Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Tardy! UNLV students gripe after Obama’s motorcade causes traffic delays

0825ObamaDeparture02

Steve Marcus

Air Force One takes off from McCarran International Airport Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015. President Barack Obama gave a keynote address at the National Clean Energy Summit and attended a fundraiser Monday.

Obama Departs Las Vegas

President Barack Obama waves as he boards Air Force One for departure from McCarran International Airport Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015. Obama visited Las Vegas to present a keynote address at the National Clean Energy Summit and attend a fundraiser. Launch slideshow »

President Barack Obama’s trip to Las Vegas to speak at Sen. Harry Reid’s Clean Energy Summit may have been a chance for Obama to connect with supporters. But his trip also stirred opposition from an unlikely source: UNLV students, who were frozen out while trying to get to class today because highways were blocked for Obama’s motorcade to McCarran International Airport.

Jeremy Rincon, a senior majoring in communication studies and absent from a morning class because of the delays, said traffic was flowing heading east on the 215 Beltway from Summerlin until he hit the Sunset Road/airport exit, which was closed for the president’s motorcade. The diversion cost Rincon more than an hour and he arrived to campus too late for class.

“I didn’t want to walk in late,” Rincon said.

His friend Kylie Mogard, a UNLV junior studying journalism, reported a similar experience driving to UNLV from Henderson. Her usual 15-minute commute took one hour.

When she arrived at the parking lot around 10:30 a.m., about 30 minutes after her class was scheduled to starts, it was packed with other students she suspects were also delayed by the traffic.

They took to social media to carp about the delays:

“Obama is ruining the lives of all UNLV students on the first week of school lol,” @jaackiee wrote in a Twitter post. Another Twitter user, @korean_sushi, wrote of the morning traffic: “Thanks Obama for closing all the freeways to get to UNLV.”

About 200 students liked a Samuel L. Jackson meme about the closures on a UNLV Memes Facebook page.

Traffic delays are expected during a visit with officials securing roads for the motorcade. Las Vegans experienced the delays with Obama speaking Monday at Mandalay Bay and staying the night in Henderson.

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