100% agree- the monorail already has a lot of potential. Connect it to the airport and Fremont Street and it becomes vital to the city. I suspect it’s the competing interests of casino owners that get in the way of unifying the city.
My best Strip experience: Running the Las Vegas Half-Marathon (at night). The Strip was closed to cars, the neon lights were on, and it was spectacular.
My worst Strip experience: Walking back from a D&C show at the Sphere and nearly getting crushed because the sidewalks are barely ADA-compliant, much less wide enough for thousands of aging hippies on acid.
I did the Vegas convention thing for decades. I would always stay near the Monorail to get to LVCC and go by foot - after a ride hail from the airport. Recently, I saw a pedestrian at an intersection - dead.
Pedestrianizing the strip isn’t radical. Letting people drive their cars within Disneyland would be radical.
It's completely ridiculous SF, but I love the vision of Las Vegas' transformation in Horizon: Forbidden West -- in the 2040s, a billionaire domes the entire Strip, turning it into a climate controlled pedestrian zone. (And ends up making back his investment, because it revitalizes the tourism industry and makes it more of a destination than ever.)
Now we're talking. What *everyone* loves about Vegas is the in-your-face, surreal nature of Las Vegas BLVD, and pedestrianizing it makes it even better!
You have to be on an expensive account in Grift City. The prices are insane. When I was there over Thanksgiving for the era championship women's basketball I stayed at the arena property and had the opportunity to pay $7 for a Starbucks coffee this is exemplary of the unbelievable approach these operators take to extracting every penny they can
Bravo! Yes yes yes to ped zones and building out the monorail. Though, if Las Vegas can continue to bankroll the Tesla tunnels on the proceeds of visitors, well, whatever. As long as Las Vegas working class real folks don't have to have the thing built on their dimes. Cities will always find ways to pour money down rat holes, although Las Vegas seems to be doing that almost too literally.
It has been about 15 years since I was in Las Vegas (Since I stopped working for a company that would send me to conferences there). While I basically agree with pedestrianizing the strip, there a few issues that limit the pedestrian appeal.
The temperature during the summer - I took my wife and kids with me on a trip or two - and they definitely found walking two miles at 115 degrees to be excessive, even if we largely kept ourselves in the shade. Personally, it was dry then and I found the conditions far better that other times when it was wet and in the upper 90's.
I found and find the street reps pushing brothel brochures to be in offensively bad taste, particularly when I was accompanied by my wife and kids.
You need efficient mass transit from the airport to the strip area.
In the end I figured out how to enjoy conferences in Las Vegas when I was traveling by myself. I would get a car, stay off the strip, and when I had time explore the mountains and canyons to the West.
And there you have it. Somehow that which is real, moving more people by car in a tunnel than most any other transit line in the US, is somehow not "real" because it's not a legacy form of mass transit.
100% agree- the monorail already has a lot of potential. Connect it to the airport and Fremont Street and it becomes vital to the city. I suspect it’s the competing interests of casino owners that get in the way of unifying the city.
Yes.
My best Strip experience: Running the Las Vegas Half-Marathon (at night). The Strip was closed to cars, the neon lights were on, and it was spectacular.
My worst Strip experience: Walking back from a D&C show at the Sphere and nearly getting crushed because the sidewalks are barely ADA-compliant, much less wide enough for thousands of aging hippies on acid.
I did the Vegas convention thing for decades. I would always stay near the Monorail to get to LVCC and go by foot - after a ride hail from the airport. Recently, I saw a pedestrian at an intersection - dead.
Pedestrianizing the strip isn’t radical. Letting people drive their cars within Disneyland would be radical.
It's completely ridiculous SF, but I love the vision of Las Vegas' transformation in Horizon: Forbidden West -- in the 2040s, a billionaire domes the entire Strip, turning it into a climate controlled pedestrian zone. (And ends up making back his investment, because it revitalizes the tourism industry and makes it more of a destination than ever.)
https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Dunehollow
(The dome is mostly covered by sand dunes by the time the game takes place, after a self-replicating robot swarm destroys civilization in the 2060s.)
Transit access to the airport!
Taxi / Uber lobby will never allow it
Now we're talking. What *everyone* loves about Vegas is the in-your-face, surreal nature of Las Vegas BLVD, and pedestrianizing it makes it even better!
Las Vegas is dying because gambling is basically legal everywhere in the US, now.
Well-written and I couldn't agree more. I've been saying this ever since I moved here.
You have to be on an expensive account in Grift City. The prices are insane. When I was there over Thanksgiving for the era championship women's basketball I stayed at the arena property and had the opportunity to pay $7 for a Starbucks coffee this is exemplary of the unbelievable approach these operators take to extracting every penny they can
Bravo! Yes yes yes to ped zones and building out the monorail. Though, if Las Vegas can continue to bankroll the Tesla tunnels on the proceeds of visitors, well, whatever. As long as Las Vegas working class real folks don't have to have the thing built on their dimes. Cities will always find ways to pour money down rat holes, although Las Vegas seems to be doing that almost too literally.
It has been about 15 years since I was in Las Vegas (Since I stopped working for a company that would send me to conferences there). While I basically agree with pedestrianizing the strip, there a few issues that limit the pedestrian appeal.
The temperature during the summer - I took my wife and kids with me on a trip or two - and they definitely found walking two miles at 115 degrees to be excessive, even if we largely kept ourselves in the shade. Personally, it was dry then and I found the conditions far better that other times when it was wet and in the upper 90's.
I found and find the street reps pushing brothel brochures to be in offensively bad taste, particularly when I was accompanied by my wife and kids.
You need efficient mass transit from the airport to the strip area.
In the end I figured out how to enjoy conferences in Las Vegas when I was traveling by myself. I would get a car, stay off the strip, and when I had time explore the mountains and canyons to the West.
Walkers of the world, unite!
"
real transit
"
And there you have it. Somehow that which is real, moving more people by car in a tunnel than most any other transit line in the US, is somehow not "real" because it's not a legacy form of mass transit.