RTC chief bullish on bird’s-eye view of transportation in the valley

By Ric Anderson

Monday, Nov. 1, 2021 | 2 a.m.

As CEO of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, M.J. Maynard’s job is to help make it easier for people to get around in the Las Vegas Valley. But contrary to some people’s perception, she says, the RTC’s mission goes way beyond providing public transit.

“I think sometimes when people hear about the RTC, they say, ‘Oh, they’re the bus people.’ But we wear a lot of hats here,” said Maynard, who is coming up on her 15th year of leadership in the organization and has been the top administrator since 2019.

They are indeed the “bus people,” operating the public transit system that provided more than 56 million rides for local residents and visitors last year, but the RTC also oversees roadway planning for the entire valley and is the lead agency for monitoring and managing traffic in the region.

In other words, if it involves mobility in Southern Nevada, RTC’s involved in it.

“The priority of the RTC is to provide a transportation network that is safe and reliable for our residents and the millions of tourists who come to Las Vegas. And that priority also includes ensuring that the network is accessible and is equitable for all modes of travel — for cars and buses and bicycles, for pedestrian and ride-share,” Maynard said.

Last week, Maynard sat down with the Sun to discuss the recent past, the present and the future of transportation in the valley. Following are excepts of the conversation, edited for clarity and brevity.

We have a two-part question related to funding. First, how much did the RTC receive in pandemic stimulus funding, and where is that funding being spent? And two, can you tell us what’s in store for the RTC in the Build Back Better infrastructure package?

I want to give a big shout-out to our congressional delegation. The fact they were able to help drive stimulus dollars back to Southern Nevada, the timing couldn’t have been more significant.

With the stimulus funding, we received three tranches of money between the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan. We received $303 million, and that helped us weather the pandemic storm. Prior to the pandemic, we were already facing a deficit in our transit fund, and we were anticipating having to cut public transit as early as 2020. In fact, we eliminated almost $10 million in service in October of 2020, and then we got the stimulus money.

It’s very prescriptive in how you can spend that money. The intent is to ensure you bring your transit service levels back to pre-pandemic levels. We did that in August. Another intent is that any of your employees who were furloughed or laid off were brought back to work, and we checked that box.

The stimulus money is also to be used to operate and maintain your transit service and ensure you are keeping up with the enhanced cleaning protocols that were put in place. And we did that in our buses, transit terminals, etc. We also implemented, by way of our mobile app, a way for customers to check and see if the bus they’re waiting on is full. Some people are still uncomfortable riding on a bus that’s full or half-full, so we added that technology. We have ion air filters inside our buses now — I think the air on the bus is actually cleaner than when you get off the bus.

When you talk about the infrastructure bill, if it passes today as it’s written, it will bring about $1.2 trillion in spending over the next five years, of which $550 billion is new funding. For Southern Nevada, the funding can be used for roadways, for rail, for transit, for sustainability initiatives.

We are particularly excited about those sustainability initiatives. We have a plan that we put in place this year that will convert our entire fleet to zero emissions by 2035, but that’s contingent on funding. So this infrastructure bill provides a lot of opportunity through grants. We’ll have to compete for that funding, but it will help us move that plan along.

As for rail, because we haven’t invested in our transit fund, we have to go through a process. We could potentially apply for a grant, but the FTA requires a financial review. That review requires you to have funding set aside that will support light rail — that you can cover the operations and maintenance of that system for the next 20 years. Then you have to have funding set aside to replace the rolling stock — so when it’s time to retire those trains, in other words, you have funding to replace them. You have to ensure you don’t cut into your existing transit service when you introduce a new technology like light rail.

And unfortunately, and it’s disheartening, but we would not be able to pass that financial review.

So, we’re having discussions right now with our board of commissioners that we have an opportunity to go to the people in 2024, and that’s potentially something we’re looking at to identify a sustainable, long-term financial solution that will help us move this less-than-mature transportation system into one that our city needs, not just for the next year or the next five years but the next 20 years. (Editor’s note: The RTC has legislative authority to go to a ballot question to increase the sales tax for additional transportation funding between now and 2024.)

Speaking of rail, is the RTC involved in the private light rail project that was unveiled this year by Axios Nevada? And if so, can you give us an update on that?

There’s a two-year study (on the project), and we’re working closely with the city of Las Vegas on it.

It’s ironic because our Onboard study — the community’s long-range mobility plan that looks at investments and enhancements to our current system — identified Charleston (Boulevard) as the appropriate corridor for high-capacity transit like light rail. But as a public entity, our money trees are empty, and the private sector potentially has the opportunity to make that happen.

We look forward to watching the study unfold and learning as much as we can as the process moves along.

One of the areas where Las Vegas has been on the leading edge is autonomous vehicles. What is the RTC doing in terms of planning for autonomous vehicles and incorporating them into public transit?

Because of the success Las Vegas experienced with the autonomous vehicle demonstration program downtown a couple of years ago, we were able to partner with the city. We applied for a federal grant and received $5.3 million to operate an autonomous vehicle shuttle between our Bonneville Transit Center in downtown Las Vegas to the medical district.

