Las Vegas Boulevard

[Occidental Tourist]

Or, and just hear me out, we could do what other major cities have done you know a proven concept like the noble subway. It doesn't affect the street above(still allows for the same amount of lanes), provides greater mobility, doesn't force people to rely on cabs and Uber saving people money, and potentially reduces ADT counts on the road. At the same time expand the elevated monorail as well to make it more useful to move people between hotels without having to travel below. It isn't like the money isn't there. Vegas is flush with cash.

The area you're referring to isn't in Las Vegas. I doubt the city is going to give their money to the county for use elsewhere.

Yep, seems unprecedented.

[Max Rockatansky]

Or, and just hear me out, we could do what other major cities have done you know a proven concept like the noble subway. It doesn't affect the street above(still allows for the same amount of lanes), provides greater mobility, doesn't force people to rely on cabs and Uber saving people money, and potentially reduces ADT counts on the road. At the same time expand the elevated monorail as well to make it more useful to move people between hotels without having to travel below. It isn't like the money isn't there. Vegas is flush with cash.

The area you're referring to isn't in Las Vegas. I doubt the city is going to give their money to the county for use elsewhere.

Yep, seems unprecedented.

Clark County and the City of Las Vegas kinda/sorta often act as a consolidated county.  A big example is Las Vegas Metro acting as a single law enforcement entity since 1973. 

[Sub-Urbanite]

It used to be fun to walk around Las Vegas Boulevard before all these pedestrian safety measures went in.  I understand why they are being built and they no doubt have improved the traffic flow of Las Vegas Boulevard.  Some of the overpasses aren't very convenient to use and making getting from one casino to the next take longer.

Might have been fun for you, but was hellish to drive across, especially when tourists would just continue to amble across an 8-lane Flamingo or Tropicana long after the red hand started flashing and block the green for E-W movement.

[Max Rockatansky]

It used to be fun to walk around Las Vegas Boulevard before all these pedestrian safety measures went in.  I understand why they are being built and they no doubt have improved the traffic flow of Las Vegas Boulevard.  Some of the overpasses aren't very convenient to use and making getting from one casino to the next take longer.

Might have been fun for you, but was hellish to drive across, especially when tourists would just continue to amble across an 8-lane Flamingo or Tropicana long after the red hand started flashing and block the green for E-W movement.

Which is part of the reason I used to stay at the chain hotels on Paradise Road.  It was way easier to walk over to Las Vegas Boulevard at night than try to drive to a destination on it.  I know one person already said "inhuman scale"  referencing a two mile walk, but it never seemed like that big of a deal to me.

[skluth]

It used to be fun to walk around Las Vegas Boulevard before all these pedestrian safety measures went in.  I understand why they are being built and they no doubt have improved the traffic flow of Las Vegas Boulevard.  Some of the overpasses aren't very convenient to use and making getting from one casino to the next take longer.

Might have been fun for you, but was hellish to drive across, especially when tourists would just continue to amble across an 8-lane Flamingo or Tropicana long after the red hand started flashing and block the green for E-W movement.

Which is part of the reason I used to stay at the chain hotels on Paradise Road.  It was way easier to walk over to Las Vegas Boulevard at night than try to drive to a destination on it.  I know one person already said "inhuman scale"  referencing a two mile walk, but it never seemed like that big of a deal to me.

I stayed on Paradise the first time I went to LV alone, but I drove over to one of the strip casinos and took advantage of their free parking ramp. The length of the walk wasn't an issue - I walked from Treasure Island to Mandalay Bay and back - but I wasn't keen on the sidewalks along Flamingo at the time.

[kernals12]

MOD NOTE: This thread was split off from the I-11 thread starting at the quoted post below, due to significant thread drift. —Roadfro

I doubt CC-215 is ever actually faster than I-15 but holy hell do I avoid I-15 like the plague. I'd rather drive the Strip than I-15, it's that bad.

Even at night?

[Max Rockatansky]

Las Vegas Boulevard is designed to push the cars through with minimal interaction with the casinos.  It isn't fast but you don't have traffic veering suddenly from one side to another to exit at the last second.

[Scott5114]

I doubt CC-215 is ever actually faster than I-15 but holy hell do I avoid I-15 like the plague. I'd rather drive the Strip than I-15, it's that bad.

Even at night?

Night and day generally make little difference in Las Vegas. (LVB calms down to something resembling a normal arterial during the day around 1am or so. That's the best time to do your sightseeing on the Strip because everything is of course still lit up.)

[Plutonic Panda]

Las Vegas Boulevard is designed to push the cars through with minimal interaction with the casinos.  It isn't fast but you don't have traffic veering suddenly from one side to another to exit at the last second.

