Cabs battle to get to conventioneers during the trade show

Tuesday, Nov. 16, 1999 | 11:20 a.m.

Taxicab drivers and managers of the Las Vegas Convention Center are at odds over the best way to deliver passengers to and from the Comdex trade show.

Metro officers confiscated about 30 taxicab permits from drivers who used the wrong entrance to drop off passengers at the convention center Monday. The Nevada Taxicab Authority quickly reissued the permits and admonished the drivers to play by the rules.

But drivers say the rules are constantly changing. And the added pressure of serving the city's largest convention has both sides upset.

"When you try to put 200,000 (Comdex conventioneers) in a funnel, it just doesn't work very well," said Bob Anselmo, administrator of the Taxicab Authority, the government regulator caught between the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and the nearly 2,000 cab drivers working during Comdex.

"I'm sympathetic with the convention center," Anselmo said. "They're trying to please the convention show management by accommodating what works best for the show."

What works best for the show management of Comdex is for cabs to drop off and pick up passengers on a road encompassing a parking lot south of Desert Inn Road. Once they are dropped off by cabs, conventioneers have to cross an overpass at Desert Inn Road and walk about two blocks to the front of the convention center.

To get to the road and the cab queueing line, drivers must enter the area from either Paradise Road or Swenson Street.

For most events, cabs arrive at the main entrance at Paradise Road and Convention Center Drive, pull up to the porte-cochere and drop passengers at the Convention Center doorstep.

The flow pattern was modified for Comdex because of the additional volume of cabs on the road to serve Comdex and to make room for shuttle buses and limousines using other access points.

Last month, the Taxicab Authority permitted an additional 500 cabs to operate during Comdex. That's in addition to the 1,429 licensed cabs already operating in the Las Vegas area.

"We're not doing this to agitate the cab drivers, believe me," said Tom Smith, vice president of facilities for the LVCVA. "But one thing we recognize is that we're never going to make the cab drivers happy."

But Brian Guerin, vice president of the Professional Drivers Association, an organization that represents the views of the area's taxi drivers, said all drivers want is consistency.

"Every convention has a different flow pattern," Guerin said. "But the problem is that they have a nasty habit of changing their procedures. I've seen them change up to five times in one day because something wasn't working they way they expected."

Smith said the LVCVA negotiates with every trade show management group to establish patterns that meet the show's needs. Guerin said it would be better if the LVCVA established one pattern for all shows and stuck with it.

"The (LVCVA) title includes 'authority' in their name," Guerin said. "They should use their authority to put things out in the proper fashion."

Smith countered that serving client needs is what has made the LVCVA successful and Monday's relatively smooth Comdex start-up is the result of having experience making adjustments to logistical problems.

"All they (cab drivers) want to do is race in here at a hundred miles an hour, drop off their passengers and race out," Smith said. "We have to consider more than just what the cab drivers need."

Guerin acknowledged that although there has been some friction at the convention center, operations were smoother there than at the Venetian hotel-casino, which is hosting Comdex for the first time.

Comdex officials said before the show that the multiple entrances and exits for the Venetian would improve transportation to and from the resort's convention facility, site of the show's keynote speeches and panel presentations. Guerin said nothing could be further from the truth.

"I had a passenger who was going to the Venetian for the Bill Gates speech (Sunday night) and I came in the back way, from Koval (Lane)," Guerin said. "He ended up bailing out and walking the rest of the way in."

Guerin said the taxi industry was consulted about traffic flow prior to the construction of the resort, but its suggestions were rejected.

In fairness to the Venetian, Guerin said most resorts don't have traffic patterns that are easy for cab drivers.

"What we ask for is access to alternative routes, especially when Las Vegas Boulevard is clogged like it is on Saturday nights," Guerin said.

Guerin said that while none of the resorts are particularly easy to navigate in a cab, the Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay have circulation patterns that work best.

Guerin said something else trade show organizers can do to help traffic flow is to stagger opening and closing times of trade show floors by venue.

Some shows, such as the Winter Consumer Electronics Show, already do that. But at Comdex, trade show floors open at 10 a.m. at both the convention center and the Sands Expo Center. The convention center site closes at 5 p.m.; the Sands Expo close at 6 p.m.