Joe Downtown: RTC taking comments on Maryland Parkway transportation plans

By Joe Schoenmann

Monday, Oct. 14, 2013 | 12:53 p.m.

The Regional Transportation Commission will have its last round of open houses in two weeks — one of the last chances to provide input on mass-transit proposals for Maryland Parkway, including buses, light rail or street cars.

A release from the RTC says feedback from the open houses will “be included in final recommendations for the Maryland Parkway Alternatives Analysis Transportation Study.” Earlier this year, RTC reps said they expected the study to be completed by the end of the year.

The first open house is 4 to 6:30 p.m. Oct. 29 at Boulevard Mall, 3528 S. Maryland Parkway. The next is 4 to 6 p.m. Oct. 30 at the RTC’s Bonneville Transit Center, 101 E. Bonneville Ave.

To many downtown residents, the Maryland Parkway corridor, stretching roughly from the UNLV campus/Tropicana Avenue north to Fremont Street, is considered a key toward uniting the campus and downtown, while helping downtown’s ongoing redevelopment.

At previous open houses, plans included the potential to link the transit corridor to McCarran International Airport.

In a news release, the RTC described Maryland Parkway as “one of the valley’s busiest transit corridors, carrying an average of more than 9,000 passengers a day and connecting to many high activity centers, including the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, The Boulevard, Sunrise Hospital, McCarran International Airport and a number of commercial, retail, and residential areas.”

Comments or requests for more information can be made to Sue Christiansen via e-mail at [email protected]; by phone at (702) 676-1891; by TDD at (702) 676-1834; via fax at (702) 676-1518; online at rtcsnv.com; and in person or by mail at RTC, 600 S. Grand Central Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89106. Mark mail “Attention: Maryland Parkway Alternatives Analysis.”

Joe Schoenmann doesn’t just cover downtown, he lives and works there. Schoenmann is Greenspun Media Group’s embedded downtown journalist, working from an office in the Emergency Arts building.