victims of crashes, and visiting a lot full of cars that have been "totaled" in accidents.
"It's one of the most sobering things you'll ever see," says Breen.
Key to the program is what Breen calls the "decompression chamber," a session at which participants meet to discuss their reactions and feelings after they've witnessed "the realities of reckless driving behavior."
"This will help them draw the right conclusions," she says, "and not just decide they need a faster car to outrun the police next time.
"No one else in the country is doing a program like this," Breen says of the plan that was developed by the partnership members and is funded through the Office of Traffic Safety. "We hope it will be a spotlight program for the whole nation."
In the meantime, both the TRC and the partnership continue to identify problem areas to study further.
So the next time you're fuming at a particularly long traffic signal, stop, take a deep breath, and try to relax. You can take solace in knowing that somebody might be finding a way to make that particular intersection handle traffic more efficiently.