Ummm what? Is that sarcasm. I see that all the time on and around the strip.

[Max Rockatansky]

Las Vegas Boulevard is designed to push the cars through with minimal interaction with the casinos.  It isn't fast but you don't have traffic veering suddenly from one side to another to exit at the last second.

Ummm what? Is that sarcasm. I see that all the time on and around the strip.

No, it isn't.  I spent many years working in Clark County and having to pick up police reports in downtown.  LVB was altered to keep pedestrians and cars away from each other.  I'll gladly take it over I-15 as though during most regular people hours.

[RZF]

I'm glad there are a lot of bridges bringing pedestrian traffic over Las Vegas Blvd. Otherwise, driving The Strip would be WAY worse.

I would rather fly into Vegas from the LA Area, get an Uber to my hotel on The Strip, and just walk everywhere. Perfect two-day-max getaway.

[Max Rockatansky]

It was way worse.  Getting around waiting for pedestrian signals was miserable.  A lot of drunk people took the chances to try to run traffic across in traffic gaps.  I even had a hard time doing morning runs on LVB and would swing wide eastward often to Paradise.

[KeithE4Phx]

I'm glad there are a lot of bridges bringing pedestrian traffic over Las Vegas Blvd. Otherwise, driving The Strip would be WAY worse.

Especially at the intersection with Tropicana Ave.  It was the only way to walk between the Tropicana, MGM Grand, and New York New York.  Nobody's allowed to cross at street level to this day, AFAIK.

I would rather fly into Vegas from the LA Area, get an Uber to my hotel on The Strip, and just walk everywhere. Perfect two-day-max getaway.

We used to stay at the Tropicana, with its large-but-convenient self-parking lot.  I already miss it.

[kernals12]

I spent a week in Vegas. I-15 was free flowing every time I drove on it, except at the Dropicana, whereas the Strip was a parking lot at night.

[DenverBrian]

I've always thought that, given the massive amounts of money in Las Vegas for new casinos, that MGM/Caesars/Venetian/Wynn could come together and invest in burying Las Vegas Boulevard entirely from Mandalay Bay to Sahara. Send it underground and allow non-commercial traffic only - no trucks. (Most trucks already use adjacent streets for deliveries and such.)

Then, at ground level, you have all this land upon which to build a giant version of Fremont Street - a pedestrian-only area with even more restaurants, ziplines, and ridiculously expensive clothing and handbag stores.

Seems to me that, no matter how expensive it might be to bury LV Blvd, the casino moguls would make it up fast.

[Max Rockatansky]

The pedestrian mall on Fremont Street always struck me as an attempt to draw people back to the dying heart of the city.  It seems to have worked, more and more people are over there whenever I visit.

[Rothman]

The pedestrian mall on Fremont Street always struck me as an attempt to draw people back to the dying heart of the city.  It seems to have worked, more and more people are over there whenever I visit.

I agree with this.  The promotion of Fremont as a trip to the older side of Vegas seems to be working.

[PColumbus73]

I've always thought that, given the massive amounts of money in Las Vegas for new casinos, that MGM/Caesars/Venetian/Wynn could come together and invest in burying Las Vegas Boulevard entirely from Mandalay Bay to Sahara. Send it underground and allow non-commercial traffic only - no trucks. (Most trucks already use adjacent streets for deliveries and such.)

Then, at ground level, you have all this land upon which to build a giant version of Fremont Street - a pedestrian-only area with even more restaurants, ziplines, and ridiculously expensive clothing and handbag stores.

Seems to me that, no matter how expensive it might be to bury LV Blvd, the casino moguls would make it up fast.

Maybe expand some of the pedestrian bridges into mid-block caps? Or some kind of upper level promenade built over the median? Could be a clever way of adding a light-rail line if they can overcome the lobbies.

[kernals12]

I've always thought that, given the massive amounts of money in Las Vegas for new casinos, that MGM/Caesars/Venetian/Wynn could come together and invest in burying Las Vegas Boulevard entirely from Mandalay Bay to Sahara. Send it underground and allow non-commercial traffic only - no trucks. (Most trucks already use adjacent streets for deliveries and such.)

Then, at ground level, you have all this land upon which to build a giant version of Fremont Street - a pedestrian-only area with even more restaurants, ziplines, and ridiculously expensive clothing and handbag stores.

Seems to me that, no matter how expensive it might be to bury LV Blvd, the casino moguls would make it up fast.

In the 1990s, they considered building pedestrian tunnels but the high water table meant that would cost too much, so they went with bridges. Burying an 8 lane roadway is going to probably be 100 times more expensive and for what benefit to the casino owners? Casinos would also have to build entirely new entrances underground. And what's going to happen to traffic during construction? Finally, driving down the Strip at night is a major tourist draw and I don't see how you're going to replicate that in a tunnel.

