Columnist Susan Snyder: McCarran has a lot of issues

Thursday, Feb. 17, 2005 | 8:16 a.m.

Clark County commissioners have lowered by $2 the daily rate for McCarran International Airport's remote parking.

Whoop-dee-doo.

If you park there for a month you can save enough to pay for another night's hotel stay.

In Tonopah.

OK, that was mean. (But you laughed, didn't you?)

Airport officials do have a problem. They told commissioners Tuesday that the number of travelers using McCarran's long-term garage is so out of control that the best solution is to lure more of them to the remote lot first.

The average time a local traveler parked his or her car in the garage used to be three days. Now, it's a week, Elaine Sanchez, McCarran spokeswoman, said.

"Never in a million years did we think we could've seen this type of explosive growth," she said, adding that some people park in the garage for two weeks at a time.

Of course, some of us are there that long because after three days we can't remember where we left our cars. But, I digress ...

If you insist on a garage space, you now will pay $12 a day rather than $10.

But for half as much (that's $6 a day, math whizzes), travelers can park in the remote lot, which as of March 29 is being renamed the "economy lot."

"Remote" sounds so, well, remote. Better to be cheap than far. From there travelers take free shuttle buses to the airport.

"Our goal is to get people into the airport in 10 minutes -- 15 minutes at peak, rush hours," Sanchez said.

Goals and reality don't always match. We did that remote-to-shuttle shuffle last summer. It was 5:20 p.m. in the middle of the week. We waited 20 minutes for the shuttle, which then had to navigate rush-hour traffic dumping into the airport connector intersection.

The fact that we were already late because we had first driven to the long-term parking garage and found it full is likely what made the entire experience a nightmare we don't care to repeat.

Sanchez said that's what many travelers do and is the reason the remote lot has received a bad reputation. We're already screaming inside by the time we get there.

And here I thought it was because Yonder Lot seems closer to North Las Vegas than McCarran, when you're pressed for time and still have to check bags and do the stocking-footed hula for airport security personnel.

Still, McCarran officials haven't exactly made a huge deal out of the fact that Yonder Lot is always open. People may use it anytime and don't have to wait until the long-term garage is full.

Of course, some locals -- not me, but people I know -- bypass the whole remote-or-not-to-remote gig by parking free in garages at hotels such as the Hard Rock and taking a taxicab to the airport. Costs about $10 with tip.

Not sure what the folks over at the Hard Rock think of such a plan, but I bet it's probably not high on the list of amenities they want to offer.

Still, they couldn't get back to me before deadline to comment on it.

Maybe they were having a hard time finding a parking place.

Must be a lot of locals on vacation this week.