AI has these dangerous Las Vegas intersections in its sights
The Regional Transportation Commission has turned to AI to see if the technology could help them understand traffic patterns and safety issues at select intersections in the Las Vegas Valley.
The RTC and its Freeway and Arterial System of Transportation system partnered with various jurisdictions and police departments for a pilot program dubbed Advanced Intersection Analytics.
The program uses AI, predictive analytics, historical data, cameras and sensors to help gather the needed data at identified high-risk intersections.
That includes collecting traffic data and identifying safety issues including red-light running violations, vehicles traveling outside of their lanes and pedestrians disobeying traffic signals or not using crosswalks.
“There’s a lot of technology that continues to improve the way we manage our roadways,” RTC CEO MJ Maynard told the Las Vegas Review-Journal this month.
Affected intersections
— Rainbow and Charleston boulevards
— Decatur Boulevard and Washington Avenue
— Flamingo Road and Burnham Avenue
— Rainbow Boulevard and Spring Mountain Road
— Durango Drive and Charleston
— Sahara and Eastern avenues
— Green Valley Parkway and Village Walk Drive
— Green Valley and Paseo Verde parkways
‘Engineering change’
Over a one-week period at the Rainbow and Spring Mountain intersection, the program identified 1,411 red-light running incidents, 257 occurrences of pedestrians crossing outside of a marked crosswalk, 512 lane violations and one near vehicle versus pedestrian crash, according to the RTC.
The Henderson Police Department in February conducted an enforcement effort with the RTC as part of the program on Green Valley Parkway near the 215 Beltway after the pilot program’s data revealed more than 14,000 red-light running incidents at the intersection.
“So they shared that information with the local police department and they did an enforcement effort around that,” Maynard said.
During a six-hour enforcement period in April, Henderson police issued citations for 77 red-light runner citations, 12 for speeding, seven for driver’s license infractions as well as 20 other violations at the intersection, the department announced in April.
Aside from enforcement efforts, the data collected by the project could be used to improve the roadways themselves, Maynard said.
“It allows us to not only look at this from an enforcement perspective, but maybe also an opportunity to make an engineering change,” Maynard said. “Whether it’s traffic calming measures that we put into place or we move a bus stop so it’s close to a crosswalk, for example.”
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X. Send questions and comments to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com.
