Transportation commission’s FAST keeps valley traffic flowing

A few minutes after noon Tuesday, five cars crashed into one another on southbound Interstate 15 just past Russell Road.

Though no one died in the wreck, apparently caused when someone swerved to avoid debris in the roadway, it left quite a mess.

Brian Hoeft, the man in charge of the valley’s traffic camera system and signal timing, noticed it within seconds.

A minute later, the Highway Patrol arrived at the scene.

Two minutes after that, an email and text blast went out to 2,155 people, alerting the public that the left lanes and the express lanes were blocked.

Soon, signs that normally display estimated travel times to major exits along the freeway let drivers know that there was a wreck up ahead. In all, five signs along I-15 were activated, as well as two on U.S. 95 approaching the I-15 interchange.

Traffic cameras viewable on the Internet showed the aftermath, which involved troopers shutting down all but one lane and the freeway exit while the state Department of Transportation cleaned up the mess.

If the wreck were worse, it would have been possible for officials to change the timing of the traffic lights on nearby major roads to accommodate the traffic. That has been done before.

All of this — the alerts, the signs, the traffic cameras — comes from the Regional Transportation Commission’s FAST, the Freeway and Arterial System of Transportation, the division that Hoeft directs.

Local media were invited to tour its facilities on Tuesday. The I-15 wreck just happened to occur during the tour, and it just happened to be displayed on giant screens where everyone could see it.

In all, the agency controls the timing of more than 1,300 traffic signals around town, and its employees monitor hundreds of cameras and sensors along the freeways and major roads.

The goal of all that technology is to make traffic flow more smoothly.

“If you want to, you can avoid a lot of traffic,” Hoeft said.

FAST was created in 2004. Its goal is to better coordinate the valley’s traffic system instead of Clark County and the three major local cities doing it independently.

Part of that is monitoring what’s going on. That is done from a facility shared with the Nevada Highway Patrol in the southern part of the valley.

A team of FAST personnel constantly monitors the cameras and sensors. A display the size of a movie theater screen shows up to 36 camera feeds at once. The computer monitors all over the room also display the camera feeds, and local television stations can tie into the system.

“It’s our sports book,” Hoeft said, “with freeway cameras.”

There are cameras every half mile along the freeways through town and less frequently all the way to the California border on I-15.

In addition, there are sensors on poles every one-third of a mile that can tell officials how quickly traffic is moving and how heavy it is.

When there’s a problem, the agency sends out the texts and email alerts. Anyone can sign up for them at the RTC’s website, www.rtcsnv.com.

But signing up for them can be like trying to drink out of a fire hose. They’ve sent out an average of more than 30 alerts a day since they started three and a half years ago.

Angela Castro, a spokeswoman for the RTC, said they’re experimenting with a way where people can sign up only for alerts that involve a specific part of town.

The cameras are also available to the public at http://bugatti.nvfast.org/CCTVSnapshotWall.aspx. But there are so many listed on the website, it can be tricky to navigate and find exactly what you’re looking for.

Castro said officials have also looked into whether it might be a good idea to create a smartphone app that was more customizable. A lot depends on how much it would cost.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.