I think people are surprised to learn that the medical district covers about 680 acres, it has four hospitals that on average see about 200,000 patients annually, and there are 6,000 employees who work in the medical district. So this autonomous vehicle — we call it the GoMed shuttle — will provide needed movement in and around the campus of the medical district. But it also will provide a connection to transit, so we’re excited.

We’re right in the middle of design and anticipate having the (GoMed shuttle) operating sometime in 2023.

What’s the status of the Bus Rapid Transit project for Maryland Parkway?

The Maryland Parkway BRT was at one time designated as a light rail project, and we heard from the community that (light rail) was what they wanted to see in that corridor. And unfortunately our board had to make a really tough decision, a financial decision, because we weren’t able to financially sustain a light rail system.

So we had to pivot, and we’re now going to implement a Bus Rapid Transit system.

Maryland Parkway is a vital corridor to the valley — it connects the airport to UNLV to the Boulevard mall, Sunrise Hospital, downtown and to the medical district. So it’s one of our busiest corridors.

The BRT will enhance the current transit system. It will be a side-running, dedicated bus lane. You’ll have enhanced transit stations, widened sidewalks, protected bike lanes. The goal is to add landscape in the medians and public art. So these are much-needed improvements in that very important arterial.

We’re in the design phase right now. We’ll be applying for federal funding in 2022, with the goal of having the BRT up and running by the end of 2024 or January 2025.

Recently, Henderson received $40 million in federal funding to reimagine the portion of Boulder Highway that lies in the city. Can you describe what’s involved in that project? And what has been done or is being done to the north of that section to make Boulder Highway safer?

I’ve certainly heard lately a lot of conversation around this project, because Boulder Highway is the most deadly stretch of roadway in our state. So I’m excited to reimagine the corridor.

This project will go through Henderson, the city of Las Vegas and Clark County, so multiple jurisdictions are involved. Henderson is a little further ahead. Its portion, which I think goes up to Russell, will have center-running Bus Rapid Transit, widened sidewalks, better lighting, better pedestrian signals and protected bike lanes.

For Clark County and the city of Las Vegas, they’re still working on it. At this point, I’m not sure if the BRT will remain center-running or it will go to side-running when it gets into the other two jurisdictions. So we’re still working closely with the city and county as they develop their plans for Boulder Highway.

Last year, the RTC began piloting an adaptive signal project on a portion of Eastern Avenue. Can you describe that project? Is it showing signs of success, and are there other areas the RTC is considering for the technology?

As my favorite former boss (former RTC CEO) Tina Quigley used to say, ‘Technology is the new asphalt.’ And she’s exactly right — there’s so much opportunity to improve the way we move about in Southern Nevada.

This technology uses real-time information combined with artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to give it the ability to monitor in real-time various traffic congestion problems — something caused by detours or special events, for instance — and adapt to the change in traffic patterns.

Imagine being in a left turn lane on Eastern or trying to turn onto Eastern, and it seems like you’re always that fourth car that never can make it through the light — it’s like three cars make it through, but I’m stuck. Well, this technology actually sees the queue of cars and will allow, depending on what’s happening elsewhere in that intersection, to move it through.

It’s really exciting: We saw an improved travel time on Eastern by about 25%. So we’re working closely with Clark County and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to potentially implement this technology in the resort corridor.

We have to kind of manage expectations, because it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, but we do think it has some really good applications in the resort corridor. So we’re looking at that as possibly the next project.

But when you look at the infrastructure bill, there’s money carved out for technology improvements on highways and arterials. So we plan on applying for federal grants that will allow us to test this technology in other corridors.

About the addition of bicycle lanes in places like the Boulder Highway project and downtown, do you think there will be more of this in the future, and are there other areas where more bicycle safety can be incorporated?

We certainly are a car-centric town, and I think many of the roadways are designed for the car first and foremost, but I know many of the jurisdictions are looking at Complete Street-type projects where you’re looking at designing an existing arterial or a new one with more than just the car in mind. You’re keeping the pedestrian and the cyclist in mind too.

Part of what we do at the RTC is multimodal (planning). It’s not just the bus or the car but the cycling community. So we have an opportunity on Maryland Parkway and Boulder Highway, for instance, that’s almost more European (than American). It’s off the roadway, it’s protected, and I think you’ll see more of that.

Both the county and the city have undergone Complete Street studies recently, and I think the outcome of that will be more focused on safety for cycling.

The RTC frequently invites public comment on various projects and planning. What’s the best way for the public to contact the RTC?

I’m glad you brought this up, because we’re going out to the community beginning in November. We’ve been working on our community’s mobility plan, called Onboard, for the last three years. We really need to understand if what we heard from the community a couple of years ago about what they want to see in mobility now and in the future, if that is still important. Are the arterials that we identified still where the community would like to see investments?

Over the last three years, we’ve heard from about 80,000 residents. We’re going to reach out again, because we have to hear from the community first and foremost. We can’t make these kinds of decisions from behind our desk.

So we want to hear from people, and I mean that seriously: a call, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. We enjoy hearing from the community, even when we fail. If there are things we’re not doing well, we need to know and we want to respond.

So call me, text me. I’d love to talk to you.