Airport-to-Strip expressway would worsen traffic problem

By Robert Lang, William Brown Jr. and Daniel Waqar

Sunday, April 17, 2016 | 2 a.m.

A proposed elevated expressway running from McCarran International Airport and depositing an avalanche of cars to an already-congested Las Vegas Boulevard is suggested by some as a cheaper, less-disruptive alternative connection between the airport and the Strip than light rail.

It is not. Please do not build this.

Elevated urban expressways mushroomed across America from the 1950s to the 1970s, as America’s postwar car culture flourished. More recently, cities are spending billions to tear down these increasingly obsolete highways. Urban planners coined the term “Expressway Teardown Movement” to describe current efforts to reverse the damage done by ramming double-decker roads through the hearts of cities.

Cities tearing down elevated expressways include Boston, New York, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, British Columbia. Cities are spending nearly $20 billion to decommission these roads, while places such as Miami, New Orleans, Buffalo, N.Y., Austin, Texas, and Syracuse, N.Y., consider doing the same.

Many teardowns prompted the evolution of surface streets into “complete streets” that combine multi-modal access for pedestrians, bikes, cars and transit (especially light rail).

Las Vegas is the most populous U.S. metropolitan area without either heavy-rail transit (think BART in San Francisco) or light rail (think Valley Metro in Phoenix). Southern Nevada also remains the largest tourist destination lacking such transportation systems.

Even Reno (which has less than a quarter our population) proposes a street car line and plans to ask the feds to pick up half the cost. If Reno’s project gets funded, it will directly compete with Southern Nevada’s effort to secure at least 25 percent of our proposed light-rail project from the Federal Transit Administration’s “New Starts” program.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx recently visited Las Vegas and encouraged the region to begin a light-rail system via a New Start grant. Foxx strongly opposes extending federal aid to new elevated highways, having seen his childhood neighborhood in Charlotte, N.C., devastated by such projects.

The travel zone from McCarran to the Strip is the very definition of an urban challenge well met by light rail. The Las Vegas tourism economy attracts more than 42 million visitors a year. McCarran, the No. 2 origin/destination U.S. airport (meaning airports where passengers deplane and leave the terminal — not merely board a connecting flight), brings the world to Las Vegas, where people often face hourlong taxi lines.

The river of people moving (or not moving) between the airport and the Strip represents the highest-volume passenger flow in the U.S. not served by rail. The Regional Transportation Commission estimates that there would be strong passenger demand for such a light-rail link. The projected revenue generated by this in-demand rail line would exceed its operating costs — part of which could thus pay for capital costs.

Airport-to-urban rail links exist in every leading metro area in the West but Las Vegas. Connections are found in Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Ore. And here is the kicker: McCarran is closer to the Strip than any other airport in the West is to its main regional business center. Denver’s airport practically lies at the Kansas state line and yet is connected by rail to its downtown.

An airport-to-Strip elevated road would simply move congestion from McCarran to Las Vegas Boulevard. Imagine expressways disgorging taxis and other vehicles on the Strip at already-bottlenecked intersections. In fact, the traffic lights along Paradise Road and Harmon and Tropicana avenues — the proposed route of an elevated expressway — in essence meter airport traffic to Las Vegas Boulevard. Cars now enter the Strip via a constrained system of surface streets that reduce the number of vehicles in the hotel zone at any one time.

Elevated expressways were in fashion when “mobility’ was the principal traffic concern based on auto use only. Mobility addressed one problem: moving cars from point A to B regardless of impact on urban neighborhoods, pedestrians or other modes of transportation.

Urban planners now emphasize “access” — as in, for instance, which people have access to McCarran or the Strip, and by what transportation mode? All major metros but Las Vegas create access by building multi-modal capacity that blends autos, trains, buses, bikes and pedestrians.

Las Vegas Boulevard — which emerged in the mid-20th century as perhaps America’s most iconic auto “strip” — entered the 21st century as a major pedestrian-accessed urban space. Light rail running at grade down the center of Las Vegas Boulevard would facilitate much better pedestrian use than overloading the street with more cars. Las Vegas Boulevard needs to become America’s biggest, boldest and most exciting complete street.

MGM’s new public space — The Park — builds on the Strip’s pedestrian use by providing a dedicated walkable zone. Our bet is that this urban landscape will be emulated by other Las Vegas resorts and collectively will enhance Southern Nevada’s reputation as a sophisticated urban tourist destination.

A light-rail system feeding more pedestrian use of the Strip is the right direction for Las Vegas. An old-style elevated expressway would unleash more massive traffic on the Strip and crush its new people-friendly urban orientation.

Robert Lang is the executive director of Brookings Mountain West and the Lincy Institute. William Brown Jr. is the UNLV director of Brookings Mountain West. Daniel Waqar is an undergraduate history major attending UNLV’s Honors College.