NDOT has U.S. 50 project planned for Dayton

The Lyon County Commission on Aug. 3 continued its item seeking a resolution to ask the Nevada Department of Transportation to lower the speed limit from 60 to 45 mph between Fortune Drive to Lafond Avenue on U.S. 50 in Dayton.

NDOT rural county liaison Colleen Unterbrink said NDOT Deputy Director Darin Tedford will attend the commission’s Sept. 21 meeting to present a project it has planned through Dayton. Although she did not discuss it in detail, Unterbrink said NDOT representatives have been meeting with Lyon County Manager Andrew Haskin and staff members about plans to install signals at multiple locations along U.S. 50, reconfiguration of the roadway between Fortune and Lafond and reducing the speed limit to 45 mph within the next couple of years.

“Deputy Director Tedford will go into greater detail at this upcoming meeting,” Unterbrink said.

During discussion, commissioners said they did not believe lowering the speed limit would solve the issue.

“I’m going to support this but I don’t agree with it,” said District 1 Commissioner Wes Henderson. “I don’t think it’s the speed limit that’s causing the accidents. I will admit that it does increase the severity of the accidents. Crashes are caused by inattentive drivers and people are getting impatient. But since the Dayton community wants it, I will support it, but I don’t think it’s going to do any good.”

However, he later changed his mind and said the resolution should wait until after NDOT’s presentation.

Commissioner Scott Keller of District 2 said lower speed limits add to a highway’s congestion and make it easier for drivers to jump out in front of traffic at the first opportunity.

Commissioner Rob Jacobson of District 4 asked to hear from Sheriff Brad Pope from an enforcement perspective. Earlier during the meeting during the elected officials item, Pope had reported the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office’s numbers on Dayton traffic stops for this timeframe were up by 800 over the same period from last year, currently being short one traffic team sergeant and expecting a retirement to happen soon, he said.

“We’re at 1,467 traffic stops in the same period, and we had done 677 traffic stops last year,” Pope said during his report. “Enforcement action is up throughout the county. … Our guys are out doing their jobs.”

But on his opinion about lowering the speed limit, he said he wasn’t sure if a reduction might be the long-term solution to fixing drivers’ behavior and ending fatalities on the U.S. 50.

“What I see happening from law enforcement standpoint is law-abiding citizens going 40 miles an hour and the people that were used to doing 60 dodging them or going around them actually cause more of a possibility of an accident than what it was,” Pope said. “In a perfect world, if everybody was going 40 miles an hour, it would be great.”

NDOT will return on Sept. 21 to present its item.

The board voted 5-0 to continue its discussion until its Oct. 5 meeting to allow time to respond to NDOT’s proposed project and seek additional feedback from county Citizen Advisory Boards, including Dayton, Stagecoach and Silver Springs.