[kernals12]

The pedestrian mall on Fremont Street always struck me as an attempt to draw people back to the dying heart of the city.  It seems to have worked, more and more people are over there whenever I visit.

It certainly helps that parking is a lot cheaper Downtown than on the Strip.

[Max Rockatansky]

The pedestrian mall on Fremont Street always struck me as an attempt to draw people back to the dying heart of the city.  It seems to have worked, more and more people are over there whenever I visit.

It certainly helps that parking is a lot cheaper Downtown than on the Strip.

Yes, I preferred to stay down on Fremont for that very reason.  Food and lodging were far more reasonable compared to what one gets on LVB in Paradise.  Supposedly gaming odds are better on Fremont also, but I'm not big into gambling.

[Bobby5280]

The Fremont Street Experience can be a lot of fun. The last time I was out there (for an International Sign Association world expo event at Mandalay Bay) our group headed up to Downtown to have dinner and drinks there. It was a Friday night. Lots of people were out there in the street, drinks in hand. There were open bars on the curb sides. The Freemont Street Experience display had just been remodeled for (I think) the third time. It's all full color LEDs now. Back in the late 1990's it was lit with colored incandescent lamps. They played a song list from Imagine Dragons and had all kinds of animated graphics overhead to go with the music. The whole crowd was singing along to "Radioactive." The whole block party vibe was pretty cool.

The hotels in the old Downtown area aren't as nice, but yeah, you can save some money staying there. Just be street smart.

[dbz77]

The pedestrian mall on Fremont Street always struck me as an attempt to draw people back to the dying heart of the city.  It seems to have worked, more and more people are over there whenever I visit.

Yeah, and there are now mega-resorts like the Circa (which replaced Mermaids and Las Vegas Club)

The area is getting expensive.

[DenverBrian]

I've always thought that, given the massive amounts of money in Las Vegas for new casinos, that MGM/Caesars/Venetian/Wynn could come together and invest in burying Las Vegas Boulevard entirely from Mandalay Bay to Sahara. Send it underground and allow non-commercial traffic only - no trucks. (Most trucks already use adjacent streets for deliveries and such.)

Then, at ground level, you have all this land upon which to build a giant version of Fremont Street - a pedestrian-only area with even more restaurants, ziplines, and ridiculously expensive clothing and handbag stores.

Seems to me that, no matter how expensive it might be to bury LV Blvd, the casino moguls would make it up fast.

In the 1990s, they considered building pedestrian tunnels but the high water table meant that would cost too much, so they went with bridges. Burying an 8 lane roadway is going to probably be 100 times more expensive and for what benefit to the casino owners? Casinos would also have to build entirely new entrances underground. And what's going to happen to traffic during construction? Finally, driving down the Strip at night is a major tourist draw and I don't see how you're going to replicate that in a tunnel.

If you restrict to cars only, you probably only need a 4 lane roadway underground; yes, casino owners would build entirely new entrances underground, similar to all the entirely new crap they build every year; and walking down the Strip at night would replace driving down the Strip at night as a major tourist draw. <shrugs>

[DenverBrian]

I've always thought that, given the massive amounts of money in Las Vegas for new casinos, that MGM/Caesars/Venetian/Wynn could come together and invest in burying Las Vegas Boulevard entirely from Mandalay Bay to Sahara. Send it underground and allow non-commercial traffic only - no trucks. (Most trucks already use adjacent streets for deliveries and such.)

Then, at ground level, you have all this land upon which to build a giant version of Fremont Street - a pedestrian-only area with even more restaurants, ziplines, and ridiculously expensive clothing and handbag stores.

Seems to me that, no matter how expensive it might be to bury LV Blvd, the casino moguls would make it up fast.

In the 1990s, they considered building pedestrian tunnels but the high water table meant that would cost too much, so they went with bridges. Burying an 8 lane roadway is going to probably be 100 times more expensive and for what benefit to the casino owners? Casinos would also have to build entirely new entrances underground. And what's going to happen to traffic during construction? Finally, driving down the Strip at night is a major tourist draw and I don't see how you're going to replicate that in a tunnel.

If you restrict to cars only, you probably only need a 4 lane roadway underground; yes, casino owners would build entirely new entrances underground, similar to all the entirely new crap they build every year; and walking down the Strip at night would replace driving down the Strip at night as a major tourist draw. <shrugs>

The benefit to the casino owners would come from the additional restaurants/shops they could build into the formerly 8-lanes-wide surface area - Paradise would have to cede that land to the owners, but they've done a lot of similar stuff in the past.