I record city council meetings on my phone, and I was listening to last week’s meeting while driving to Reno from Fernley last Thursday afternoon. I was crawling along Interstate 80 at about 15 miles per hour in a 65-mile per hour zone, when ironically, I heard Lyon County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Mitch Brantingham mention reports of someone driving 70 miles per hour in a 15-mph school zone.
One zone slowed by congestion, the other by design. Both struggling to move safely.
Brantingham was speaking to the Fernley City Council about traffic enforcement near schools. The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office is increasing patrols around Cottonwood Elementary and other school zones. Not because of any single dramatic incident, but because of the daily grind of clogged intersections, red-light runners, and the kind of slow-motion chaos that turns school drop-off and pick-up into a civic exercise in patience.
Then Councilman Joe Mendoza related a story about being stuck for 10 minutes in a fire rig in the congestion on Hardie Lane in front of Fernley Elementary School. Drivers, he said, were yelling at them for trying to get through. That’s when Brantingham mentioned the report of someone driving 70-mph in the school zone.
The anecdote about the 70-mph school zone driver didn’t pan out. Brantingham said the fastest speed they clocked was 32. But in a zone where most cars are stopped, 32 probably looks like 70.
Afternoon pickup turns southbound Hardie into a holding pen, with cars stacked and angled for the perfect right turn, blocking traffic until the bell rings and the ritual begins.
I don’t know if traffic is the most common complaint I hear about Fernley, but between the roundabout, the daily jam on I-80 and the Hardie Lane mess, it’s certainly near the top.
It’s the same kind of complaint I’ve heard everywhere I’ve ever lived, and that’s a lot of places. Every place I’ve ever been to, people think their traffic and their drivers are the worst.
While every town swears its traffic is uniquely terrible, Fernley might actually have a case. Hardie Lane becoming a parking lot in the afternoon is nothing new, it’s been the same way for probably 10 years. Joy Edge, the crossing guard at FES, has related several times nearly being run over by impatient drivers.
As congested as traffic gets around the roundabout, it was actually worse 20 years ago when there was a stop light there, and that was with a population less than half of what it is now.
I’m not sure the reasons, but Fernley’s traffic problems have always felt outsized for a city of its size, as if it inherited congestion from somewhere with twice the population.
Regarding Hardie Lane, Brantingham said issuing citations might only make things worse. Pulling someone over in that mess could create more hazard than it solves. Instead, he floated the idea of rerouting traffic through the parking lot or finding a new pickup location. But he was candid: “I don’t think there’s an easy solution to that problem. If anybody has an easy solution to it, we’re happy to hear it.”
That’s the kind of line that sticks with you. Not just because it’s honest, but because it’s rare. Also, because, while he was talking about Hardie Lane, his point applies citywide. Sometimes the fix isn’t a ticket, it’s a rethink.
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