I live in the Sunridge development on the east side of Mica, and Highway 395, in north Douglas County. My concerns deal with the movement of traffic along Highway 395, between Mica, and Highway 50 just across the Carson county line.
As you know, since the shopping centers have been built, the traffic flow has become much more congested, and results in grid lock during the "rush" hours.
At Mica alone there have been fatality accidents, just plain bad mood accidents, and multiple "stupid" accidents from folks who are so busy trying to get home they are irritated to the point of distraction by the time they reach Mica. I have called the NHP to ask for troopers to "camp out" from 7 to 9 a.m., and then again from 4 to 7 p.m. just to reduce this issue. At first they did what they could, but it's fallen off, and now the accident rate there is slowly beginning to climb again.
The one "bright spot" along this strip of highway is the Home Depot/Target shopping center access along the highway. They have used what I'd call a "freeway" on-off ramp design, and while still not perfect, it allows for easy, smooth, and reasonable access to and from the highway.
It's my opinion that this is how all of the ingress/egress points should be in this region. The change of the Highway 50 southbound ingress was, in my mind, a really big mistake. I understand why it was done, but it now results in people doing some of the stupidest things that I've witnessed to date. While big rig trucks will wait for the stoplight, many smaller vehicles do not. If they think they can get away with it, they go for it. I can't tell you just how many times I've barely missed hitting someone who wasn't paying attention, and then flipped me off for laying in to my horn to make them aware of their mistake. (And forget the NHP from ever bothering to actually do anything about it. I've called countless times to file a complaint and never once have I ever gotten a call back to follow up).
The old way was far better designed, and rarely resulted in this type of behavior, or perhaps I should say that I'd never witnessed any rude/stupid behavior.
So, my ideas, from south to north: 1. Mica at Highway 395 - Since the new light set up has been placed the whole timing layout has been changed, and now forces a 24-hour-a-day, 2-minute turn around, regardless of who is or is not on each roadway. I've sat in the left turn pocket going into the development at 10 p.m. There were no other vehicles coming, yet I had to wait for the entire cycle, with no cross traffic. This has got to change. I agree with the need for the new lights. But make it only go during the standard high-traffic periods. Have it turned off the rest of the time.
2. Jacks Valley at Highway 395 - While nowhere near as bad on the lighting, the same issue exists here. However, with the ingress, and egress there needs to be a larger radius, similar to the freeway onramp design mentioned. Yes, I'd love to say make over- and underpasses to reduce the traffic delays, but I know the expense of that is a bit over the top.
3. Topsy at Highway 395 - Here is the worst. It appears that Wal-Mart, and the other retailers have the priority for cross-traffic on the stoplights. If anyone, even a single vehicle, is on the eastbound roadway to Highway 395, they get priority to change the stoplight. This is wrong. It above all the others has put a major crimp on traffic flow. And during the winter (after an exceptionally cold storm when ice, and snow remains on the roadways) it's 10 times worse. I've seen this back northbound traffic up all the way to Mica, and below. And now the car dealerships are talking about placing a series of car malls here. Ugh! If you guys want to reduce the effects of this mess, place over or underpasses, with freeway-type ingress and egress here. This is the only way that I can see its affects being minimized, and promoting a smooth flow of traffic.
Part of me thinks that if you guys can resolve this issue, part of the Jacks Valley and Mica issues will resolve themselves.
4. Clear Creek at Highway 395 - This location is typically only a mess at the afternoon rush hour. People from points north, and east are converging here to get onto the highway. I think that a better designed ingress/egress layout would help immensely. To me, an underpass from the east side would resolve this really well.
5. Highway 50 at Highway 395 - I'll leave this one to you guys. I only say that because the old design was far better, and should've been left alone. I do realize that once the freeway is finished, it'll change. I can only hope for the better.
Oh, and one last thing. At each of these locations, there appears to be large amounts of land available for longer, what I'd call, "turn pockets" allowing easier ingress/egress. Right now the ingress southbound pockets are not working and are are not safe by any stretch of the word.
As to my background, and why I've given this so much thought. I drove a truck for a living in my early 20s, for five years 24-plus years ago.
As a result of this, I would study traffic flow, and roadway designs to see how it could be made better. This was more a hobby than anything else. because one gets awfully bored sitting in traffic, and must come up with something to keep their mind sharp, and from falling asleep. Later I would speak with a couple of civil engineers to test my ideas.
I recently graduated from UNR with a bachelors degree in physics. One of our classes was partial differential equations. We had a couple of homework problems with traffic flow systems. Intriguing as h***.
And finally, and perhaps the most important, I'm sick and tired of having to deal with irritated drivers who only care about getting home, and as a result don't pay attention to their driving. I'd like to know that I can drive home safely without incident.
-- Steve Buckley is a Sunridge resident.
