Carson City residents traveling Saliman Road will often find themselves in a teenage war zone made up of new drivers, erratic pedestrians and harried parents during the week. For years, many have requested a stoplight to replace the stop sign at the intersection of Robinson and Saliman.
With the approval of the new Lompa Ranch Specific Plan Area development, a condition of approval included the subdivision developers must pay for a stoplight at the intersection.
While the developers have ponied up the cash and agreed to bonds, the city says the stoplight isn’t warranted yet based on traffic studies.
There are nine lanes of traffic navigating the four-way stop signs at the intersection, along with the hundreds of students trying to use all four crosswalks with no crossing guard on site.
In fact, Carson Now did an investigative report asking if Saliman and Robinson is the city’s worst intersection back in 2019.
In just 20 minutes, there were 114 vehicle issues noted, including failing to stop at stop signs, slamming on brakes, turning without signaling, and more, with over 70 pedestrians either jaywalking or entering the road without looking.
At the time, then-transportation manager Lucia Maloney said a traffic light at the intersection had not been deemed necessary by the city, and that is still the case today.
According to Chris Martinovich, current transportation manager, a 2017 traffic impact study indicates that a light will be warranted when either the morning peak hour traffic volume reaches 600 total vehicles, or when 460 housing units are constructed contributing directly to Robinson Street.
As part of the ongoing development of Lompa Ranch, conditions were imposed on Capital Crossing and Blackstone Ranch, two subdivisions within the larger Lompa plan, that they must pay for the materials and installation of a traffic light at the intersection.
Within the final map submitted to supervisors, the stoplight conditions have a caveat, however: the stoplight would only need to be installed if or when a traffic study deemed it necessary.
According to the conditions within the final map submitted to supervisors, the traffic study, completed in 2017, found it was not warranted, so the developer was made to set aside funds for the future installation of a light.
The updated traffic impact study has been accepted by the City and per the study, the 2025 Plus Project Traffic Signal Warrants are not met. Therefore, it is recommended that the signal be bonded with the potential for an interim signal being placed. AMH [Blackstone Ranch developer] has remitted a payment for the traffic signal installation to Carson City to meet this condition.
Martinovich said with the creation of the new housing units, the threshold for the new light will be met.
“Those thresholds will have been met with more recent approved developments like Capital Crossing, currently under construction, being approved,” Martinovich said. “The threshold for installing a traffic signal is based on what are called signal warrants.”
Capital Crossing provided $475,000 to the city, and is holding a bond for the construction of the signal for a total of $375,000. Blackstone Ranch is conditioned to provide $972,900 in funding toward the light.
But when we might actually see the light installed, even when warranted, is another question.
The current bond agreement with Capital Crossing includes a timeline of 10 years, meaning the bond would need to be utilized within that time frame.
However, Martinovich said, it is not uncommon for lights to be installed in phases.
“For instance, the poles can be placed and the underground conduit installed, but other elements like the signal lights may be purchased or installed later,” he said. “It is possible that the city may spend the funding to begin the traffic signal installation within 10-years and wait until warranted to activate the lights. This is not an uncommon practice. An example of a partially constructed signal is at the intersection of College Parkway and Airport Road.”
He clarified that meeting the traffic threshold or unit threshold is not the end all be all of when stoplights are constructed.
“The city is allowed to install a signal without meeting a warrant the same way that the city is not required to construct one if a signal warrant is met,” he said. “The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devises (MUTCD) has been developed over decades based on research and actual best practices from agencies across the country. It is the nationally accepted standard. Staff rely on guidance like this to make decisions on when to install or not install a traffic signal, or a stop sign, or any other traffic control device.”
In essence, when to install the traffic light is up to the city, but their decision is based on the traffic studies and national best practice guidelines.
So, those who are hoping for a traffic light near the high school on Saliman are in a good news/bad news situation: the good news is, the traffic light will be coming. The bad news is, there is no telling when it might be installed.
