Time to embrace ridesharing in Vegas

By Amber Azmat, Las Vegas

Friday, March 27, 2015 | 2 a.m.

As a lifelong Las Vegan and Ph.D. student, I am proud of our community and excited for the future of Southern Nevada. Las Vegas is a great city to call home, but in order to take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities our expansive valley has to offer, we also need safe, reliable transportation options.

If you live in Southern Nevada, you know how tough and costly it can be to get a taxi to come to your home or place of business. I live in Summerlin and enjoy the expanding variety of dining and entertainment options in downtown Las Vegas. If Nevada allowed ridesharing technology companies such as Uber to operate here, it would be so much easier to enjoy the downtown establishments and know I could count on a convenient, safe, affordable and direct ride home.

Since Las Vegas is the Entertainment Capital of the World, I hear over again from friends who visit that they are surprised and disappointed Las Vegas has not embraced the ridesharing technology they have come to count on in hundreds of other communities throughout the U.S. It is time we join other cities in this successful endeavor.

I urge Nevada politicians to enact laws to allow ridesharing.