CityNerd | Getting Around the Las Vegas Strip: Monorails, Trams, Buses, Planning Fails & the Future of Travel @CityNerd | Uploaded May 2022 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
If you want to know how to get around the Las Vegas Strip in 2022, well -- the transportation situation on the Strip changes almost as fast as the hotels do. The resorts are bigger and further apart than you might think, so walking distances can be long!
Your choices used to be taxis or an extremely slow, circuitous rubber-tired trolley. That's an extremely inefficient transportation system for a corridor that boasts 11 of the world's 20 largest hotels, so luckily, things have improved -- but has Las Vegas done enough?
Las Vegas Boulevard is one of the busiest bus corridors in the nation, carrying more passengers (pre-pandemic) than the entire primary bus systems of cities like Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Indianapolis. This despite there being no dedicated transitways on The Strip. Imagine the ridership if transit was faster and more reliable!
This video reviews the bus services, as well as the smaller tram systems (The Aria Express, the Mandalay Bay tram, and the Mirage tram), but really focuses on a singular piece of transportation infrastructure: the Las Vegas Monorail. It's a mode that functions primarily not as public transit, but as a feeder that deposits you deep inside the bowels of a casino resort, maximizing the likelihood of your disorientation and subsequent separation of you from your financial assets -- the thing casinos do best!
We'll do a full ride of the monorail, beginning at the MGM Grand, working our way through the maze of the casino and other obstacles, ride through the NFL Draft fan zone, and finish at Sahara Station.
We'll review the recent history of transit planning on the Strip, current plans to excavate miles of expensive tunnels for Teslas, and recent experiences at the 2022 NFL Draft, where visitors and locals got to experience a car-free Las Vegas Boulevard and maybe dream of a different future.
What will be next for transit on The Strip? Who knows -- so stay tuned!
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Patreon - a new way to support continuing CityNerd output! Thanks to all who have signed up so far!
patreon.com/CityNerd
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Twitter: @nerd4cities
Instagram: @nerd4cities
----------
Other CityNerd Videos referenced:
- Urbanist Ballparks: youtu.be/aXQx1_Zi1BA
----------
Resources:
- Deuce/SDX Route Map: lasvegashowto.com/support-files/map-sdx.pdf
- lvmonorail.com/route-map
- rtcws.rtcsnv.com/routepdf/systemmap.pdf
- fox5vegas.com/2022/05/02/clark-county-commissioner-suggests-permanently-closing-las-vegas-strip-vehicle-traffic
- 8newsnow.com/news/power-from-lake-powell-wins-out-as-wests-water-shortage-forces-hard-decisions-lake-mead-will-go-lower
- rtcsnv.com/projects-initiatives/transportation-planning
- assets.rtcsnv.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/06/24202055/Regional-Fixed-Guideway-Hen-NLV-Alternatives-Analysis_Sept-2006Reduced.pdf
- rtcsnv.com/govegas/resources/RTC-TIBP-full.pdf?
- assets.onboardsnv.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/11111731/On-Board-Mobility-Plan.pdf
- boringcompany.com/vegas-loop
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Image Credits:
- SDX 1 By Tomás Del Coro from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA - Fremont Street Experience, CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58160346
- SDX 2 By Junevivalasvegas - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33125966
- Cincinnati By Ynsalh - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37975260
- Kansas City By Jesper Rautell Balle - Own work, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3968326
- Indianapolis By tpsdave - pixabay.com/en/indianapolis-indiana-city-urban-1872528/, CC0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62117322
- Mirage Tram By C4K3 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113636331
- Walt Disney World Monorail By Gfgbeach - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84958735
- LV Monorail Thumbnail Photo by Joseph Zadeh, CC BY 4.0, en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63010112
----------
Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (YouTube music library)
----------
Contact: nerd4cities@gmail.com
If you want to know how to get around the Las Vegas Strip in 2022, well -- the transportation situation on the Strip changes almost as fast as the hotels do. The resorts are bigger and further apart than you might think, so walking distances can be long!
Your choices used to be taxis or an extremely slow, circuitous rubber-tired trolley. That's an extremely inefficient transportation system for a corridor that boasts 11 of the world's 20 largest hotels, so luckily, things have improved -- but has Las Vegas done enough?
Las Vegas Boulevard is one of the busiest bus corridors in the nation, carrying more passengers (pre-pandemic) than the entire primary bus systems of cities like Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Indianapolis. This despite there being no dedicated transitways on The Strip. Imagine the ridership if transit was faster and more reliable!
This video reviews the bus services, as well as the smaller tram systems (The Aria Express, the Mandalay Bay tram, and the Mirage tram), but really focuses on a singular piece of transportation infrastructure: the Las Vegas Monorail. It's a mode that functions primarily not as public transit, but as a feeder that deposits you deep inside the bowels of a casino resort, maximizing the likelihood of your disorientation and subsequent separation of you from your financial assets -- the thing casinos do best!
We'll do a full ride of the monorail, beginning at the MGM Grand, working our way through the maze of the casino and other obstacles, ride through the NFL Draft fan zone, and finish at Sahara Station.
We'll review the recent history of transit planning on the Strip, current plans to excavate miles of expensive tunnels for Teslas, and recent experiences at the 2022 NFL Draft, where visitors and locals got to experience a car-free Las Vegas Boulevard and maybe dream of a different future.
What will be next for transit on The Strip? Who knows -- so stay tuned!
----------
Patreon - a new way to support continuing CityNerd output! Thanks to all who have signed up so far!
patreon.com/CityNerd
----------
Twitter: @nerd4cities
Instagram: @nerd4cities
----------
Other CityNerd Videos referenced:
- Urbanist Ballparks: youtu.be/aXQx1_Zi1BA
----------
Resources:
- Deuce/SDX Route Map: lasvegashowto.com/support-files/map-sdx.pdf
- lvmonorail.com/route-map
- rtcws.rtcsnv.com/routepdf/systemmap.pdf
- fox5vegas.com/2022/05/02/clark-county-commissioner-suggests-permanently-closing-las-vegas-strip-vehicle-traffic
- 8newsnow.com/news/power-from-lake-powell-wins-out-as-wests-water-shortage-forces-hard-decisions-lake-mead-will-go-lower
- rtcsnv.com/projects-initiatives/transportation-planning
- assets.rtcsnv.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/06/24202055/Regional-Fixed-Guideway-Hen-NLV-Alternatives-Analysis_Sept-2006Reduced.pdf
- rtcsnv.com/govegas/resources/RTC-TIBP-full.pdf?
- assets.onboardsnv.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/11111731/On-Board-Mobility-Plan.pdf
- boringcompany.com/vegas-loop
----------
Image Credits:
- SDX 1 By Tomás Del Coro from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA - Fremont Street Experience, CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58160346
- SDX 2 By Junevivalasvegas - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33125966
- Cincinnati By Ynsalh - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37975260
- Kansas City By Jesper Rautell Balle - Own work, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3968326
- Indianapolis By tpsdave - pixabay.com/en/indianapolis-indiana-city-urban-1872528/, CC0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62117322
- Mirage Tram By C4K3 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113636331
- Walt Disney World Monorail By Gfgbeach - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84958735
- LV Monorail Thumbnail Photo by Joseph Zadeh, CC BY 4.0, en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63010112
----------
Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (YouTube music library)
----------
Contact: nerd4cities@gmail.com
