Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

How much did Strip bus standoff hurt Las Vegas economy?

Barricaded Bus Shooter

L.E. Baskow

Metro and SWAT officers respond to the Strip for a suspect barricaded on a bus after a fatal shooting in the vehicle earlier today outside the Cosmopolitan Hotel on Saturday, March 25, 2017.

Bus Shooter on Strip

SWAT officers stage as they surround a suspect barricaded on a bus after a fatal shooting in the vehicle earlier today along the Strip outside the Cosmopolitan Hotel on Saturday, March 25, 2017. Launch slideshow »

For more than four hours Saturday, one of the busiest sections of the Las Vegas Strip was shut down when a man shot two people, killing one, and barricaded himself on a double-decker bus. The incident ended when Rolando Cardenas, 55, surrendered and was arrested.

It’s impossible, of course, to equate the loss of life or the fear the gunman caused with a loss of business. However, the Strip is the storefront for Las Vegas’ gaming and tourism industry, and during the barricade, that store was in essence closed.

Police shut down Las Vegas Boulevard at Flamingo Road and Harmon Avenue and blocked anyone from accessing the pedestrian bridges that go from the northeast and southwest corners of the Harmon-Las Vegas Strip intersection to the Cosmopolitan.

This meant tourists could not access the Cosmopolitan or use the front entrances of the Miracle Mile Shops, Planet Hollywood, Paris, Bally’s or Bellagio from shortly before 11 a.m. until 3:15 p.m. Saturday.

They could, however, enter the Bellagio from its north entrance on Flamingo or by using its shuttle train, which runs from New York-New York to Bellagio.

Also, Bally’s north entrance, also on Flamingo, was unaffected and the vehicle, and pedestrian entrances to Planet Hollywood and Miracle Mile on Harmon, a half-block east of the Strip, remained open.

Spokespeople for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), Caesars (which operates Planet Hollywood, Paris and Bally's), MGM Resorts (which operates Bellagio) or the Cosmopolitan (most directly affected) all declined to comment about how the incident impacted business.

However, there are statistics that speak to how busy that particular section of the Las Vegas Strip is on a Saturday afternoon.

According to Angela Castro, spokeswoman for the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) of Southern Nevada, about 65,000 cars travel down the Las Vegas Strip on Saturdays in the area where the incident occurred.

And it was fortunate for the casinos that the barricade ended in mid-afternoon because vehicle traffic numbers tend to jump later in the day.

“The traffic numbers for Las Vegas Boulevard near the incident on a spring Saturday are approximately 3,000 (per hour) in the morning, 4,200 per hour in the afternoon and 5,000 (per hour) in the evening,” Castro said.

Castro said the closure affected traffic in the surrounding area and caused delays in a number of locations:

Flamingo Road had delays between Valley View Boulevard and Paradise Road.

Las Vegas Boulevard, north of Flamingo Road, there were delays up to Fashion Show mall

Las Vegas Boulevard, south of Tropicana Avenue, there were delays down to Mandalay Bay

Koval Lane had delays between Harrah’s and Tropicana

Harmon Avenue had delays between Paradise Road and Las Vegas Boulevard.

The barricade also prevented people from walking the Strip to get to any of the casinos between Harmon and Flamingo or to watch the fountains at the Bellagio — which MGM officials turned off so as not to disturb police activity.

And while it may be obvious that pedestrians are important to tourism in Las Vegas, many might be surprised at just how important they truly are. According to surveys conducted by the LVCVA from 2011 to 2015, walking is the second most popular method of getting around Las Vegas for tourists. Personally owned cars (as opposed to rentals) are first.

In 2015, Clark County commissioned a study examining pedestrian traffic at various locations around the Strip including three spots in the immediate vicinity of the standoff. The three areas are a strip of sidewalk from the front of the Cosmopolitan to the Bellagio; a portion of the sidewalk in front of Bally’s; and the sidewalk in front of Bally’s Bazaar.

The study, among many things, measured how many pedestrians walked in these locations on a typical Saturday every 15 minutes for 12 hours starting at 2 p.m. This means one can only estimate how much foot traffic could have been lost during the last hour of the standoff, which ended a little after 3 p.m.

The study found that on a typical Saturday, every 15 minutes from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. approximately:

• 500 people walk along the sidewalk in front of Cosmopolitan/Bellagio north of Harmon Avenue

• 750 people walk along the sidewalk in front of Bally’s south of Flamingo Road

• Just under 800 people walk along the sidewalk in front Bally’s Bazaar south of Flamingo Road

Along with cars, trucks and pedestrian traffic, the barricade also prevented buses from dropping off tourists between Harmon and Flamingo avenues. The approximately 25 Deuce and SDX buses serving the Strip during the incident were forced to detour along Koval Lane, if they were headed north, and along Interstate 15, if they were headed south, Castro said.

The sign trucks — the moving billboards that depend on Strip car and pedestrian traffic for their business — were also forced to detour around the barricade, and used Koval Lane as well.

Justin Bolt, assistant director of operations for KRE8 Media, which operates digital mobile billboards and other advertising products, said it was likely that the barricade probably helped rather than hurt his business.

“I would definitely say we got more impressions (a measurement of advertising effectiveness) because so much traffic was rerouted,” Bolt said. “When something like this happens, so many people are rerouted the same way we are. So we get just as much if not a higher concentration of eyeballs.”

“Everyone’s avoiding the area the same time as us, and that means more cars can see our signs. And, our trucks are going more slowly so more pedestrians are seeing them,” Bolt said.