By: Las Vegas Now Staff
The Regional Transportation Commission outlined a plan Thursday to improve and speed up bus service around the city. The idea is to capitalize on a spike in ridership since gas prices reached $4 a gallon.
There are new planned express transit stops – most of them two miles from where we live in the valley. Anyone can park for free at the stop and then take an express bus into what they call the core of the valley.
The numbers are staggering. From January until today, there have been one million more riders on public transportation than the same time last year. The RTC believes by adding express transit service from the edges of the valley, even more people will take advantage of public transportation.
How long it takes to get anywhere on the bus is the number one complaint according to the Regional Transportation Commission. So we decided to see exactly how long it would take from the Northwest to Downtown. The journey began at 10:40 a.m. on a bus at Ann Road and Tenaya.
This line goes from the northwest to the downtown transfer station. Ashton Howard takes it every day to work at Wynn Las Vegas.
“I kind of rode it sparingly prior to $4 a gallon — $4 a gallon was my mark,” he said.
The savings for Howard outweighs what can be a grueling bus trip. Today there was not much traffic. It took about 14 minutes to get to Cheyenne and Rancho. The bus stopped about every block down Rancho.
This is where we really started to see more passengers get on. At the light at Lake Mead, it has taken about 24 minutes on the bus. The proposed express transit service would by-pass the local roads using the highway to speed past this stop and go trip.
“For it to take even a shorter amount of time, it would be great,” said Howard.
The bus is right on schedule – approaching Martin Luther King on Bonanza. It has been about 40 minutes. In a car it would half that. The trip is almost over — with a few more stops before the final destination.
It has taken about 50 minutes to get downtown — 13 miles. The bus stopped more than a dozen times, taking on passengers and letting passengers off. The RTC wants to cut this trip down. The new express bus service is designed to do that.
Cutting down trip times from where people live to where most people work is a direct response to the research. The first express bus service will start in the fall of 2009. The buses will use the HOV lane on 95.
The rest of the stops will be created over the next several years.
Email your comments to Reporter Edward Lawrence.
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