Speedway has plan to solve traffic woes

Thursday, Feb. 18, 1999 | 11:12 a.m.

Upon taking over as general manager of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in December, Chris Powell made it his top priority to see that traffic runs as smoothly outside the facility as it did on the track for last year's inaugural NASCAR Winston Cup Las Vegas 400.

To that end, Powell on Wednesday unveiled an ambitious transportation and traffic management plan for the Las Vegas 400 on March 7 at the 1.5-mile superspeedway.

The biggest change will be the dedication of two of the three lanes on Las Vegas Boulevard North to commercial vehicles, including taxi cabs, CAT buses and shuttles, limousines and hotel shuttles.

Only one lane on Las Vegas Boulevard will be used for grandstand ticket holders -- with the exception of those holding tickets for seats in turns three and four. All other grandstand ticket holders are encouraged to take Interstate 15 north and exit at Speedway Boulevard.

Fans holding tickets in turns three and four and who use Las Vegas Boulevard to access the Speedway will be parked in a newly created parking lot behind the track's backstretch.

Those who have VIP passes, suite holders and the handicapped also are being asked to use Las Vegas Boulevard to access the Speedway.

The creation of the commercial traffic lanes -- and the addition of access roads from Hollywood Boulevard to the track -- was designed to address perhaps the most common complaint from fans who attempted to take public or private mass transportation to last year's race.

The plan, which also will create more traffic on I-15 on race day, is designed to get race fans accustomed to taking mass transit to the race track.

"Absolutely," Powell said. "Because of these commercial lanes, the buses can go in, up Hollywood (Boulevard), drop off passengers and make a loop and get back to downtown and pick people up -- which is what they had a problem doing last year.

"I would rather give up a lane to bring buses in and get them back downtown to pick people up than to have those buses sitting in gridlock and not able to pick up people who stood patiently in line down on the Strip."

Lt. Mark Malloy of the Nevada Highway Patrol agreed that reducing public traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard might lead to heavier traffic on I-15 on race day.

"It may to a certain point but, again, the whole goal of this commercial lane is to make mass transportation the preferred method of travel in the future.

"We may have some growing pains but we're headed in the right direction."

Powell said that new LVMS owner Bruton Smith was insistent that the Speedway's traffic plan be addressed before this year's race.

"Bruton is adamant that we make the fans as comfortable as possible and that's what we're trying to do," Powell said. "With three lanes of traffic coming off I-15 right into that north (parking) lot, I'm real optimistic about people getting in.

"I'm cautiously optimistic about departure -- but people are going to have to be patient. There has been a lot of thought that has been put into this. We don't expect perfection but we do hope we'll approach it."

Last year, NHP estimated that all 120,000 fans who attended the inaugural Las Vegas 400 were on the Speedway grounds by the 11:30 a.m. starting time.

Powell and Malloy stressed that fans attending next month's race need to leave early and plan to stay late.

In an attempt to keep all of the expected 127,000 spectators from leaving at the same time, the Speedway will move the victory lane celebration from atop the infield media center to the start/finish line, closer to the main grandstand. The track also will provide live music on the midway following the post-race celebration.

"I hope that will hold people in the grandstands for a little while longer," Powell said. "The problem comes in when you have 100,000 people leaving at once. If they so choose, all we can ask them to do is to be patient.

"We have a better plan for leaving the facility this year, we're ready to go with it and we'll assess it when it's all over."