Want to see the puck drop? Better leave your house early

Monday, Dec. 5, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Las Vegas’ new hockey team drew a nice crowd last month when it unveiled its name and logo, but it could have been bigger.

As noted by the team’s owner, Bill Foley, a lot of people who’d planned to be there got stuck in traffic on their way to the festivities at T-Mobile Arena.

“I was hoping to get a few hundred people, and we got 5,000 with another 2,000 to 3,000 not able to get in because it was too crowded,” Foley said. “Pretty amazing for Las Vegas.”

If that comment wasn’t a red flag to every Southern Nevada legislator and local government leader, they showed they were either oblivious or hopelessly in denial about Las Vegas traffic problems.

Considering that our transportation infrastructure is so crowded and outdated that it can’t handle 5,000 people headed to T-Mobile, what’s going to happen when the Vegas Golden Knights start filling the house, which seats 17,500 for hockey?

The answer, obviously, is epic traffic snags — a mess of honking horns, bumper-to-bumper traffic and drivers using language better suited to the locker rooms at the hockey games.

It’s a problem that has been brewing for years.

While other cities have modernized their transportation systems with light rail, Las Vegas has chosen to stay stuck in a car-is-king mindset straight out of the days when the NHL had six teams.

It’s way past time to break out of that regressive straitjacket.

Las Vegas desperately needs a light-rail system that would connect McCarran International Airport with the Strip, then eventually thread through downtown and link the whole corridor with North Las Vegas.

Proponents believe the initial 5.5-mile leg, which would stretch from McCarran up Las Vegas Boulevard to Sahara Avenue, could be completed for about $400 million — a reasonable investment that would pay off by ensuring tourists could spend less time in traffic and more time gambling, shopping, partying and dining.

Making it easier and cheaper for people to get around also would help us in the arms race for tourism. Other cities — including Orlando, Fla., Phoenix, Denver and San Francisco — have realized how much light rail can do to enhance the visitor experience and have gotten a leg up on Las Vegas.

By incorporating park-and-ride lots, a system in Las Vegas would benefit locals throughout the valley, as well. It would offer an inexpensive means for lower-income residents to get to and from work on the Strip, and as a result would clear some of the highway congestion.

As a nice bonus, creating a light-rail system would help hockey fans make it to games on time.